As the year 2020 officially comes to an end, the amount of COVID-19 pandemic taxes on health care workers has been nothing short of devastating and far higher than reported by the Centers for US for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). According to the latest analysis published on December 23 by the Defender and Kaiser Health News (KHN), more than 2,900 U.S. – based health care workers have died from their diseases since March. Many of these diseases are directly due to a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) and dangerous work conditions such as long hours and high patient loads.
Dec. 10 report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine
addressed to the Assistant Secretary for Preparation and Response at the Department of Health and Human Services, Dr Robert Kadlec, entitled “Rapid Expert Consultation on Understanding Pandemic COVID-19 Healthcare Worker Deaths ,”Notes that“ the COVID-19 pandemic has created severe and severe pressures on the health care system and health care workers across the country. At present, the country does not have a uniform system for the collection, collection and reporting of illnesses and deaths among health care workers as a result of COVID-19. “
They continue, “Evidence shows that COVID-19 infection is more common among healthcare workers who do not have appropriate PPE [personal protective equipment] or in work situations without a universal mask command. It may be uncertain whether an individual health care worker contracted an infection in the workplace or in the community. Only a few studies report efforts to improve the health and well-being of health care workers through COVID-19 pandemics. ”
In September, the National Nurses United (NNU) published a report entitled “Sins of Omission , ”Putting the death toll at 1,718 by 16 September, 213 of whom were registered nurses. In comparison, the CDC had reported only 574 deaths of health care workers by August. According to the NNU, at the time there were at least 258,768 cases of COVID-19 infection among health care workers, 166 percent higher than the official sum of 156,306 cases according to the CDC. At the time, the U.S. had 6.9 million infections, representing 2.1 percent of the population. Healthcare workers then accounted for 3.8 percent of all infections.
That government agencies such as the CDC cannot properly monitor diseases and deaths in the health sector in real time or not only relinquish responsibility for the most valuable sector of society but show a complete disconnect between government responsibility and the place of public protection from the pandemic. The bureaucratic inertia inherent in many government institutions is a testament to this.
In Weekly Mortality and Mortality Report published on 30 October – looked at data for COVID-19-related hospitals among 6,760 healthcare workers, across 13 states over the period 1 March to 31 May – 6 percent of adults in the hospital with COVID-19 were health workers, and 36 percent were in nursing-related occupations. Obesity affected 73 percent of these claims. They also said 28 percent were admitted to intensive care units, 16 percent needed mechanical ventilation and 4 percent had died.
Included as supporters here are hospital systems and healthcare industry officials who have washed their hands from any accountability for their unprepared and unprepared anti-disease mismanagement distributed in their quest for profits. Despite the billions in COVID-19 aid money introduced into profitable health systems, little has been done to improve the position of health workers as the winter rise pushes hospitals to be.
The NNU welcomes COVID-19 infections and deaths among health workers. However, they must also be held accountable for the impact of the pandemic on the level-and-file.
Again, when nurses and health care workers have tried to fight the health systems, they are exposed to the intolerable conditions they faced in their hospitals at the time of the outbreak. panoramic, the unions put this horror into remote circuits with the media’s ability to turn steam. They promptly urged nurses to accept the requests submitted by the health systems and none of their requests were complied with.
However, these decisions are not unique to the United States. All countries that have been embroiled in widespread and widespread conflict with the pandemic have seen health care workers bear the brunt of the pandemic, simply because their health systems have not. , local governments and the unions that represent the workers but little to protect them from the coronavirus.
An International Council of Nurses (ICN) study published in late October found that more than 1,500 nurses had died from COVID-19 in 44 countries. They estimated that the deaths of the COVID-19 health care worker worldwide may have exceeded 20,000. Approximately 10 percent of COVID-19 infections worldwide are among health care workers. The World Health Organization noted that while health care workers make up less than 3 percent of the population, they have accounted for about 14 percent of COVID-19 cases. all.
Speaking at the prestigious Nightingale 2020 conference on 27 October, ICN Chief Executive Howard Catton said, “The fact is that so many nurses have died from this pandemic and died during the First World War. Since May 2020, we have been demanding the systematic and systematic collection of data on diseases and deaths of health care workers, and the fact that the scandal is not yet happening is happening. … I truly believe that globalization has never been more local in terms of the challenges we face, the lessons we need to learn and the solutions we seek. For example, getting personal protective equipment across borders requires governments to work together on customs and control issues, and when we have a vaccine, get it to everyone who needs it, rather than just those. who can afford it, will require multilateralism and cooperation. ”
Forbes published an article on Nov. 17 noting that nearly 300,000 health care workers were infected worldwide as of Aug. 15. At the time, the United States was managing with 114,500 COVID-19 infections among health care workers. By November 15, just three months later, that number had risen to 216,049 infections of health care workers, according to conservative estimates provided by the CDC.
If current estimates hold up to the United States, by the end of March 2021, another 210,000 deaths will add up to the 360,000 catastrophic accidents that have occurred since the disease spread across the country in just 10 months. back. With the new variant of the coronavirus likely to be a major strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the increased transmission means a greater intensity of the diseases, which are already affecting many health systems across the US to fall and continue. to endanger the health and livelihoods of frontline workers.