More than 2,900 U.S. health workers have died in the COVID-19 pandemic since March, a much higher number than the government reported, according to a new analysis by Kaiser Health News and The Guardian.
Coronavirus deaths have disrupted young people, with the majority of victims under the age of 60 in cases for which age data exist. People of color have become excessively affected and are responsible for about 65% of deaths in cases where there is race and ethnicity data. After KHN and The Guardian interviewed family members and friends of about 300 victims, they found that one-third of the deaths were due to inadequate personal protective equipment.
Many of the deaths – about 680 – occurred in New York and New Jersey, which were hit hard in the early pandemic. Significant numbers also died in subsequent months in southern and western states.
The findings are part of ‘Lost on the Frontline’, a nine-month data and research project by KHN and The Guardian to track down every health worker who dies from COVID-19.
One of the missing, Vincent DeJesus, 39, told his brother Neil that he would be in deep trouble if he spent a lot of time with a COVID-positive patient while wearing the Las Vegas surgical mask. hospital where he worked, provided to him. DeJesus passed away on August 15th.
Another death was Sue Williams-Ward, a 68-year-old home health assistant who earned $ 13 an hour in Indianapolis and bathed, dressed and fed clients without wearing a PBT, her husband says. She was intubated for six weeks before dying on May 2.
‘Lost on the Frontline’ calls for new government action to investigate the cause of death in health care works and take steps to better detect it. Department of Health and Human Services officials recently asked the National Academy of Sciences for a “quick consultation” on why so many health workers in the U.S. are dying, citing the number of fallen workers by The Guardian and KHN.
“The question is where do they get infected?” asks Michael Osterholm, a member of Elected President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 advisory team and director of the Center for Research and Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. “This is clearly a critical issue that we need to answer, and we do not have it.”
The National Academic Report on December 10 indicates a new federal detection system and specially trained contact detectives that take PPE policy and availability into account.
Doing so will add critical knowledge that can inform generations to give meaning to lost lives.
‘That [health care workers] are people who walked into workplaces every day because they cared about patients, put food on the table for families, and each of the lives is important, ”said Sue Anne Bell, an assistant professor of nursing and fellow university. author of the national academic report.
The recommendations come at an icy moment for health workers, as some are getting the COVID-19 vaccine, while others are fighting for their lives amid the highest levels of infection the country has seen.
The toll is still rising. In Indianapolis, for example, 41-year-old nurse Kindra Irons passed away on December 1st. According to her husband, Marcus, she saw seven or eight home health patients a week while wearing a full PPE, including an N95 mask and a face shield. Irons.
The virus destroyed her lungs so much that six weeks on the most aggressive life support equipment, ECMO, could not save her, he said.
Marcus Irons said he is now struggling financially to support their two youngest children, aged 12 and 15. “No one needs to go through what we’re going through,” he said.
In Massachusetts, 43-year-old Mike “Flynnie” Flynn oversaw transportation and laundry services at North Shore Medical Center, a hospital in Salem, Massachusetts. He and his wife also raised young children aged 8, 10 and 11 years.
Flynn, who shone during father-and-daughter dances, fell ill in late November and died on December 8. According to his father, Paul Flynn, he had a heart attack at home on the couch. A spokesman for a hospital said he had full access to personal protection and free tests on the premises.
Since the first months of the pandemic, more than 70 reporters at The Guardian and KHN have investigated various government and public data sources, interviewed the bereaved and talked to health care experts to compile a score.
The total number includes deaths identified by unions, obituaries and newspapers and in online posts by the bereaved, as well as relatives of the deceased. The previous total that The Guardian and KHN announced was about 1,450 deaths in the health care worker. The new number reflects the inclusion of data reported by nursing homes and health care institutions to federal and state governments. These deaths contain the names of facilities, but not names for workers. Reporters crossed every record to make sure deaths did not appear twice in the database.
The score was widely quoted by other media as well as members of Congress.
Rep. Norma Torres (D-California) referred to the data referring to the need for a pending bill that would compensate the families of health workers who died or contracted long-term disabilities due to COVID-19.
Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) Names the version in a hearing on the Senate Finance Committee’s medical supply chain. ‘The fact is,’ he said, ‘the shortage of PBT put our doctors and nurses and carers in serious danger.’
This story is part of “Lost on the Frontline”, an ongoing project by The Guardian and Kaiser Health News aimed at documenting the lives of US health workers dying of COVID-19 and investigating why so many victims are of the disease. You can find the original article here.
Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national news service for health policy. This is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation that is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.