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Healthcare leaders across the country are in pure survival mode right now. It's hard to think beyond the next few weeks as we scramble to adapt to the new world of COVID-19 and brace for the impact on our hospitals and providers. At the same time, though, it's becoming clear that the effects of the pandemic are going to be felt long after this storm has passed. (Halee Fischer-Wright, 3/26)

The COVID-19 catastrophe is about to require Americans to make tough decisions for how to allocate scarce resources that can determine life and death. This is especially true with ventilators and beds in intensive care units. Many hospitalized patients in ICUs are dying of cancer or advanced irreversible dementia, or are on ventilators because of irreversible heart, lung or liver failure. In a large proportion of these kinds of cases, the physicians caring for the patient recognize that death is imminent, but treatment continues, often because families are unwilling to recognize the inevitable. (Neil S. Wenger and Martin F. Shapiro, 3/26)

I step through the sliding glass doors of my hospital’s emergency department and immediately look for the paper bag with my name scribbled on the outside. It contains my previously used surgical mask. I put it on, breathe deeply, and wrinkle my nose at the smell. It’s a stale, tired scent, unrecognizable and unpleasant. (Jay Baruch, 3/27)

Our emergency rooms and intensive care units are like war zones and we are the foot soldiers. Health care workers are reusing N95 masks and many are being asked to use surgical masks due to shortages. As hospitals run out of respirators and other necessary PPEs, some have resorted to hoarding. We need the support of our hospital administrations, state health agencies, governments, and the general public in order to continue to care for patients and reduce our risk. (Adaora Okoli, 3/27)

Doctors, nurses, first responders, and housekeeping staff are caring for COVID- 19 patients without assurance they can safely do their jobs. Many are jury-rigging homemade masks and respirators or using unproven, possibly unsafe methods to wash and reuse them (prompting a recent European Safety Federation warning), while at the same time we learn about infected healthcare workers becoming patients on ventilators. These drastic shortages are in large part due to a long-term under-investment in preparedness at all levels, from federal to states to health systems. Many healthcare institutions themselves had not maintained or rebuilt adequate stockpiles after the 2009 H1N1 flu and 2014-16 Ebola crises and maintained dependence on personal protective equipment (PPE) from overseas. (Jesse L. Goodman, 3/26)

These stories highlight the urgent need for the United States to come together as communities and within health care institutions to craft clear, equitable, and transparent policies for rationing health care services. We must prioritize making these decisions before the crisis begins to overwhelm our health care system. (Susan Sered, 3/25)

The coronavirus has introduced terrifying terms into our everyday vocabulary—“social distancing,” “ventilator,” “pandemic.” Be prepared to add a new word to the vernacular: rationing. The U.S. has reported more than 80,000 cases of Covid-19. About half are in New York and more than 10,000 cases were reported in a single day. If projections by Cory Chivers, a data scientist at the University of Pennsylvania Health System, are correct, those numbers represent 15% of all cases. (Allen C. Guelzo, 3/26)

Pandemics aren't secret. But too many of us are treating the novel coronavirus as if it's a private affair, and that will get people killed. For much of the confusion, thank a suite of federal laws regulating health information, all poorly designed for our current predicament. (Ford Vox, 3/25)

There is nothing more American than fellow citizens volunteering to help out their neighbors in a time of need.  Chinese Americans in Michigan are stepping up in big and small ways to try to help their neighbors, friends and fellow citizens during this coronavirus pandemic. The Michigan Chinese American Coalition was formed in late January 2020 to assist in combating the deadly coronavirus. (Tom Watkins, 3/26)

Gov. John Bel Edwards has put our state on a stay-safe, stay-home, shelter-in-place order and many of us are cooperating. A lot of our workplaces are closed for normal operations, and most workers who can are working remotely. We’ve been told not to go out unless we have to — unless we’re going to the grocery store.That means grocery store employees are working. (3/27)