The Impact of COVID-19
By: Alex Krepsik
On November 18, 2019 the first COVID-19 case was reported. In the following months, the virus made its way to the United States. Finally in March 2020, the US went into a lockdown and has not returned to normal. While the coronavirus has changed the lives of every single person in the world, it has arguably changed the lives of health care workers the most. The ongoing pandemic has taken a physical and mental toll on medical workers such as doctors and nurses, and will permanently change the healthcare system to be ready for any future health outbreaks.
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/05/studies-1-healthcare-workers-had-covid-19
As a result of COVID-19 doctors are being overworked, a problem that should not be seen in any future pandemic setting. CBS Chicago reported, “Some Chicago doctors have reported having to work long hours because of COVID-19, with one saying he had to work up to 36 hours between clinic and the ICU.” (Williams). This is not isolated to only the Chicagoland area, doctors all over the country are facing long hours. With an overwhelming number of patients, many hospitals need to schedule back to back shifts, leaving doctors with little time to rest. A pandemic of this level has not been seen in modern history, and it is obvious that hospitals were underprepared. Moving forward, if we do experience another similar pandemic, hospitals should be better equipped to create schedules that don’t involve making doctors work constant back to back shifts. The number of patients in the ER had also increased, one of New York's paramedics, Carlos Lizcano, recalls his experience during the height of the Coronavirus outbreak in New York. He was responding to multiple calls per night, as many as he would normally see in one month (Jewett and Lewis). Working with more patients is stressful, and healthcare workers like doctors and paramedics have little time to rest for themselves. This has put fatigue on health care workers that may not soon wear off. After the pandemic, hospitals, and emergency response teams should have better strategies to spread the patient load to prevent doctor burnout.
A lack of resources has caused doctors to be under extreme stress, but hospitals in a future pandemic setting should not face equipment shortages. The best defense against COVID-19 is the use of personal protective equipment (PPE). However, projections have shown hospitals do not have enough; which lead to situations in which “Staffers in a 30-patient unit were rationing a single tub of sanitizing wipes all day. A May memo from the CEO said N95 masks would be cleaned up to 20 times before replacement.” (Jewett and Lewis). PPE is necessary to keep doctors safe. Not only as protection for themselves, but if a doctor falls sick due to contaminated PPE, they can not continue to help their patients. Reusing personal protective equipment can also increase the risk of a medical worker contracting COVID-19. Without the most basic form of protection, doctors continue to stress about their own safety. This causes high levels of stress, and with the pandemic raging for almost a year, the constant state of stress is reaching dangerous levels. Once the demand for PPE starts to level out, hospitals will be able to keep extra in stock in order to prevent a shortage again in the future. Hospitals are also running out of physical beds to provide, “the United States has fewer than 800,000 hospital beds...current data suggests … 3.2 million people will require hospitalization ... 960,000 people will require beds in intensive care units for many days.” (Emanual). With a very limited amount of resources, patients must be analyzed and treated with who is most likely to survive. Every single doctor takes the Hippocratic oath, swearing to protect and treat their patients to the best of their ability. Saving lives is what doctors have dedicated their lives to. With this pandemic, the situation is different, and treating every single person is no longer possible. This puts doctors in a stressful position and has created a new type of healthcare system. Healthcare systems should create a plan for future incidents in order to give service to all patients, and still have enough beds.
The pandemic is going to have lasting effects on the mental health of medical workers, and a support system needs to be implemented. Medical staff is under pressure every second they are working, causing an abundance of stress. A president of academic affairs “estimates that 25% to 40% of first responders and health-care workers in the U.S. will experience some form of stress or post-traumatic stress disorder as the result of the pandemic.” (Chen). With the stress of working in a pandemic being compared to a battle, it is clear that there will be lasting impacts on the mental health of workers. Many worry about developing PTSD even after the pandemic. The constant state of stress changes the mind and will take time and various tools to return to pre-pandemic conditions. To combat these lasting effects hospitals will need to put a focus on the mental health of medical workers. The pandemic is also taking an emotional toll on health care workers. A New York nurse recalls; “ On occasion, he says, he has seen as many as three or four patients die on a shift—something that is particularly heartbreaking, he says, because they are passing away alone, as their families, connected through mediums like FaceTime, strain to understand what is happening to them.” (Chen). There is trauma associated with being witness to death, and it has become even more apparent in this pandemic. Doctors often have to watch their patients die, even after doing all that they could. However, before the pandemic patients had other means of support, mostly their families. Families aren’t allowed into hospitals, to keep everyone safe, so patients are solely relying on hospital workers for support. It takes an emotional toll on doctors when their patient dies, especially scared and all alone. Hospitals should set up further support systems, to help patients with diagnosis, as well as emotional support for medical personnel.
“We Will Meet Again,” is a mural created by Emelie Hryhoruk depicting Queen Elizabeth wearing a mask. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-wiltshire-52559174
With the COVID vaccine being administered to medical workers all over the world, the end of the pandemic is near. One nurse says she is able to “feel like healing is coming. I hope this marks the beginning of the end of a very painful time in our history.” (Kwai). The vaccine allows one's immune system to fight the coronavirus, and prevent them from getting sick. This should eliminate the stress that doctors face with contracting COVID. Immunity should also prevent patients from being further exposed to COVID through their doctors. This allows doctors to be there for their patients without distraction from fear or stress. Essential workers like doctors and nurses were among the first to receive the vaccine, as it should be. If we are ever faced with another pandemic, a similar course of action with distribution of vaccines should be taken, protecting those on the frontline first. Another aspect of the vaccine that will help with the pandemic is herd immunity. A doctor with the American Heart Association explained herd immunity, “If a large group of people – the herd – is immune to a virus, then an individual in the middle of this group is unlikely to become infected. The virus has a very hard time getting through the herd.” (Sanchez). If enough people become immune everyone is. This will reduce the number of patients and lower the death rate since more patients will be able to get treatment. This should help reduce stress for health care systems and especially doctors who will no longer have to face a large number of patients. Vaccine rollout systems will help distribute enough vaccines to reach herd immunity, with the correct number of vaccines. It could be hard for the US to reach a level in which we experience herd immunity since we have a limited number of vaccines.
Although the vaccine is promising of a COVID-free world, we will not get there overnight. We as a whole need to continue to wear masks and stay socially distant in order to help keep health care systems under capacity. This is important as new mutant strands are making their way to the United States.
Sources
Chen, Te-Ping. "Hospitals Brace for Mental-Health Crisis among Doctors and Nurses."
Wall Street Journal Online, 21 May 2020. SIRS Issues Researcher, https://proxy.eths.k12.il.us/login? url=https://explore-proquest-com.proxy.eths.k12.il.us/sirsissuesresearcher/document/2409387607?accountid=134.
Emanuel, Ezekiel J., James Phillips, and Govind Persad. "Doctors may Face Impossible
Decisions." New York Times, 16 Mar 2020. SIRS Issues Researcher, https://proxy.eths.k12.il.us/login?url=https://explore-proquest-com.proxy.eths.k12.il.us/sirsissuesresearcher/document/2377528284?accountid=134.
Jewett, Christina, and Robert Lewis. "As the Terror of COVID Struck, Health Care
Workers Struggled.." Kaiser Health News, 23 Dec 2020. SIRS Issues Researcher, https://proxy.eths.k12.il.us/login?url=https://explore-proquest-com.proxy.eths.k12.il.us/sirsissuesresearcher/document/2475974656?accountid=134.
Kwai, Isabella. “U.S. Starts Vaccine Rollout as High-Risk Health Care Workers Go First.”
The New York Times, The New York Times, 4 Jan. 2021, www.nytimes.com/live/2020/12/14/world/covid-19-coronavirus.
Sanchez, Dr. Eduardo. “COVID-19 Science: Understanding the Basics of 'Herd
Immunity'.” Www.heart.org, 25 Mar. 2020, www.heart.org/en/news/2020/03/25/covid-19-science-understanding-the-basics-of-herd-immunity.
Williams, Jim. “COVID-19 In Hospitals: Northwestern Doctor Describes Working Up To
36 Hours.” CBS Chicago, CBS Chicago, 2 Dec. 2020, chicago.cbslocal.com/2020/12/02/covid-19-northwestern-memorial-hospital-doctor-shift/.