Report: Thousands of US Doctors and Nurses Died during COVID's Onset
25 November 2024
Prepare for the next pandemic. Most Americans reportedly will refuse to renew their COVID-19 vaccines this year, according to an online report from Medscape.(1) Referenced in this week's report, Medscape included links to remind readers of an April 2021 investigative report from The Guardian and Kaiser Health News.(2) According to those reports, 3607 US healthcare professionals died as a result of COVID-19 during the first year of the pandemic (ending in April, 2021). Also referenced was the February 2023 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine, which reported in depth on the tragedy that struck physicians: "From March 2020 through December 2021, US physicians experienced 622 more deaths than expected. There were no excess deaths among physicians after April 2021, coinciding with the widespread availability of COVID-19 vaccines."
The importance of preparedness for a future pandemic was emphasized in the February 6, 2023, Medscape report, which has a quote from a surgeon who remembers that the emergency pandemic personal protection supplies being sent to his facility were spoiled. He remembers what he lost: "Several colleagues passed away during the pandemic," said Sterling Ransone, Jr., MD, the immediate past president of the American Academy of Family Physicians(2). Caregivers were forced to reuse protective facemasks for days at a time.
Medscape also quoted Mathew Kiang, ScD, MPH, of Stanford University, one of the authors of the JAMA Internal Medicine report, who cautioned: "I think in general we are underprepared for the next epidemic, whatever it may be, in terms of both equipment and consistent policies."(3)
We suggest that you take time to plan now for coming pandemic emergencies. Protect yourself, protect your colleagues.
