Over 267,000 Americans have died from the Coronavirus due to the incompetence of the Trump administration and Senate Republicans. Thanks to an overwhelming infection rate across the country, not only are PPE still in short supply, so are nurses. Many nurses are finding themselves overworked and under-protected as they battle on the frontlines of this pandemic. Nurses are getting hit the hardest with the highest infection rates amongst healthcare workers. As if this isn’t bad enough, there is also a COVID nursing shortage. In some parts of the U.S. COVID nurses are able to command upward of $8k a week in salary due to the nursing shortage as well.
Since we owe sincere gratitude to nurses who are the unsung heroes of the pandemic, VP elect Kamala Harris decided to call one on Thanksgiving to thank her for her hard work. Kamala posted a clip of her conversation with Talisa Hardin, a registered nurse at the University of Chicago Medical Center. Talisa testified in the House Oversight Committee in May against her employer because they were not supplying nurses and hospital staff with the proper PPE at the height of the pandemic. Below are a few excerpts via CNN:
“I know it’s personal for you, and I know that it requires mental and emotional and physical and spiritual energy and power that you give to it, so thank you,” Harris can be heard telling Talisa Hardin in a video Bonnie Castillo, executive director of National Nurses United (NNU), posted to Facebook.
Harris reportedly also spoke to Hardin about the Defense Production Act, a 1950 law that could expedite the process of giving more resources and supplies to medical staff on the front lines of the Covid-19 pandemic, Castillo said.
A NNU representative told CNN that the phone call lasted 15 minutes, during which Hardin spoke more about her time as a nurse.
“Talisa [Hardin] talked about how she and other nurses had to buy their own PPE because the hospital didn’t provide what they needed,” NNU wrote in a statement to CNN. “And Talisa [Hardin] said how this was disgraceful because you wouldn’t send a soldier into battle without gear.”
Hardin’s mother and uncle have both contracted Covid-19, with her uncle currently in the hospital.
Hardin, who is a registered nurse at the University of Chicago Medical Center, previously testified to the House Oversight Committee in May on behalf of the medical center and NNU, the union that she’s a part of.“The percentage of patients under investigation who eventually test positive for the virus is very high, but our hospital management has consistently refused to give nurses in my unit the protections that we need to avoid exposure and infection,” Hardin said, according to written testimony.
Talisa wasn’t Kamala’s only call. Kamala also called Tyler Gordon, the teen whose portraits of Kamala and Joe went viral on social media. Kamala’s husband, Doug Emhoff, also called Juan Anchondo, a registered nurse in El Paso, TX to thank him for his work as a frontline worker.
Kamala making this call makes these nurses and healthcare workers feel seen. Especially since Trump and the Republican Party have been so callous in their handling of the pandemic and their dismissal of the seriousness of this virus. Saying that I am angry that Iris Meda, the seventy year old nurse who came out of retirement to train nurses died from COVID, is an understatement. Knowing that the majority of the casualties of this pandemic could have been avoided if we had better leadership and people who actually cared is infuriating.
I am looking forward to a Biden/Harris presidency. I know that these small gestures will continue after they take office. I do hope that with help of scientists and infectious disease experts they will be able to get this virus under control. These nurses, other healthcare professionals and frontline workers deserve to have their contributions and lives taken seriously. I want to sincerely thank our healthcare and frontline workers for their service.
photos credit: Avalon.red and via Instagram
The things the monster has been saying about health care workers, who are at the end of their ropes and will likely have PTSD, has been so infuriating. I’m so happy we have two people now who treat them right.
I can’t read comments on articles from healthcare workers anymore because I get so upset, people are hateful and ungrateful. Saying things like this is what we signed up for, we get paid plenty of money so stop complaining, or we’re lying and being dramatic about how bad it is. It’s unbelievable and Trump breeds that kind of nastiness. Healthcare workers deserve so much better.
My brother is an ER nurse and his wife is also a nurse on the oncology unit. Both of them came down with Covid in April. My brother’s was so bad that he had to be in the hospital for 10 days and needed supplemental oxygen for a while after being discharged. He showed me X-rays of his lungs while he was sick and the doctors said his lungs looked like that of a 70 year old with lifelong lung problems – there were white spots everywhere (btw, my brother is a marathon runner!). He’s JUST getting back to being able to run consistently and exercise without feeling fatigued so quickly. I had been angry at this administration for the many atrocious things that they’ve done; but when Trump wouldn’t enact the Defense Production Act in order to get the needed supplies to frontline workers, I really wanted all of them dead. I wanted all of them to die slow, horrible deaths for their inaction that caused the preventable deaths of thousands of Americans. Frontline workers don’t need us to clap for them, they need us to wear our masks and socially distance so we can slow down this virus until we can get the vaccines. Healthcare workers are TIRED!
Number 1 post today.
(Glad your relatives pulled through.)
Powerfully stated.
My best wishes and continued recovery wishes to you and your family RG. I have several close friends (doctors and nurses) on the front lines and I think the way our federal government (starting at the top) has dealt with this issue is a criminal act, and perhaps even treasonous. From, the belittling of science, healthcare workers, the impact of the virus, the downgrading or refusing to acknowledge the deaths, to controlling and stockpiling medical supplies rather than allowing needed medical supplies to reach hospitals is truly shame worthy. But this isn’t just about the government for me. Countless Americans have and are still denying there is any problem here and their deliberately choosing to not social distance, or wear masks, or slow their travel down has also impacted the horrific spreading and rate of contagion and death we are facing. Bad leadership does not have to be listened to or followed. It also seems to me that even the media were too quiet for too long. Now, just since the election — it seems they have finally started truly trying to show the horrific human toll the pandemic has had on healthcare workers, the sick, the dying, the dead, the mass grave sites, etc.
I am also looking forward to a Biden-Harris administration so that we’ll have examples of leadership and compassion and competence. But I’m angry at Trump and his goons and their incessant cries of fraud…I feel like we will never get rid of the stain he’s left on the office and that we’ll never come close to repairing the damage that he caused or fueled. I was feeling real despair over the weekend about that. The Covid denying I’m still seeing is insane. To have made this virus and mask wearing political is insane.
This is my worry too, Esmom. Mango Voldemort has weakened our republic and its democratic institutions significantly while simultaneously destroying our international credibility. But attacking the science, denying the seriousness of the virus, and denigrating the people fighting to save all our lives are, IMHO, some of the worst things he has done.
Joe Biden may not be perfect and Lord knows he has a hell of a mess to clean up when he takes office, but there is no doubt in my mind that he is precisely the person we need as POTUS for at least the next four years.
The statement from the nurse in South(?) Dakota talking about Covid deniers in the ICU with Covid was just astonishing. And I definitely blame Trump for encouraging it. Thank you to everyone in the healthcare profession for all you are doing!
Heroes heroes heroes.
Getting the virus under control under Biden and Harris will depend too much on the (un)willingness of governors and mayors to enact and enforce lockdowns and to do a LOT better on mandatory masks. I’m not optimistic. 🙁
I read something this weekend about a health care worker who didn’t want to be a hero, they wanted to live. It was really something. I think we’ve demanded way too much from them. If I was a health care worker and could in any way afford to quit, I would have quit.
Trumpism extends well past elected officials. Plenty of clergy, coaches, celebrities, etc. fed the myth that covid is a hoax and/or no big deal.
Love these calls.
And super shallow, but anyone know who makes Kamala’s top in her call with Tye??
As a child, I remember being told about my aunt in Norway who died after catching Hep C from a broken centrifuge at work. She was a highly experienced, respected lab manager but despite her skill and commitment, she still caught a terminal illness in the course of doing her job.
I’ve worked as an RN for 30 years, often wondering what part of the work might catch me in the same way. This has always been part of the deal from my perspective but it seems like it is only now becoming apparent to the regular folks that the risk is big and real.
Praise and honors do not float my boat. Respect and risk management in the form of necessary equipment and information to do the job is what this nurse has ever wanted.