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Yesterday I spoke to a constituent who is a critical care specialist. He tested positive for COVID-19 and hasn& #39;t worked in 10 days. He& #39;s a immigrant from North Africa. Leaving details out to protect his identity, but I& #39;m still reeling at his comments (thread):
1/ "I work at two hospitals. One is a safety net hospital. I am embarrassed that I live in the United States and have to re-use my N95 mask"
2/ "80% of the patients I see test positive for COVID-19. I know the outside of my mask is infected. But I have to save my mask every day in a brown bag with my name on it to use again the next day"
3/ "I lost my sense of taste and smell. I had fever and muscle ache but thankfully didn& #39;t have to be admitted to the hospital. I want to get back to work, but I& #39;m not a hero. This is my job."
4/ "[Hospital 1] had sufficient ventilators and we were able to handle the surge. Smaller, Medicaid-dependent hospitals like [Safety net hospital] didn& #39;t. The likelihood a patient survives at [SNH] is much lower. They are 20 minutes apart."
5/ "Resources should not be directed that way. [SNH] has a much higher African American population and that explains a lot of the racial disparities we& #39;re seeing. It compounds the food deserts and historic public health disparities in poor communities."
6/ "Dictators from [country of birth] remind me of Trump. Someone who is responsible for killing 40,000 people should be forced to resign."
