Nurses protest, say CDC rolled back protection for those treating coronavirus patients
Registered nurses launched protests around the nation Wednesday after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed its recommendations on the type of face masks and conditions that hospital personnel should use when treating patients infected with the new coronavirus.
The federal agency said that surgical masks are sufficient when treating the patients, rather than the N95 respirator masks that had been recommended. The N95 masks form a tight seal on the user’s face and keep out 95 percent of airborne pathogens. Surgical masks guard against droplets that spray when people talk, cough or sneeze.
“In order for us to protect our patients, we have to have the property safety equipment,” said registered nurse Kathy Dennis, who works at a Dignity Health hospital. “If we can’t protect ourselves, then we are not protecting patients, we are not protecting communities. Who will take care of those patients should all the nurses become ill?”
The CDC also said that the COVID-19 patients no longer needed to be placed in negative pressure isolation rooms that prevent contaminated air from escaping.
Carmela Coyle, president and chief executive officer of the California Hospital Association, said these comments from the nurses show that they are not following the science.
“There’s now sufficient evidence ... that this is spread by droplets, and it’s not airborne,” she said. “You can’t get it simply by breathing the same air. It’s about folks coughing or sneezing (close enough to) come into contact with those droplets.”
What we also know now, Coyle said, is that the new coronavirus is spreading in the community just like the flu virus or the four coronaviruses that cause the common cold. This respiratory illness can’t be contained anymore, Coyle said, so now it is about really protecting those who are most vulnerable: the elderly and people with underlying health conditions.
To do that, public health officials say, people who have cold-like symptoms need to stay home when sick and for several days after being sick, and anyone in the vulnerable category should stay away from crowds. Everyone should wash their hands regularly with soap and water to eliminate the spread of pathogens.”
“We have got to stick to the science and stick to the facts,” Coyle said, “and that’s really why California hospitals are focused on following that science and following those facts because it all supports really the most important goals in all of this, and that is keeping patients and workers safe.”
Coyle said that N95 masks and other types of protective equipment should be reserved for medical staff who are doing the riskiest procedures for COVID-19.
Dennis, however, said the tens of thousands of nurses in the National Nurses United labor union see the CDC’s new guidelines as a rollback in protections for nurses and consequently for patients. She said nurses also don’t have ready access to the equipment, should they need it.
“We are told we have enough masks, but most hospitals across the state and across the country have been putting the masks and protective equipment under lock and key,” Dennis said, “so nurses have to fish around and find where they’re at, and we have problems especially on our night shifts when managers aren’t there to open their offices.”
More than 125,000 people have had confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide, and at least 4,600 have died. Roughly 80 percent of those who get the illness have mild symptoms or no symptoms, but about 20 percent experience severe respiratory distress. The disease starts with coughing, fever and shortness of breath.
