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Cat's Corona Diaries, Entry 2
Hi Folks,
So, today marked the last day in my dad’s 4 day deployment. He will be deployed again after a 4 day break.
Today’s entry is going to be light on stories and heavy on information.

Specifically I’ll be going over
What exactly are the components of Personal Protective Equipment, or PPE?
What are some treatments coronavirus patients are receiving in hospitals? What are some treatments in development?
...

Why the fuck is a homophobic Christian Fundamentalist organization building a field hospital in central park? And can we throw eggs at them?
Why have DNR protocols at hospitals changed?
and finally
Why is COVID-19 so dangerous for Healthcare Workers?

But first, some news:
Yesterday actually brought with it two pieces of good-ish tidings. Firstly, a fleet of 250 ambulances arrived in New York City from all over the country.
Words cannot express what a boon this is.

Also Samaritan’s Purse finished building their tent hospital in Central Park, and it’s already full (more on this later and why SPs presence might be a bit of a mixed blessing).

So needless to say, both of these developments have been really good for our overburdened healthcare systems.

I wish I could say the same abt the USNS Comfort, but I think the incompetence of the federal government when it comes to helping w pandemic has been established, so I can’t say that I was surprised by the news that the Comfort has only filled 3/1000 beds due to Navy regulations.

Of course the best news of the week, for my family at least is that MY DAD MADE IT TO THE END OF HIS FIRST 4 DAY DEPLOYMENT!
He is fine btw, or...as fine as he can be under the circumstances.

He has no temperature, as of right now, and he feels physically fine. However he did lose 4/20 patients this week, and had to break down the hospital’s new emergency protocols on DNRs to the residents (more on that later).

Unfortunately he informed me that one of the 4 patients who passed was the lady I mentioned in my first entry. I'm told she died at 1 AM this morning in her sleep. It was relatively painless, and her family has been informed.

If any of you reading this are the types of folks who pray, please spare one for her.

So, with that, let's launch into our info-dump:
What exactly are the components of Personal Protective Equipment, or PPE?
Hoo boy, here we go.

PPE is a general term referring to any type of clothing that can be worn for protection in a dangerous environment.
Hazmat suits? Those r PPE
Construction hats? Those r also PPE
That ridiculous snowsuit the younger brother wore in A Christmas Story? Technically that too is PPE

The type of PPE worn by doctors during this pandemic (at least at hospitals w the supplies) is composed of
-Scrubs
-2 pairs of non-sterile gloves (1 on top of the other)
-a hairnet
-an n95 face mask
-a surgical mask that goes over the face mask
-A plastic face shield

-also what is basically an overgarment that covers your scrubs.
All of this equipment is put on by healthcare workers BEFORE they enter the room with the patient, and is removed and disposed of BEFORE they leave.

Each patient's room (and yes, each patient does have their own room) has a biohazard waste disposal bin. The only item of clothing kept by workers at my dad's hospital is the n95 mask, which can be sterilized and re-used thanks to a special FDA approved sterilization method.

All of this equipment, needless to say, is very uncomfortable to wear. My dad himself is allergic to some of the material used to treat the n95 mask, and it makes his eyes water. Also n95 masks are super uncomfortable anyway.

I've had the dubious pleasure of wearing one exactly once for about an hour, and when I took it off I couldn't feel my ears.
Also when you're wearing it, you can't smell anything, or at least you shouldn't be able to (that's actually how you know it's working).

Given that losing one's sense of smell is a symptom of COVID-19, having to wear the masks for long periods of time has caused a lot of anxiety among workers who have been exposed to the virus already.

This brings us to our second question
What are some treatments coronavirus patients are receiving in hospitals? What are some treatments in development?

So , the fun thing about diseases that have never impacted humans before, is that...there are no tried and proven drugs you can use to treat the disease. This is why most hospital treatments for COVID19 involve what we call "supportive care."

i.e. treating complications brought on by the disease, rather than the disease itself.
Complications from COVID-19 include pneumonia and ARDS (which I talked about in my last entry), as well as sepsis and septic shock, cardiomyopathy and arrhythmia...

basically all the bad stuff that happens when your lungs stop working, along with all the gnarly bacterial infections you can get from being in the hospital for a long period of time.

One cool treatment currently being tested, and one that is maybe, possibly gonna lead to something, is taking plasma w antibodies from patients who've recovered from the virus and giving it to patients currently fighting off the virus.

Research into this treatment is being tested by the brilliant bastards at Mt. Sinai Hospital.
*grumbles* "Goddamn Sinai with their amazing gastroenterology unit and tendency to absorb smaller hospitals like the institutional amoeba that they are, they've done it again!"

Anyway, please follow Mt. Sinai hospital on Twitter. Also shout out to the healthcare workers at NYU Langone who are operating without proper PPE because their administration is garbage. You guys deserve better.

Anyway this brings me to our next topic:
Why the fuck is a homophobic Christian Fundamentalist organization building a field hospital in central park? And can we throw eggs at them?
*sighs in gay and rubs temples*

So the Central Park field hospital was set up by Samaritan's Purse, an evangelical christian group whose mission is to provide aid to people in physical need.

Their president is Franklin Graham, Rev. Billy Graham’s son, a Trump supporter, homophobe, and Islamophobe, who has shamelessly used the organization in the past to proselytize to people who would honestly rather be left alone thankyouverymuch.

The Gothamist published an article this week pointing out that workers at Samaritan's purse 1. Must be Christian and 2. must adhere to a statement of faith that says marriage is between 1 man and 1 woman and that "the unrighteous" are going to hell...

...I'll give y'all one guess as to who they mean by "the unrighteous."

Now, some of you might be wondering “Cat, as a queer woman, are you worried about gay and trans people getting care from Samaritan’s purse?” and the answer to that is Yes. I am incredibly and deeply concerned.

I'm Catholic, and I totally support church-run hospitals. But you don't hear about nurses at Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center having to sign agreements like this, especially in NYC.

I think it sucks that the only organization with the resources to build a hospital in 72 hours happens to think that I, and my gay and trans siblings, are going to hell. This is part of the reason I do everything I can to support the mutual aid efforts of my gay comrades.

As queer people, we cannot always count on the state, the police, our families, our healthcare system, and especially on religious organizations, to care for us. This is why I am asking to help us in these efforts. Check in with your local mutual aid groups and do what you can.

Now that my criticisms of Samaritan’s Purse have been stated, I also want to stress that throwing eggs at the physicians at Samaritan’s Purse is, and I cannot emphasize this enough, NOT GOOD PRAXIS.

I support the right of my comrades to #BeGayDoCrimes. In fact I think it's not only a right but an obligation to do so.
But the physicians at Samaritan's Purse do a lot to take pressure off of NYC’s healthcare infrastructure, which is severely overburdened at the moment.

We, the city, are already projected to lose thousands to this pandemic. Without the help of organizations with the kinds of resources Samaritan’s Purse has, that number would only go up.

Furthermore, throwing eggs at homophobes, though fun, is not a good way to get resources to our LGBT+ siblings. They're the ones who need the goddamn eggs, cuz none of us can go to the supermarket right now.

I can't find the folder of mutual aid organizations I had in my google drive right now. Once I find it, I'll add it on to this thread. Once I do, please, please, please retweet it.