900+ Medical Workers Died Fighting Covid-19, Many Of Them Minorities

TOPLINE

More than 900 front-line medical workers have died of coronavirus, according to a new investigation by the Guardian and Kaiser Health News (KHN) which provides the most comprehensive portrait of the virus’s toll on healthcare workers to date and reveals a dire lack of protective equipment.

Portrait of Maria Arechiga, RN is the charge nurse in the ICU at Martin Luther King, Jr., Community ... [+] Hospital on June 3, 2020 in the Willowbrook neighborhood located in South Los Angeles, CA. She is working at the hospital during the during the coronavirus pandemic.

Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

KEY FACTS

The investigation found 922 healthcare workers across the U.S. have reportedly died of the virus and its complications, a tally that includes doctors, nurses, paramedics, as well as critical support staff like nursing home workers and hospital custodians.

Of the nearly 1,000 fatalities found through crowdsourcing, social media, previous reports, online obituaries and workers unions, the Guardian and KHN were able to name, locate and learn the exact circumstances for 167, finding 38% were nurses.

A majority (62%) were identified as people of color, with about one-third born outside the U.S, showing a disproportionate impact on people of color who make up just 38.8% of all frontline workers and immigrants who make up 16.2%.

Though the general population’s median age of coronavirus victims is 78, the median age among healthcare workers in the investigation is 57, with 13% of the total fatalities under the age of 40 and 5% under 30.

A majority of the verified deaths were in April, and New York and New Jersey–then facing deadly surges—were the states with the most healthcare worker deaths.

Dozens of those who died (38%) did not have access to adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) as shortages plagued the country during the country’s April outbreak.

Big Number

8. The number of healthcare workers in their ‘20s who died of Covid-19.

Key Background

The country’s lack of coordination on protective equipment became a major obstacle early on in the pandemic. While some regions were overstocked with emergency materials, overflowing hospitals couldn’t get a hold of supplies needed to curb the virus’s spread. “The fact that there wasn’t any nationalized, centralized approach to how PPE was going to be resourced across the country was really a major problem,” said Andrew Chan, the author of a recent Lancet Public Health study showing healthcare workers with poor PPE risked a 30% higher chance of infections than their properly protected colleagues. The lack of PPE, compiled with testing shortages and the White House’s refusal until months into the pandemic to publicly adhere to or encourage stringent social distancing measures and mask use likely contributed to the high death toll among emergency workers.

Surprising Fact

The Centers for Disease Control has its own tracker of healthcare fatalities which puts the death toll at 587, however, the agency doesn’t list specific names and confirmed its number is lower than the true total.

Crucial Quote

“They’re running into death just like soldiers run into bullets,” said Trump in May when announcing the expansion of the Strategic National Stockpile.

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