“For patients and workers alike, home health visits fraught with fears of coronavirus” – The Boston Globe
“CNA Mass Joof adjusted the pillow for Eric McGuire, who is bedridden with several medical conditions in Franklin.” – JOHN TLUMACKI/GLOBE STAFF
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“Eric McGuire relies on home healthcare workers for almost everything: helping him get from his bed to a wheelchair, assisting with bathing and dressing, checking his oxygen levels while he sleeps.
“On Monday, one his caregivers told him she thought she had a sinus infection, but had arranged to be tested for the novel coronavirus just to be sure and was self-quarantining as a precaution. She asked whether he was showing any symptoms.
“McGuire, 43, felt fine, but is worried about whether she could have passed something along to him during a visit to his Franklin home. And as he battles to regain the use of his legs after a nerve disorder nearly killed him two years ago, he worries how he would get by if his aides stop coming by.”
“Ventilators are in high demand for Covid-19 patients. How do they work?” – STATNews
“In the video above, we look at how ventilators work, and how they are used to treat patients with Covid-19.”
by Alex Hogan
“Ventilators are one of the most important tools hospitals have for keeping Covid-19 patients in the most critical condition alive.
“Between 21% and 31% of Covid-19 patients in the U.S. have required hospitalization, and 5% to 11% have required intensive care. Officials have not reported how many of these patients developed respiratory distress so severe they needed to be put on a ventilator, but among one group of patients in China, 12% did.
“The number of Covid-19 cases is growing at such a rapid pace, it is possible that many hospitals will not have enough ventilators available for the patients that need them. If this happens, any patients who would otherwise survived their infections could die.”
STATNews
“Who qualifies for the coronavirus stimulus payments?” – The Los Angeles Times
“All U.S. residents are eligible as long as they have a work-eligible Social Security number and meet the income requirements.” – (Bradley C. Bower / Associated Press)
“Congress has passed, and President Trump has signed, a $2-trillion economic stimulus package — the largest of its kind — designed to send money directly into Americans’ pockets while also aiding hospitals, businesses and local governments struggling during the pandemic.
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“The payments are not taxable, according to a Senate aide.”
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“Payments could arrive in as early as three weeks for people who have already set up direct deposit with the IRS, which is about 50% of Americans, according to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. Others may have to wait weeks or even months to see their money because it will take the IRS longer to get the paper checks printed. Prepaid debit cards may be sent out as an alternative.”
“In addition to providing many Americans with a one-time payment of up to $1,200, the bill includes $500 billion in loans to struggling businesses, $377 billion in loans and grants for small businesses, $150 billion for local, state and tribal governments facing a drop in revenue and $130 billion for hospitals dealing with an onslaught of patients.
“Under the expanded unemployment program, assistance would be available to people who had the promise of a job that was postponed or canceled because of the coronavirus threat and to those whose workplaces closed because of it.
“With Schools Closed, Kids With Disabilities Are More Vulnerable Than Ever” – NPR
Maria Fabrizio for NPR
by Elissa Nadworny
“With school closed, Marla Murasko begins her morning getting her 14-year-old son, Jacob, dressed and ready for the day. They have a daily check-in: How are you doing? How are you feeling? Next, they consult the colorful, hourly schedule she has pinned on the fridge.
“Jacob, who has Down syndrome, loves routine. So this daily routine is important. Schools in Hopkinton, Mass., are closed until April 6th, so Jacob’s morning academic lesson — which according to the schedule starts at 9 a.m. — has been temporarily moved to the basement.
“But there’s been one big hiccup to all this: What, exactly, to learn during these at-home sessions?”
Tips for seniors about Social Security
We’re sharing the above information with readers of this site because of an email from s reader; thank you, JV.
” Here is a situation that is about to take place for seniors. Next week the Social Security direct deposits come out. Hundreds of single and coupled seniors month after month go to the bank and get some cash to have at the house; many of them have a few hundred dollars to be able to grocery shop, get meds, get gas, go out to eat and many of them at this point have little or no cash left from March …
“SO prepare to understand that this large group of people WILL be going out to the bank to replenish their funds and many go into the bank meaning the spread of this deadly virus will jump greatly.”
Also, be aware: There are so many Social Security scammers and spammers operating in this coronavirus pandemic enviroment. Heed this message from the Social Security Administration, click on the link below:
What should I do if I get a call claiming there’s a problem with my Social Security number or account?
COVID-19 information for refugee populations
The Pennsylvania Link to Aging and Disability Resources is thrilled with the collaborative spirit of the wonderful people of its partner agencies. Dana Thompson, Pennsylvania Developmental Disabilities Council, shared this information which was shared with her.
Leena Anil, Epidemiologist, is the Refugee Health Coordinator, with the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s Refugee Resettlement Program shared the links below; she received the links from the Refugee Health Case Coordinator, Alivia Haibach, at the Erie County Department of Health. Isn’t sharing timely, authoritative and relevant messaging important? Isn’t collaboration incredible.
These informational videos — below in Arabic, Nepali, Somali, Spanish, Swahili and Ukrainian —are audio messages informing persons who may not be fluent in English about the COVID-19 threat.
Covid-19 Informational Video in Arabic
Covid-19 Informational Video in Nepali
Covid-19 Informational Video in Somali
Covid-19 Informational Video in Spanish
Covid-19 Informational Video in Swahili
Covid-19 Informational Video in Ukrainian
“Surviving a Pandemic, in 1918” – JSTOR Daily
“A century ago, Catholic nuns from Philadelphia recalled what it was like to tend to the needy and the sick during the great influenza pandemic of 1918.”
“Walter Reed Hospital, Washington, D.C., during the great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 – 1919.” via Wikimedia Commons
by Allison C. Meier
“For all the devastation of pandemics, there is a historic forgetfulness around them. They are not events that get grand public memorials, and their tolls tend to be remembered individually, rather than collectively, by those who experienced loss.
“It was this scarcity of historical on-the-ground experiences that the Rev. Francis E. Tourscher was thinking of in 1919, when he compiled first-hand accounts from nuns who had worked as nurses during the influenza outbreak that had just ravaged Philadelphia. Their stories filled over a hundred pages, published in installments in the Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia in March, June, and September. In an introduction, Tourscher wrote that it was important to ‘assemble facts while they are still a living memory’:
“Facts unrecorded are quickly lost in the new interests of changing time. Incidents of personal experience, even the most touching and pathetic, pass away generally with the memory of those immediately concerned. We have little left now, beyond mere material statistics, and vague impressions drawn from “paper accounts” of the epidemic of cholera which visited Philadelphia in 1832. We know probably as much of the ‘Black Death’ of 1348 in Europe or of the ‘Sweating Sickness’ of 1529 in England as we do of the ‘Yellow Fever’ which raged in our cities of the South, and threatened the North, in 1849 and again in 1854.
“Philadelphia was the hardest-hit American city in the 1918 flu pandemic,”
Continue reading this article at JSTOR Daily. click here.
In Bernville: “Coronavirus: One case lays bare America’s testing failure” – BBC
“‘Trace, test and treat’ has been the mantra of global health bodies in tackling the spread of Covid-19. But innumerable cases around the country show it is a model the United States has failed to recreate.”
“Claudia Bahorik – who is 69 and lives in Bernville, Pennsylvania – does not say this lightly. As a retired physician herself, she has done her research.”
by Aleem Maqbool
“”I’m still sick, it hasn’t improved. I’m coughing, I’ve been feverish and my left lung hurts. There have been times the wheezing and the gurgling in my chest have been so bad at night that it’s woken me up. There’s no doubt I have all the symptoms.”
“Claudia Bahorik – who is 69 and lives in Bernville, Pennsylvania – does not say this lightly. As a retired physician herself, she has done her research.
“But this is the story of Dr Bahorik’s determined, though so far unsuccessful plight – involving clinics, hospitals and even a senator’s office – to find out if she has the coronavirus.
“It all started as far back as the last week of February. Dr Bahorik had recently been on a trip to New York with her great niece, and soon after developed a cough and a fever, though it appeared to subside.”
Read this article in its entirety at the BBC Website, click here.
“How Loneliness from Coronavirus Isolation Takes Its Own Toll” – The New Yorker
“As the coronavirus forces us to socially distance, life seems shallower, more like survival than living.” (Illustration by Kyu Tae Lee)
by Robin Wright
“At a White House press briefing on Friday, Peter Alexander, a correspondent for NBC News, asked President Trump about the psychological toll of the covid-19 crisis: “Nearly two hundred dead, fourteen thousand who are sick, millions, as you witnessed, who are scared,” Alexander said. “What do you say to Americans who are watching you right now who are scared?” Trump shot back, “I say that you’re a terrible reporter, that’s what I say. I think it’s a very nasty question, and I think it’s a very bad signal that you’re putting out to the American people.” For weeks, the President seemed oblivious to the scope of the coronavirus threat; now he seems heartless about the spiralling anxiety among Americans and ignorant about the physiology of fear, after a week unprecedented in American history, during which much of the country has closed down, the economy has ground to a halt, and millions have been told to stay home. Since last week, state officials have ordered one in three Americans—living in New York, California, Illinois, New Jersey, Connecticut, Michigan, and Massachusetts—to remain indoors. For many of the rest of us, normal life has been suspended as the tally of cases soars. It all feels eerily apocalyptic—and, for most, scary.”
Read this article in its entirety at The New Yorker, Click here.
