America is failing an important test

Of more than 6,500 nurses across 48 states, Washington DC, and the Virgin Islands recently surveyed by National Nurses United (NNU), just 44% said their employers had given them information on novel coronavirus and “how to recognize and respond to possible cases”. A mere 63% of nurses surveyed had access to N95 masks in their divisions, while just 27% had access to powered air purifying respirators.

Less than one-third – 30% – of survey participants reported that their employers had enough personal protective equipment (PPE) in stock should there be a quick upswing in potential coronavirus patients.

  Guardian

Those figures are scandalous.

“It’s not just coronavirus, but a virus that can spread through contact as well as through droplets,” Pratt said. “Employers have been pushing to get the CDC to back off on the requirement that, for example, the nurses and other staff use N95 respirators.”

Some employers want healthcare staff to re-use N95 masks, a particular type of mask. Pratt said this is “not kosher when we have contact or droplet exposure to a piece of protective equipment”.

[...]

Initially, federal guidance said that nurses caring for a coronavirus patient could only deal with that patient; now, nurses are permitted to work with other patients, Pratt said.

“There’s not enough clear, strong directives coming from anywhere,” he said.

“It’s extremely dangerous – it could be catastrophic,” [David Pratt, a New York State Nurses Association health and safety representative,] said of the lack of steady guidance. “But, hopefully, we’re not going to be in that situation”

Hope is not a plan for contagion.

Marcia Santini, an emergency room nurse at the University of California Los Angeles hospital, said there are “inconsistencies” in policies even within the state’s university hospital system.

“The administrators, now that we have declared a state of emergency in California, they’re keeping up with whatever the CDC is putting out, and that changes day-to-day,” she said.

Santini said later that federal officials aren’t giving healthcare facilities all the facts, exacerbating this situation.

“We’re not getting the truth,” she said.

[...]

“Because we’re in short supply of protection, I think that they’re making their decisions based on that, which is wrong,” she said. “For example, the infectious department came down to the emergency room and saw nurses were wearing masks, and then went up to them and said, ‘why’?”

“They said, ‘no, take the mask off, because you might be causing more problems by wearing one than not,” she continued. “So, I think that a lot of our decisions that the hospitals are making across the country are based on, unfortunately, your resources – whether it’s staff, whether it’s supply.”

Rumsfeld theory: You go to war with the army (provisions) you have, not the army you wish you had. And we know what happened there.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.