I went for a walk with a good friend this morning, 5-point-screw-5 miles around Lake Fayetteville. It had been months since I had seen him in person. It was humid, Our featured photo shows the fog we saw coming off the water. Reminded me of an old Deep Purple song.
We both wore masks the entire time.That was one of the reasons I didn’t record. And it was a bit harder to believe, but we proved it wasn’t impossible to do a long walk with a cloth mask on. Now, I can understand why you wouldn’t want to wear a mask if you were running. But I was shocked that I did not see a single soul wearing a mask. Like many outdoor places these days, we saw more than the usual number of people for 6:30 on a Sunday morning. I saw one couple that was practicing appropriate spacing, but no masks. It is no wonder that in our area the number of cases is growing more rapidly, possibly at the fasted rate nationwide.
My friend, who is a registered nurse, gave me some insight into what it is like working in the hospital during the pandemic. Obviously, he is physically going into work. His work is critical, and it can’t be done remotely. Today is June 7 of 2020 and he is just now seeing the highest number of cases yet in his hospital. The number is approaching 20 in this one hospital. Remember that the vast majority of cases do not require hospitalization.
He is much busier now. While ‘elective’ procedures have fallen in number, most of these are not procedures that a patient can simply choose not to do, and after being delayed for months, they often become urgent.
There are strict procedures governing how he does his job. Of course, he is masked all day, regardless of whether he is working with COVID patients or not. When he does work with a COVID patient, he usually must don a clean set of scrubs which he changes when he finishes with the patient, before moving on to anyone else. He also said he has worn what is known in the biz as a “bunny suit” which is a paper or plastic over-garment, plus booties covering the shoes and a cap. The face covering is a plastic shield that covers a 180-degree radius.
He doesn’t see children, as we have a very good children’s hospital in the area. He says that most patients who have to go on a ventilator do not survive. He is seeing more total deaths than he would normally see. On the other hand, most of these patients have complications. Some examples are diabetes, COPD, and cancer.
He also is seeing a higher concentration of Marshallese patients who have COVID-19. This part of Arkansas has the most Marshallese people outside their native Marshall Islands. This is of great concern if there is some reason the disease is affecting them disproportionately. Our state government does have information in the Marshallese language. Every Marshallese person I have met speaks English as well as I do, but this, along with my friend’s observations, are anecdotal. I do know that our state Department of Health is conducting tracing, in cooperation with large employers who are also tracing the passing of the disease from person-to-person in order to better attach the vectors of spread. I don’t want to make too much of this, but I think it’s important to reach out when a particular community may be disproportionately impacted.
It was great to get out, and even more so to spend some less-socially distanced, but safe time with my friend. And of course, many thanks to him for letting me share this info with you!
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshallese_Americans
https://govstatus.egov.com/ar-covid-19