The first wave of the pandemic hit New York, and other cities with dense populations. As hospitals were overwhelmed with patients and struggled to access enough personal protective equipment and ventilators, the midwest and south were largely spared the worst of COVID-19. Then, the came the fall. COVID-19, the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, started disrupting families and ravaging lives far from the metropolitan counties, especially in the southern and midwestern states such as Texas, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming.
On a sinking ship, women and children are typically saved first. In a pandemic the opposite is true. After AstraZeneca on Monday became the latest drugmaker to say its vaccine offers high levels of protection from Covid-19, elderly citizens have high hopes of getting their jabs soon. However, younger people will have to wait longer. Investors counting on a rapid recovery may be disappointed.
In the lead-up to Thanksgiving, Americans are no stranger to planning. But this year, as they prepare to let turkeys brine and pie crusts thaw, people across the country are waiting for something extra: a coronavirus test they hope can clear them to mingle with loved ones. Many people consider a negative coronavirus test to be a ticket to freely socialize without precautions. But scientists and doctors say this is dangerously misguided. It is one precautionary measure but does not negate the need for others, like quarantining, masking and distancing.
Almost every year, I make a pilgrimage to a little town on Lake Huron in northeast Michigan, where my family has vacationed since my mother was a child. Not far from the quaint, two-block downtown, with its ice cream parlors and tourist clothing shops, sits an old lighthouse marked with a terribly sad plaque. The plaque tells the story of Blanche Deckett, the daughter of a lighthouse keeper, who died a century ago during the influenza pandemic.
Concerns are once again growing about hospital capacity in terms of available beds and equipment, as well as the availability of frontline healthcare providers and how to keep them from getting Covid-19. One looming shortage that has been overlooked is the shortage of providers with experience in treating hospitalized patients.