Nurse at a medium-sized suburban Atlanta hospital checking in…
We have a floor dedicated to Covid-possible patients in isolation waiting for test results. I got floated off my normal med/surg floor to this floor last night.
It’s definitely surreal, having a whole floor on isolation precautions. We have to gown up, mask, eye protection, gloves, with hand hygiene before/after any time we go in a room.
Over the last week, the hospital’s visitors policy has changed every day. 1) screen visitors, 2) screen visitors 24/7, 3) screen nurses, techs, AND visitors 24/7, to 4) no visitors, unless someone’s dying upstairs.
The good news is it seems my hospital is as prepared as could be expected. They’ve spared no expense in the budget to get this floor overstaffed. Everywhere else, (like my usual floor), nurses have 5 or 6 patients, and techs have 8-14 patients. On the isolation floor, nurses have a max of 4 and techs have a max of 6, so when there’s lots of patients they just throw extra staffing on the floor.
They’ve offered bonuses for picking up extra shifts through at least the next month. When I signed up for a bunch, I thought it would just be like normal work… but after last night, I think this is going to be the new normal, and I wonder how bad things could get in the short-term.
Another rich powerful person gets a test when they aren’t even symptomatic. Meanwhile the average person that is severely ill is still getting told they can’t get a test. Even healthcare workers that might be doing more harm than good can’t get a test.
Krammer says he and his colleagues are already using their test in their New York City hospital to better understand how quickly COVID-19 patients start to develop antibodies to the virus. In the future, it could also help identify recovered patients who could then donate their SARS-CoV-2 antibody-rich serum to help treat critically ill patients. Another key application, Krammer says, would be to identify people who have developed likely immunity to the virus. They might be able to treat patients safely or take on other front-line jobs during the pandemic.
Widespread antibody testing could also provide key data for efforts to model the course of the pandemic. Current predictions vary so widely, causing some scientists to question the need for severe containment methods such as lockdowns and social distancing. By indicating how much of the population is already immune because of mild infections, antibody data could offer a key to how fast the virus will continue to spread.
Coronavirus taking out McConnell would be very just. But this world is cruel and the bad people always win, so I’m sure Trump, Turtle, Pence, and all the other Republican gouls will skate through this without so much as a dry cough.
And vote using one machine that every member has to touch, and eat a significant number of “meals” @ fundraisers where there is either a table of finger foods.
