Health care workers nationwide exhausted, overwhelmed, as pandemic enters second year
Following a record nationwide surge in hospitalizations for COVD-19, which has so far infected over 26 million Americans and killed more that 444,000, health care workers at U.S. hospitals are speaking out about the toll of working on the front lines of the pandemic.
Video Transcript
CATHERINE KENNEDY: We've been dealing with this pandemic for the last year. It's exhausting. The nurses are tired because there is a lack of staff, lack of supplies. It's just been overwhelming. The fact that they're seeing older and younger people dying, coming in short of breath, and then to see them die has put a tremendous toll on the nurses. And they're feeling it. It's almost to the point where they're starting to get a little PTSD.
VIBEKE HIRSCH: We're short staffed. People, our nurses are getting sick, calling out when they are run down and feeling sick. And we are really at our wits end at this point. So I plead with the public, please be safe and wear your mask. And keep your distance from others.
GAVIN NEWSOM: All regions, effective immediately, are no longer in the stay at home order. And we'll move back into the blueprint. The blueprint we refer to as a blueprint for a safer economy. We're seeing a flattening of the curve. Everything that should be up is up. Everything that should be down is down-- case rates, positivity rates, hospitalizations, ICUs, testing starting to go back up as well as vaccination rates in this state. But we are not out of the woods.
CATHERINE KENNEDY: When Governor Newsom decided to lift those stay at home orders, our jaws dropped because we're seeing patients continuing to come into the hospital and they're sick. And we're concerned about the health care workers as well as the nurses. A fair number of health care workers have gotten the virus. And many have died. Our numbers are rising because people put their guard down. They feel that it's OK.
I keep emphasizing, this is a public health crisis. And so everybody needs to do their part because you don't want to have to come to the hospital and be hospitalized. Our capacities at one point were very, very high. And we need to be able to provide care for all of the patients. And so by lifting these orders and going out as though you can be carefree again, it's bothersome, worrisome. And we know that there's going to be an effect from that, lifting the stay at home orders.
We need to continue to be vigilant. Yes, the numbers are coming down, but that doesn't mean that the virus has gone away. So we're very concerned. We would still like to see more COVID testing. As a registered nurse, if I'm inadvertently exposed, my manager doesn't let me know that. I mean, it may be days before I'm even made aware of it. So that's a concern.
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President Biden is now saying that he's going to invoke the Defense Production Act, meaning that he's going to rev up production of not only the immunizations, but all of the medical supplies that we need. We need to get the public to understand that this is a crisis, recognizing that everyone wants to go back to school, open their businesses, and things like that. But we need to have a national strategy, a national plan, and get all of the supplies, all of the equipment that health care workers, essential workers need in order to keep everybody safe.
Also looking at our health care infrastructure, hospital capacities, and really looking at those economic inequities that COVID-19 has really brought out. Seeing how Black, and Brown, and Indigenous people have been left behind. I mean, there's such inequities. And so it's important that we, as Biden has been talking about, really putting it into place, making sure that all of these things are going and all of the states are complying and people are complying. When we start to see that trend go down, I think we can all take a deep breath. But right now is not the time.
