Quarantined Nurse’s Scorching Anti-CDC Rant Goes Viral

[MunoRN, RN]

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National Nurses Union President Deborah Burger released a scathing statement from a quarantined nurse criticizing the CDC for its purported refusal to test her for coronavirus even though she had been exposed to the pathogen.

Read article in its entirety:

Quarantined Nurse's Scorching Anti-CDC Rant Goes Viral: 'I'm Appalled at the Level of Bureaucracy' on Coronavirus Testing

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

Read the UC Davis RN's full statement posted @ National Nurses United (NNU)

https://act.nationalnursesunited.org/page/-/files/graphics/NU-Quarantine-RN_press-conf-statement.pdf

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“They said they would not test me because if I were wearing the recommended protective equipment then I wouldn’t have the coronavirus..."

Hospital Employee health physician AND her personal PCP wrote order for her to be given Coronavirus test. Considering that the Wuhan Whistleblower Doctor Dies From Coronavirus https://www.newsweek.com/wuhan-whistleblower-doctor-dies-coronavirus-death-toll-s and Coronavirus: Hospital director in Wuhan, China https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/02/18/wuhan-china-coronavirus-hosp also died post providing patient care to infected patients despite using PPE, CDC owes nurse an apology and needs to be moved to top of list to be given test.

US governments lack of planning 2 months ago to develop and ramp up test kits in preparation of Covid19 arrival in the US is significant AND will increase number of US citizens being exposed to the virus via community spread as upon cluster development unable to screen test US citizens that were exposed to confirmed patients.

Key Missteps at the CDC Have Set Back Its Ability to Detect the Potential Spread of Coronavirus

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The CDC designed a flawed test for COVID-19, then took weeks to figure out a fix so state and local labs could use it. New York still doesn’t trust the test’s accuracy.

https://www.propublica.org/article/cdc-coronavirus-covid-19-test

White House Acknowledges Coronavirus Test Shortage ...

https://www.gadgetclock.com/2020/03/06/white-house-acknowledges-coronavirus-test-shortage/

Officials say coronavirus tests are here. Where are they?

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/officials-say-coronavirus-tests-are-here-where-are-they-n1149716

[Nurse SMS, MSN, RN]

Sounds a lot like what they said when Ebola came to town. Blaming the nurse, then refusing to step up to the situation. Don't even get me started.

[MunoRN, RN]

I agree with the nurse's complaint about our lack of testing abilities, which is unacceptably poor this far into it, but I don't agree she is a priority to be tested.

Hospitalized patients are a higher priority to be tested than staff since that actually guides decisions that need to be made, that's not really the case with a nurse who wants to be tested. If she has a fever and respiratory symptoms, she needs to stay home regardless of the culprit virus, so knowing whether or not it's coronavirus doesn't change much. For hospitalized patients it's extremely important to identify whether or not coronavirus is the culprit since it does actually guide decision making; the currently recommended isolation precautions are in extremely short supply in hospitals and without knowing which of the many patients with respiratory infection symptoms actually have coronavirus we can't meet those isolation goals.

We've got six coronavirus rule out patients, we sent tests on them to be run days ago and as of today they've only resulted on one of those patients due to high demand relative to the ability to test, and no, there isn't a justifiable reason for this nurse to cut in line in front of them.

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

This might be a simplistic or stupid remark but here goes. Since care for the virus is only supportive, does it matter that there is a lack of testing materials?

I think the nurse should be tested because she can help others. Jump ahead of others? Who knows?

God bless us all.

When do we think this threat will be over?

[MunoRN, RN]

2 hours ago, Kooky Korky said:

This might be a simplistic or stupid remark but here goes. Since care for the virus is only supportive, does it matter that there is a lack of testing materials?

I think the nurse should be tested because she can help others. Jump ahead of others? Who knows?

God bless us all.

When do we think this threat will be over?

Not a stupid remark at all, for the most part it doesn't actually matter, except it cases where it might be the evidence a patient needs to self-quarantine.

The only situation where it currently makes a clear difference is determining what patients in the hospital are actually positive for it since the current recommendation is for airborne precautions, the availability of which is extremely limited.

[NurseBlaq]

I saw this on the news earlier and I completely agree with the nurse. I'm pissed for her!

Who will take care of patients if the medical staff are sick and neglected themselves?

[toomuchbaloney]

If our national response intended to contain the spread there would be wide spread testing. Containment requires that infections are positively identified so that their contracts can be monitored and/or quarantined. The country is not positioned to accurately monitor or document cases. Some states may perform better than others but...

Alaska has the Iditarod starting. It's a big tourist draw. Wouldn't it be a shame if the race was responsible for introducing an illness to villages.

[KalipsoRed21, BSN, RN]

23 hours ago, Kooky Korky said:

This might be a simplistic or stupid remark but here goes. Since care for the virus is only supportive, does it matter that there is a lack of testing materials?

I think the nurse should be tested because she can help others. Jump ahead of others? Who knows?

God bless us all.

When do we think this threat will be over?

Well my guess would not be so much for the treatment of the illness, but would she not need to be tested before returning to work? She may be feeling better, but she could still be shedding the virus, thus an infection risk to the sickest of our population.

With the infection rate and death toll of this illness do you really just want to “hope she is healed” before she returns to work?

Frankly yes, in an epidemic those in the medical field should be able to “jump in front of others” for testing. Mostly because those are the people we need to take care of the rest of us. And as you said, right now the treatment is supportive only, so why “waste tests” on people who are not in medicine and thus unable to assist with the care needs of these complex cases? We already had a healthcare worker shortage in the US before this virus, we really cannot afford nurses and doctors not willing to come to work in fear that they will not be cared for and verified disease free before returning to work. Not to mention the more concerning piece of this nurse’s complaint which was the fact that she followed her hospital and CDC guidelines for infection prevention and STILL contracted a POTENTIALLY DEADLY illness.
If I had that kind of chance of contracting tuberculosis or some other viral/bacterial illness when I went to work because the CDC, hospital, government don’t have such a clear idea as how to prevent the spread of this illness as they have reported...I sure as *** wouldn’t agree to take care of the patient and put my life at risk like that.

From what I have read the vaccine won’t be available for 12-18 months. So that is how long we are looking at this illness spreading through the world unless it does happen to be susceptible to warm weather....which I’m feeling is a 50/50 chance from what I’ve read.

[Walti, LPN, LVN, RN, EMT-I]

Unfortunately it is spreading into the southern hemisphere where it is currently the end of Summer and fall for them is just getting ready to begin. Yeah, I was really hoping that warm weather would knock it down. I had serious travel plans for my retirement.

[Susie2310]

On 3/8/2020 at 7:44 PM, KalipsoRed21 said:

With the infection rate and death toll of this illness do you really just want to “hope she is healed” before she returns to work?

Frankly yes, in an epidemic those in the medical field should be able to “jump in front of others” for testing. Mostly because those are the people we need to take care of the rest of us. And as you said, right now the treatment is supportive only, so why “waste tests” on people who are not in medicine and thus unable to assist with the care needs of these complex cases? We already had a healthcare worker shortage in the US before this virus, we really cannot afford nurses and doctors not willing to come to work in fear that they will not be cared for and verified disease free before returning to work. Not to mention the more concerning piece of this nurse’s complaint which was the fact that she followed her hospital and CDC guidelines for infection prevention and STILL contracted a POTENTIALLY DEADLY illness.
If I had that kind of chance of contracting tuberculosis or some other viral/bacterial illness when I went to work because the CDC, hospital, government don’t have such a clear idea as how to prevent the spread of this illness as they have reported...I sure as *** wouldn’t agree to take care of the patient and put my life at risk like that.

You are asking why are we "wasting" tests on the general public, our patients, who are not health care workers? They are our patients and in order to diagnose and treat them effectively we need to know what the agent is that is causing their illness. We want to prevent the spread of the disease to the wider community so we need to know what the infectious agent is in order that we can employ methods to help the public to not get sick, to control the spread of the disease, and to try to eradicate it.

It is important that health care personnel who become sick while treating patients who are suspected to be infected with the Coronavirus are tested also, but when a patient is sick enough to have already been hospitalized with symptoms that are indicative of the Coronavirus and needs to be tested for the virus, and there are limited test kits and isolation facilities/equipment available, and a health care worker is in the earlier stages of an illness which may be due to the Coronavirus and doesn't currently need to be hospitalized, I think it is reasonable that the patient receives the testing and that the isolation facility/equipment is used for them while the health care worker remains in quarantine. That is not saying that the health care worker should not be tested, just that at this point in time the needs of the patient and of the community necessitate that the test and the hospital isolation resources, both of which are in short supply, are used for the patient and not the health care worker.

[KalipsoRed21, BSN, RN]

5 hours ago, Susie2310 said:

You are asking why are we "wasting" tests on the general public, our patients, who are not health care workers? They are our patients and in order to diagnose and treat them effectively we need to know what the agent is that is causing their illness. We want to prevent the spread of the disease to the wider community so we need to know what the infectious agent is in order that we can employ methods to help the public to not get sick, to control the spread of the disease, and to try to eradicate it.

It is important that health care personnel who become sick while treating patients who are suspected to be infected with the Coronavirus are tested also, but when a patient is sick enough to have already been hospitalized with symptoms that are indicative of the Coronavirus and needs to be tested for the virus, and there are limited test kits and isolation facilities/equipment available, and a health care worker is in the earlier stages of an illness which may be due to the Coronavirus and doesn't currently need to be hospitalized, I think it is reasonable that the patient receives the testing and that the isolation facility/equipment is used for them while the health care worker remains in quarantine. That is not saying that the health care worker should not be tested, just that at this point in time the needs of the patient and of the community necessitate that the test and the hospital isolation resources, both of which are in short supply, are used for the patient and not the health care worker.

The needs of the community and the the patient to prevent the spread of this virus REQUIRE that both very sick hospitalized patients get tested and ANY POTENTIALLY INFECTED health care workers. I do not believe that it is a “waste” to test a very sick patient over a healthcare worker who does not yet need to be hospitalized. I believe it is a bit silly for someone to ask if it “really matters” that there is a lack of testing materials. Which is what I was responding to in a cynical manner.
To believe that testing has “helped” those who are sickest get treated is a bit naive if you ask me. There IS no treatment for this virus, just supportive care. So all testing really does at this point, if we are only testing the sickest of the sick, is skewing the numbers to make this virus look more deadly than it may actually be.
The CDC told this nurse that she didn’t have the Coronavirus because if she had worn the appropriate PPE she shouldn’t have been exposed!?!?!?!? Really!?!???! That is stupid. And honestly do you want a nurse who has been exposed to the Coronavirus, had symptoms of the illness, but has not been tested clear of the virus taking care of your most vulnerable family members...your infant or your parents?
What is unreasonable about this whole thing is that there aren’t more testing materials. Not who they are triaging to have the test. Also the fact that both this nurse’s doctor and local health department agreed that she needed testing and then for the government (non medical bureaucractic dumb butts) to come back and say she is not going to get tested because she doesn’t have the Coronavirus because she was wearing the correct protective equipment is just NUTS! If they came back and said, we do not have enough testing materials at this time and due to the stability of your illness we are not going to test you, that is one thing. But how is she suppose to get back to work? Why would any reasonable employer take the risk of letting her come back to work without knowing if she is clear of the virus or not? Talk about community spread! Look if we had a clear picture of how deadly this illness truly is it a vaccine for it, then none of this would be a big deal.