Last month, North Dakota’s governor, Doug Burgum, asked nurses who had tested positive for coronavirus but did not display symptoms to still report for work.
North Dakota has been devastated by COVID. In one week in November, one out of every 42 people in the state tested positive for the coronavirus. Of 6869 total tests in a single day, 68 per cent were COVID-positive.
Lesley McKamey, an emergency department nurse in Bismarck, North Dakota, told The Guardian she was shocked by the governor’s call.
“We are willing to break our backs and work as hard as we physically can. But then to ask us to come in as a potential infectious source, is just stunning,” she said.
A recent survey from National Nurses United, revealed more than 70 per cent of US hospital nurses said they were afraid of contracting Covid-19 and 80 per cent feared they might infect a family member.
More than half said they struggled to sleep and 62 per cent reported feeling stressed and anxious. Nearly 80 per cent said they were forced to re-use single-use, PPE, like N95 respirators.
Lost on the Frontline (a joint effort by The Guardian and Kaiser Health News), is investigating the deaths of 1375 healthcare workers who appear to have died of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. Nearly a third of those were nurses.
For more information, check out The Guardian’s database of American healthcare worker deaths.