Why Should We Protect All Our Medical Personnel Better?
It is not easy to become a doctor in the U.S. I am saying this because I have compared how doctors are trained in different countries. The U.S. undoubtedly has one of the most stringent and grueling ways to train the doctors (backwards I think, but that’s another topic). For a better description than I can do here, please read “When Breath Becomes Air” by Paul Kalanithi.
Right now we are living in a time of crisis when we need our medical people the most. The saddest thing for me personally is to see that they are not protected adequately. My husband works at the blood bank in a big hospital. Other than a blood shortage recently because everyone stays at home, he is doing nothing differently than before. But this is not enough! Admit it or not, the transmission could be asymptotic and aerosol transmission. Thus, every doctor needs to be better protected. The doctors, nurses and other personnel who handled the testing and treatment of COVID 19 patients need to be protected from head-to-toe; but other doctors need to protected as well. They should at least be required to wear a mask in the hospital.
Some of you may have heard about Wenliang Li—who was one of the whistle-blower doctors in China. But do you know that he was an eye doctor who contracted the disease from treating an 80-year patient who did not have any symptoms in early January? Many Chinese doctors died this way because they did not realize how the virus was transmitted. According to the numbers from China, 4.4% of the total infected or 3,387 medical personnel were infected by the end of February this year. Most of them were infected in the beginning of the outbreak around the end of January when doctors did not realize that their patients could be a COVID-19 carrier and there was a shortage of medical supplies. Among them, 60% were confirmed cases while others were clinical diagnostic, assumptive cases, and the remaining 3% were asymptomatic cases! Among the dead, .08% or 22 were medical personnel. According to the January numbers from one of the hospitals in Wuhan, 3/4 of the infected were medical personnel of general department, non-ICU personnel. By March 19th among the infected in Italy, 8.3% were medical personnel and 14 of them died. By March 24th among the infected in Spain, 14% were medical personnel.
If you have seen the video from China demonstrating how an average Chinese citizen protects themselves after grocery shopping, you will be ashamed at how doctors protect themselves here in the U.S. An average Chinese shopper will carefully take off and dispose his mask, disinfect himself with spray (including their shoes), disinfect credit cards, cell phone and keys with wipes; air out their shoes, dry their clothes to kill germs or hang their clothes in an airy place and take a shower if possible.
North American is indeed suffering a mask shortage right now. Just today, an anesthesiologist in my neighbor asked for protective gear on the Nextdoor (a social media App. for neighbors). The Colorado governor said today that the federal government has allocated a total of 47,000 masks to Colorado; but we use about 70,000 masks a day. The gap can only be resolved by the state itself.
In addition to the mask shortage, I still feel that Americans lack the awareness of wearing masks. A few doctors and nurses told me that you must ask for a mask daily and only then will he be handed a disposable surgical mask. My husband still thinks it is a chore to wear a mask. Since he is not going into the isolated area to attend the COVID-19 patients, he is not going to wear a mask. A Chinese American doctor in Ohio told me that she is NOT ALLOWED to wear a mask even though she has mask supplies herself and wanted to wear one. She is not allowed because there is not enough for everyone else and they must save the mask for the medical personnel who deal with COVID-19 patients directly.
It is heart-breaking to read messages from medical personnel pleading medical supplies online and call on others to stay home so that they won’t sacrifice for nothing. It makes me angry to hear stories on delivery drivers refusing to deliver food to Urgent Care workers. We need to protect all medical personnel better and can’t afford to lose them to any possible collateral damages. And it can be done! It is reported that all 42,000 medical personnel from other parts of China who went into Wuhan since the end of January has achieved 0 infection rate when they are better prepared. Israel medical workers have achieved 0 infection rate as well. Can the U.S. learn from them?
We had a severe mask shortage before, but now we are in a much better shape with industrial N95 masks trickling into each medical facility. I know my husband is not going to listen to me but will listen to what NIH (who needs to send out more updated research), CDC (washing hands is clearly not enough), AMA (The American Medical Association) or FDA (who regulates the blood products and almost all types of PPE) have to say. NIH, CDC, AMA and FDA, now it is time for you to do something—Please Protect All Our Medical Personnel Better!