Items

• 
  2022-07-09

  Hospitalizations on the rise in Arkansas

  This is an article detailing a surge in COVID related hospitalizations in Arkansas. The article further mentions an increase in deaths due to COVID-19 and how hospitals are quickly beginning to feel the pressure of overcrowding. The July 4th holiday, doubtless, had an impact. This surge demonstrates not only the minimal precautions taken by individuals as life has seemingly returned to a sense of normalcy, but also demonstrates that many Arkansans are still unvaccinated, and the extreme toll such action is taking on hospitals.
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  2021-04-21

  Grieving a non-covid death

  My grandfather on my dad’s side passed in April 2021. It’s coming close to a year mark at my time of writing this. I think that being in a time surrounded by so much death and loss that we have forgotten about those who have died during this time unrelated to Covid. He had suffered kidney failure in late 2013/early 2014, that part of my life is blurry in memory so I don’t recall exactly, but he had been on dialysis ever since. It’s been hard to talk about his passing, everyone assumes that death in the last two years always has to do with Covid. Death is never easy to talk about, but it is inevitable for every living creature. My grandfather was old and had been sick for a long time, he lived a long and happy life. I don’t mean that in some cheesy way, he truly did. I carry a tremendous amount of guilt surrounding his death. Due to Covid restrictions, I didn’t get to see him for a year leading up to the week that I spent with him while he was in the hospital, then hospice. I still think about him all the time and the last days that I got to spend with him. I don't think I'll ever get to have that closure I want due to this. It’s almost as if we had expected death due to illness, accident, age, anything else, expected to stop. Yet, death of all causes never stops.
• 
  2021-01-28

  Freezer Failure

  January 28, 2021, around 11 PM one of my friends called me, we normally don’t talk on the phone so I assumed something was wrong. I could tell that she was driving and her voice was shaky. She told me that a freezer had failed at her mom’s work and that around 1,300 vaccines would be expired by 5 or 6 AM. She was told to try to get anyone she knew to get to the hospital in order to reduce the chance of wasting such a hard to get thing. This was prior to my state lifting restrictions on who was eligible for the vaccine yet. Not everyone could get it, just certain people due to age, pre-existing conditions, and career. The clinic did a good job at still trying to make sure that people who were eligible got to the front of the line, but they knew that they needed to make sure every vaccine was used. My girlfriend and I would not have made it there in time since we were over 3 hours away, but her family all lived within a 30-minute drive. We started calling her parents and brothers to wake them up and get moving. Her mother, oldest brother, and soon to be sister-in-law were all teachers and were going to have to start teaching in person again. None of them would have been eligible until a month or more after going back in person, and they were all decently nervous about being in person unvaccinated. Her family got lucky and was able to get vaccinated that night. I cannot thank my friend enough for calling me to keep the people who have become my family safe.
• 
  2021-09-30

  Mobile Morgue

  Eastern Washington and other small towns in Washington are having so many extra deaths from Covid, they are having to bring in refrigerator trucks to store the bodies before they can be buried. This information is still not enough for some people to get vaccinated and try to stop the spread of Covid. Many areas, like in Wenatchee where this article originated, are struggling to keep up with the influx of unvaccinated sick people and are having an even harder time trying to find a place to put their bodies.
• 
  2021-10-08

  Idaho and the Overrun Hospitals

  Idaho hospitals are so overrun with Covid patients and so understaffed that they are drowning. Idaho has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the nation and many people are getting sick. Many hospitals on the border Idaho shares with Washington are choosing to send their sick patients to Washington. This in turn is adding to the burden carried in Eastern Washington. Many healthcare workers in Idaho are burnt out and they are helpless because of the divisiveness caused by politics and Covid.
• 
  2021-01-25

  A Year of COVID-19 in Canada

  This is a collection of photographs for the anniversary of the first COVID-19 case in Canada. The photographs depict the changes the country underwent in the last 12 months.
• 
  2020-08-05

  Social Justice and Public Health in 2020

  From the article: The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the spread of the novel coronavirus, has created an unexpected and unprecedented lifestyle shift for many people across the globe. Several months into the pandemic, the public has been exposed to a number of issues they might not have previously considered or thought possible, from hospitals rapidly reaching capacity and the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) to the mental and social challenges of physical distancing and being quarantined.
• 
  2021-02-02

  Inadequate Sick Leave Jeopardizes Canadian Health Workers and Patients

  Due to inadequate medical supplies, lack of vaccines, and inability to slow down the spread of the virus, the pandemic rages on. To make matters worse, over half of Canadian workers lack sufficient sick leaves, which contribute to more outbreaks and the dangers of contracting COVID-19.
• 
  2020-05-01

  Used PPE

  A photograph of the soiled PPE at St Paul's Hospital in Vancouver.
• 
  2020-12-14

  The Daily Numbers, No More Beds

  Since October, I religiously check the daily case rate everyday at 12:30 when my distance learning class breaks for lunch. Originally, I checked in outrage, as I watched the local numbers climb, while simultaneously hearing our school administrators claim our school of 2500 was “safe to open.” After Halloween, I spent a tense November planning to take a leave because there was no way I was risking my family to continue to teach in person but still over Zoom, unable to walk around, with kids unable to work in a capacity beyond their chrome books. Me, exposing myself unnecessarily to the virus inside my classroom with students, but teaching exactly as I would for distance learning, for the political facade that things are “normal.” 20 people dying a day in this county is not normal. These daily numbers climbing confirmed to me my gut instinct was right. Our school ended up having our re-opening cancelled by the state when our area moved into the most restrictive tier at the end of November. I had mixed feelings of relief, horror, and deep sadness. The day we hit 700 cases a day, I was in shock. When we crossed 1000, I was horrified. Last week, when we hit 2000 cases a day, I was in terror. Today and yesterday, we have reached over 3000 new cases a day, and there are now 0% ICU beds available in our county. I feel nothing but numb. Numb and exasperated that people here are still refusing to wear masks and still think going out is more important than the safety of our community. Oh, but don’t worry. My school still thinks it’s safe to open.
• 
  2020-11-14

  Saskatoon ICUs maxed out

  This is an article interviewing Dr. Susan Shaw, the Chief Medical Officer. She is discussing the burdening of the medical system during the second wave.
• 
  2020-11

  Checklist for Putting On & Removing PPE

  Checklist for healthcare workers when putting PPE on and taking it off. Important to remember that many healthcare workers did not have to don PPE before the pandemic and needed guidance.
• 
  2020-12-09

  Interview with Toronto Nurses

  A six minute video about the hardships of being a nurse during the COVID pandemic.
• 
  2020-03-25

  At least 2 Toronto hospitals begin rationing protective gear as COVID-19 crisis deepens

  Early news article about rationing PPE.
• 
  2020-10-19

  "It's very scary at WGH right now," says employee

  This is a news article about the conditions at the Whitehorse General Hospital. The article highlights the staffing and shortage issues that are causing unsafe conditions in the hospital.
• 
  2020-04-08

  Sunnybrook is re-processing N95 masks, should the need for use arise

  Sunnybrook Hospital began researching how to sterilize masks in April 2020 as the PPE shortages had become so severe. In the video, Dr. Jerome Leis explains the research.
• 2020-04-15

  Bay Area health care workers want more transparency about on-the-job coronavirus exposure

  In 2020, there are a lot of secrets that are being kept from health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Health workers have emphasized that they want to be immediately notified when they have come in contact with the coronavirus by patients, so they are able to get tested and stay safe away from others. However, many of them have not been notified- and that resulted them into testing positive for the coronavirus. This is extremely important to talk about because without health care workers, the pandemic would be much more out of control than how it is now. They put their lives at risk to help patients who have the coronavirus. If more and more workers are in the dark to whether a patient they have worked with has COVID, then there were be less health care workers available at hospitals for assistance.
• 
  2020-05-01

  The Effect of the Coronavirus on Hospitals and Doctors

  This picture resonates with me for a number of reasons. Firstly, both of my parents are cardiologists and my grandmother is a nurse practitioner, meaning that they have had to deal with the effects of the virus up close. This has put a new reason to worry as my parents and grandmother could be at risk for contracting the virus should something go wrong. This picture says a lot about the severity of the pandemic. Life-saving and even basic medical equipment, such as the ones utilized in the photo, are in short supply. Doctors and medical personnel are called upon to risk their health to help save that of others. Hospitals are plagued with the sea of new patients flooding in, so much so that, overcrowding has become an issue in some hospitals. This picture is important to me because it demonstrates what our medical workers and hospital staff are sacrificing in order to help combat an enemy that surrounds us.
• 
  2020-06-30

  California Coronavirus Transfers

  In Southern California, the coronavirus has particularly been vicious along the border area. Hospitals in the area are struggling, as noted in the tweet. This has led to an effort to outsource care wherever there is space; some patients are being taken as far North as San Francisco. This item was added TAGS v6.1.9.1. I originally searched under the hashtag #california. Within that search, I have chosen to add the following tweet because it describes severe medical toll that has been taken on hospitals across the border area. Link to article in tweet: (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/07/us/coronavirus-border-mexico-california-el-centro.html)
• 
  2020-06-15

  Workers Call for the Resignation of Moises Bailon

  The way that worker safety and funding is handled is always an issue for government run health organization, and in a pandemic it is all the more important. In Oaxaca, at the IMSS workers have called for the resignation of their director, Moisés Sidharta Bailón Jiménez, because of improper handling of both internal affairs and funds during the pandemic.