Dr. Claire Rezba, an anesthetist at a hospital in Richmond, Virginia, began tracking the deaths of physical care staff last March. Since then, it has counted at least 1,000 lives lost while the pandemic was in health care; the CDC, on the other hand, is 625.
In April, when the CDC published its first report on COVID-19 infections among U.S. physical care staff, the death toll was 27. At the time, Rezba said he already knew 150 to 200.
“At the time, I’m disappointed that our numbers are so different,” he told CBS News. “(Then this) has evolved into a sense of goal that these sacrifices deserve so as not to go unnoticed.”
Armed only with Google, Rezba began counting the reported deaths in New York and New England, where the pandemic first settled in the United States. By entering search terms like “The Nurse Dies” and browsing the local news, obituaries and pages of GoFundMe, she was able to detect trends that eventually made national headlines.
“Eventually, she emigrated, ” he said. “In Texas, those are just bleeding deaths right now.” Rezba also noted that Florida and Arizona were hot spots for health care-related deaths and said it was difficult to locate the deaths in California.
“I still track down other people who died in April and May,” he said.
The CDC compiles its count of coVID-19 lab-confirmed cases voluntarily reported across all 50 states, 4 U.S. territories and affiliated islands, and the District of Columbia.
“Public fitness departments report COVID-19 instances to CDC with a form of standardized case report that collects information about patient demographics,” adding “if the patient is a U.S. fitness worker,” the firm said.
However, according to Rezba, the form of the case report takes into account all fitness professions, resulting in an insufficient count.
“You may not see a food service employee in a hospital as a fitness worker, but hospitals can’t serve as if we couldn’t feed people,” he said.
The CDC’s April Report on “Physical Body Characteristics of CoVID-19 Workers” defines the HCP as “paid and unpaid Americans who provide services in physical care services and have the possibility of direct or indirect exposure to patients or infectious material.”
In his account, Rezba considers those who work in a hospital, doctor’s office, nursing home or long-term care facility, as well as professionals as pharmacists, as fitness professionals. It also includes all EMT COVID deaths, which says they are not on the standardized form.
Although the form is limiting, the CDC’s glossary of terms defines HCP is complete and includes “emergency medical personnel”. The definition continues to cite “contract not contracted through the fitness care center” that “are not directly interested in patient care but are potentially exposed to infectious agents.” For example, the CDC lists “Office, Dietary, Environmental, Laundry, Security, Maintenance, Engineering and Control of Administrative Array, Billing, and Voluntary Installation”
However, the CDC definition does not consider the body of dental, post-mortem, or laboratory workers to be fitness professionals, “because recommendations for treating occupational infection prevention and control (ICC) facilities for such staff are published elsewhere.”
In addition to the parameters of limiting the shape of the strength of the fitness paints, Rezba noted that the other people who complete the form, many of them are fitness professionals, paint under immense stress and possibly would not be provided to record the patient’s exposure to fitness care. . Field.
Rezba said it had begun its count as a way to deal with pandemic-related anxiety. As a doctor, with young people in the home and the circle of relatives in the field of fitness, the risk of global coronavirus.
“Was I going to make it? Was I going to give it to my children?” her of her initial concerns.
Soon, he began sharing the recount on social media, his Twitter to commemorate the physical care staff as the pandemic untied. The account, US HCWs Lost to Covid19, now has more than 3,000 subscribers. Rezba invites anyone with someone he’d like not to forget to play him there.
“If you don’t know who’s dying,” he said, “you can’t stop them from dying.”