Risk of Catching Covid as an HCW Might Be Lower Than You Think

Nurses COVID

Published

Specializes in Critical Care.

Don't shoot the messenger on this one, I'm probably as skeptical of any suggestion that Covid-19 isn't anything other than highly transmissible as any of you, but there are surprises in the data we have so far. And coming from Atul Gawande adds some credibility for me at least.

The take away is that while Covid will gladly take advantage of any opening it can to spread, it may not take as much to close those openings as we think. When it comes to Covid, less might be more.

Keeping the Coronavirus From Infecting Health Care Workers by Atul Gawande, the New Yorker - https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/keeping-the-coronavirus-from-infecting-health-care-workers

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Specializes in Critical Care.

The single-patient case report mentioned in the article involving 41 HCWs with under-protected high risk exposures:

https://annals.org/aim/fullarticle/2763329/covid-19-risk-health-care-workers-case-report

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Specializes in Telemetry.

I need several of my coworkers to see this.

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I did read this article, however, I'm reading about patients standing "shoulder to shoulder" in the NYC ERs. Not everyone has the luxury of working in this type of scenario. It's no wonder none of them have been infected:

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On 3/30/2020 at 11:42 AM, MunoRN said:

The single-patient case report mentioned in the article involving 41 HCWs with under-protected high risk exposures:

https://annals.org/aim/fullarticle/2763329/covid-19-risk-health-care-workers-case-report

"We recognize the limitations of this single case report and acknowledge that additional studies are necessary to determine how best to protect health care workers from becoming infected with SARS-CoV while they are providing care for patients with COVID-19".

It's a matter of trust in your facility and the government which a lot of HCWs didn't have even before the *** hit the fan.

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Specializes in ICU.

One study, in one journal, that involved one instance of exposure. Not convinced just yet..

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Specializes in ICU/Burn ICU/MSICU/NeuroICU.
On 4/1/2020 at 5:47 PM, ML1376 said:

One study, in one journal, that involved one instance of exposure. Not convinced just yet..

Would agree, yet n=41 in that single exposure. Which is remarkable.

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Specializes in ICU/Burn ICU/MSICU/NeuroICU.
On 3/30/2020 at 12:42 PM, MunoRN said:

The single-patient case report mentioned in the article involving 41 HCWs with under-protected high risk exposures:

https://annals.org/aim/fullarticle/2763329/covid-19-risk-health-care-workers-case-report

Good find on Atul's article!

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23 hours ago, litepath2 said:

Would agree, yet n=41 in that single exposure. Which is remarkable.

It doesn't mention viral load. We need data from more than one patient.

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Specializes in ICU/Burn ICU/MSICU/NeuroICU.

Ha. He was being intubated. You figure it was a light load? May be. still. . .

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Specializes in School Nursing.

Clearly not a 'super spreader'.. but then you read about a family in NJ where 4 died, others seriously sick after a single get together.

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