More than 2,900 U.S. health workers have died in the COVID-19 pandemic since March, a far greater number than reported by the government, according to a new analysis by Kaiser Health News and The Guardian.
Coronavirus fatalities affected young people, with the majority of victims under the age of 60 in cases for which there is age data. People of color have been affected disproportionately, accounting for about 65% of deaths in cases where there is data on race and ethnicity. After conducting interviews with relatives and friends of some 300 victims, KHN and The Guardian found that a third of fatalities involved concerns about inadequate personal protective equipment.
Many of the deaths – about 680 – occurred in New York and New Jersey, which were hit hard at the start of the pandemic. Significant numbers also died in the southern and western states in the following months.
The findings are part of “Lost on the Frontline”, a nine-month investigative and data project from KHN and The Guardian to track all healthcare professionals who die from COVID-19.
One of the lost, Vincent DeJesus, 39, told his brother Neil that he would be in serious trouble if he spent too much time with a positive COVID patient while wearing the surgical mask provided to him by the Las Vegas hospital where he worked. DeJesus died on August 15.
Another fatality 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 any PPE, said her husband. She was intubated for six weeks before she died on May 2.
“Lost on the Frontline” is taking further action by the government to explore the root cause of the deaths of healthcare professionals and take steps to better track them. Department of Health and Human Services officials recently asked the National Academy of Sciences for a “quick consultation with an expert” on why so many health professionals are dying in the United States, citing the count of workers killed by The Guardian and KHN.
“The question is, where are they getting infected?” asked Michael Osterholm, a member of the COVID-19 advisory team for President-elect Joe Biden and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. “This is clearly a critical question that we need to answer and we don’t have that.”
The national academies’ December 10 report suggests a new federal tracking system and specially trained contact trackers that would take into account PPE policies and availability.
This would add critical knowledge that could inform future generations and make sense of lost lives.
“That [health care workers] they are people who enter the workplace every day because they care about patients, putting food on the table for families, and each of these lives is important, ”said Sue Anne Bell, assistant professor of nursing and co-author of the report national academies.
The recommendations come at a difficult time for health professionals, as some are receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, while others are fighting for their lives amid the highest levels of infection the country has ever seen.
The toll continues to rise. In Indianapolis, for example, nurse Kindra Irons, 41, died on December 1. She treated seven or eight home patients a week while wearing full PPE, including N95 mask and face shield, according to her husband, Marcus Ferros.
The virus destroyed her lungs so much that six weeks with the most aggressive life support equipment, ECMO, could not save her, he said.
Marcus Irons said he is now struggling financially to support his two youngest children, aged 12 and 15. “No one should have to go through what we are going through,” he said.
In Massachusetts, Mike “Flynnie” Flynn, 43, oversaw transportation and laundry services at North Shore Medical Center, a hospital in Salem, Massachusetts. He and his wife were also raising small children, 8, 10 and 11 years old.
Flynn, who shone at father and daughter dances, fell ill in late November and died on December 8. He had a heart attack at home on the couch, according to his father, Paul Flynn. A hospital spokesman said he had full access to the PPE and free testing on site.
Since the early months of the pandemic, more than 70 reporters from The Guardian and KHN have examined various sources of government and public data, interviewed the bereaved and spoke with health experts to make a count.
The total number includes deaths identified by unions, obituaries and the media and in online posts by mourners, as well as by relatives of the dead. The previous total announced by The Guardian and KHN was approximately 1,450 deaths of health workers. The new figure reflects the inclusion of data reported by nursing homes and health facilities to the federal and state governments. These deaths include the names of the facilities, but not the names of the workers. The reporters checked each record to ensure that fatalities did not appear in the database twice.
The count was widely cited by other media, as well as members of Congress.
Deputy Norma Torres (D-Calif.) Referred to the data citing the need for a pending bill that would provide compensation to the families of health professionals who died or suffered long-term disabilities from COVID-19.
Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) Mentioned the count at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on the medical supply chain. “The fact is,” he said, “the lack of PPE has put our doctors, nurses and caregivers in grave danger.”
This story is part of “Lost on the Frontline,” an ongoing project by The Guardian and Kaiser Health News that aims to document the lives of healthcare professionals in the U.S. who die of COVID-19 and investigate why so many are victims of the disease. You can find the original article here.
Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an independent editorial program from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.