Our staffing firm is recruiting and placing new candidates for the many health care positions that are associated with the Covid19 testing and opening of new beds. And yet, some local healthcare facilities are sending personnel home or reassigning personnel to areas where help is needed.  Both things are happening at the same time, but the situation is fluid, changing every day. A challenge we are facing is processing new candidates is the risk of exposure.  It is scary because there’s no method to assure they are not seeding to our staff.  We are doing our best to respect social distancing, asking the typical screening questions and wearing our homemade mask, thank you “Momma Kegley”.  This is all to say, we are all in the same boat for exposure.

We are assisting in the fight to keep the health care community on the front line supported and protected and to supplement those who require the backup.  Even larger problems include PPE shortages, no consistency in how patients are screened, who gets a mask or not, and there are no protocols for who goes in the hospital rooms or priority for assigning supplies.

Everyone in health care is already tired. There are First Responders, Firemen, Sheriff Deputies, Law enforcement of every variety at risk of getting the virus from someone who is a skeptic.

So, what about the skeptics, the ones who believe this is not a serious healthcare crisis?

I arrived on my street going home last night and found it full of young adolescent kids with their dads having a last fling before the “stay at home” order that went into effect last night.  This combined with the folks on the beach for spring break and the party revelers celebrating Mardi Gras in New Orleans have frustrated me to say the least.  I am done with the folks who are skeptics and think this is funny or a plot by politicians. I am incensed that young people are being interviewed on Spring Break saying, “I’m getting drunk, what else is there to do?”

The skeptics and their children are putting the whole nation at risk. Today, because of Mardi Gras revelers, New Orleans has become a hotspot. Sure New Orleans is a fun place, but can the healthcare system handle the load of COVID-19? Maybe, maybe not.  A friend of mine who was in my high school class, lives in a rural county that has not been infected as of yet. But, it will. My friend is an expert skeptic and he lives where there is very little medical support per capita.  This skeptical attitude makes me think that if we were at war in this country, as long as the fighting was in another state and the bombs had not yet destroyed their front yard, there would be skepticism. It gives a whole new meaning to NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard).

Our world has changed. It changed overnight. We are in it for a long haul toward summer. We are comparing ourselves to other countries for the length of the outbreak, but our country is larger than the other countries except China.  We can’t drag people off the streets and lock them up for not obeying the precautions. Can we?

I hope you are safe and healthy for your sake and the sake of our essential personnel.

If you are currently working in a healthcare facility take care of yourself.