Category: Healthcare

The Fight for the #Vaccine

This is like something from a movie…more than half a dozen doctors and nurses at New York area hospitals said they were upset at how the vaccine was being distributed at their institutions. They described what had happened to The New York Times but asked that their names not be used because hospitals have shown a willingness to fire or punish employees for speaking to the news media during the pandemic.

At some major hospitals in Manhattan, doctors and nurses have recalled scrolling through social media and pausing to make a snap judgment each time they saw a selfie one of their colleagues had posted of getting vaccinated: Did that person deserve to be vaccinated before they were?

“We feel disrespected and underappreciated due to our second-tier priority for vaccination,” a group of anesthesiologists at Mount Sinai Hospital wrote to administrators over the weekend.

Health care workers said rumors were proliferating in WhatsApp groups and amid the banter of the operating room. Stories have begun to circulate of a plastic surgeon who managed to get vaccinated early, of doses being thrown out at one Manhattan hospital because of poor planning. On group chats, doctors debate how — and whether to — try to get vaccinated ahead of schedule.

At Mount Sinai Hospital, some doctors told others that you could talk your way into receiving a vaccine just by getting in line and repeating that you do “COVID-related procedures,” one Mount Sinai doctor, who requested anonymity for fear of retribution, recalled.

#HerdImmunity

#Faith and #Coronavirus

Pastor Todd Dunn had been urging “Faith over fear!” since the COVID-19 pandemic started in March. Just before Thanksgiving, he posted a message on Facebook dismissing precautionary measures advised by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to keep wearing masks and avoid gatherings with family members who don’t live in the same house.

“I’m not wearing a mask when around my family like the CDC requests and we are traveling so we’ll take our chances,” Dunn’s Facebook post read. “And to top it off we are huggers so there you go! There will be no social distancing CDC. Faith over fear!!”

A few weeks later, both of Dunn’s parents were dead after entering the hospital with COVID-19 symptoms. Charles and Shirley Dunn died within hours of one another at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth.

Adapting Toys for Children with #Disabilities

Henry Wolf sat hunched over a table last week, meticulously trying to dissect a plush stuffed pig.

“I’ve been playing with this for like 20 minutes now and the furthest I’ve gotten is getting the screws out,” he said.

His workspace at North Dakota State University was littered with tools, well past the time that classes had ended.

Wolf is a grad student in electrical engineering at NDSU. He was trying to expose the little pink pig’s circuit board, tucked away inside a plastic case that’s glued, sewed and zip-tied into its fluffy guts. He needed to hack the circuit that makes the pig’s tail move when a tiny switch on its foot is pressed.

“We’re basically bypassing that on/off switch,” he said. “The trick is kind of undoing what they did at the factory.”

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More Than 40 Women File Class Action Lawsuit Alleging Medical Misconduct by ICE Doctor at Georgia Detention Center

More Than 40 Women File Class Action Lawsuit Alleging Medical Misconduct by ICE Doctor at Georgia Detention Center

https://time.com/5924021/women-lawsuit-irwin-detention-ice/
— Read on time.com/5924021/women-lawsuit-irwin-detention-ice/

Nurses Who Don’t Wear Masks

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMJbG3LdG/

Possible Side Effects of the Covid Vaccine

With the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccination now underway in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is providing a list of potential side effects.

Similar to other vaccines, including the flu shot, you could experience pain and swelling on the arm where you got the shot, the CDC said.

Throughout the rest of your body, you could experience the following:

  • Fever
  • Chills
  • Tiredness
  • Headache

Side effects may feel like the flu, but are normal signs that your body is building protection, said the CDC.

“These side effects may affect your ability to do daily activities, but they should go away in a few days,” the CDC said.

To reduce pain and discomfort where you got the shot:

  • Apply a clean, cool, wet washcloth over the area.
  • Use or exercise your arm.

To reduce discomfort from fever:

  • Drink plenty of fluids.
  • Dress lightly.

A Coronavirus Story

Will Stone

More than 300,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the United States.

It is the latest sign of a generational tragedy — one still unfolding in every corner of the country — that leaves in its wake an expanse of grief that cannot be captured in a string of statistics.

The numbers do not reflect that these were people. Everyone lost was a father or a mother, they had kids, they had family, they left people behind.

There is no analogue in recent U.S history to the scale of death brought on by the coronavirus, which now runs unchecked in countless towns, cities and states.

We’re seeing some of the most deadly days in American history.

During the past two weeks, COVID-19 was the leading cause of death in the U.S., outpacing even heart disease and cancer.

Yet the most deadly days of the pandemic may be to come, epidemiologists predict.

Some of those deaths could still be averted. If everyone simply began wearing face masks, more than 50,000 lives could be saved, IHME’s model shows. And physical distancing could make a difference too.

No other country has come close to the calamitous death toll in the U.S. And the disease has amplified entrenched inequalities. Blacks and Hispanics/Latinos are nearly three times more likely to die from COVID-19 than whites.

There’s evidence that socioeconomic factors, not underlying health problems, explain the disproportionate share of deaths. The disease, reveals the chronic neglect of Black and brown communities in this country.

Though the numbers are numbing, for bereaved families and for front-line workers who care for people in their dying moments, every life is precious.

Who wears a mask on television?

tRumps Healthcare Plan

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