Health

Coronavirus sickening young adults, children: We are learning ‘that everyone is at risk’

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When the coronavirus first started to spread from its origins in China earlier this year, the widely preached consensus was that it did not infect – or at least did not gravely harm – children and young adults. However, public health professionals are now raising the alarm that such information provided a dangerously false sense of security and invincibility.

“It is a misconception that children can’t get critically ill. Children are getting sick, but they’re not getting as severe cases,” Dr. John Whyte, Chief Medical Officer at WebMD, told Fox News. “The highest rate of severe cases and deaths remains the elderly. But what we are learning is that everyone is at risk.”

A study released this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) concluded that of the 4,226 coronavirus – officially termed COVID-19 – cases reported in the United States as of March 16, 29 percent were of those in the 20 to 44 age range. And in New York City, now the international epicenter of the pathogen, around half the confirmed infections were of individuals aged between 18 and 44.

CORONAVIRUS TAKES DRASTIC TOLL ON HEALTH-CARE PROVIDERS ACROSS UNITED STATES

CDC data from last week shows an average of 39 percent of hospitalizations nationwide involve patients under the age of 55. Almost of the 121 patients who were admitted to intensive care units were adults under 65, according to the CDC’s findings.

In the initial weeks of the outbreak, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that a mere fragment – some 0.2 percent – of those under 19 developed critical symptoms. The report also noted that 2.5 percent had “severe” symptoms. That data, analysts now say, was perceived by many to believe that the young were somehow immune to the new disease.

Indeed, everyone is at risk.

Despite the initial broad belief that young people would not get gravely ill from coronavirus, and likely not require hospitalization, medical experts now contend that as we all learn more about the unique contagion, that is far from fact.

“The initial data from Wuhan, China, indicated that the majority of people who were hospitalized and/or required ICU admission, sometimes then later resulting in fatalities due to coronavirus, were those who are older – over the age of 65, especially over 85,” said Dr. Roger McIntyre, president, and CEO of CRTCE, professor of psychiatry and pharmacology at the University of Toronto and head of the Mood Disorders Psychopharmacology Unit at the University Health Network. “But it appears as though new data from the CDC shows one in five individuals hospitalized due to COVID-19 are aged 20 to 44. Moreover, about 12 percent of intensive care unit admissions are people 20 to 44.”

South Korean teenagers wearing masks at the Incheon International Airport on January 27, 2020, in Incheon, South Korea.
(Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

Officials are also now poking holes in the theory that even among younger demographics, that it is only those with inherent medical woes who are perilously impacted as those deemed to be in top physical condition are also being hit hard.

In Brooklyn this week, a 36-year-old school principal died as a result of complications stemming from the coronavirus. One person who knew the victim told Fox News that they were not aware of any previous health problems.

While details remain murky, it is believed that a teenager in Los Angeles last weekend may have grimly become the first person in the U.S. under 18 to have been killed by the coronavirus. Furthermore, a 12-year-old girl in Atlanta was placed on a ventilator and on the brink of death, having developed coronavirus-induced pneumonia. She was not known to have any underlying medical issues, family members have publicly stated.

In Nashville, a once healthy 21-year-old female – who admitted to making a mockery of social distancing guidelines – is now documenting her own painful coronavirus symptoms and warning others to take the virus very seriously.

Cameron van der Burgh, 31, an Olympic gold-medalist swimmer from South Africa, referred to his own battle with the virus as the most pain-staking ailment he has ever fought.

“Although the most severe symptoms (extreme fever) have eased, I am still struggling with serious fatigue and a residual cough that I can’t shake. Any physical activity like walking leaves me exhausted for hours,” he wrote on Twitter. “By far the worst virus I have ever endured despite being a healthy individual with strong lungs (no smoking/sport), living a healthy lifestyle, and being young (least at-risk demographic)… Please, look after yourself everyone! Health comes first — COVID-19 is no joke!”

Local and state governments are also expressing exasperation at rising infections among the young. In Philadelphia, Health Commissioner Thomas Farley stated this week that 175 of Philadelphia’s 342 confirmed cases are in people under 40, meaning that more than 51 percent of cases were young adults.

State health officials in California last week reported that 42 percent of the state’s cases of coronavirus are between ages 18 to 49, and pinned the median age of infections to 47.

Residents of the densely populated Hillbrow neighborhood of downtown Johannesburg, confined in an attempt to prevent the spread coronavirus, stand on a staircase.
(AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

However, the absence of across-the-board testing across the country has made it challenging to determine thus far exactly how susceptible children and youth are to the virus, and how severely it may impact their health. The CDC has yet to publicly document the median age of coronavirus cases in the U.S. The agency has also not yet specified which of the younger cases had prior medical problems that may have exacerbated their symptoms.

Epidemiologists and infectious disease experts still broadly assume that young people generally experience relatively benign cases of coronavirus than older people, making them silent – yet potentially lethal – transmitters.

Even though the number of hospitalizations has seemingly skewed younger as the virus unravels nationwide, CDC data still shows that older people have a higher chance of dying from it. As it stands, roughly 80 percent of fatalities are those over the age of 65.

CORONAVIRUS CRIMINALS: AUTHORITIES WAGE WAR AGAINST VIRUS SCAMMERS, THIEVES, IMPOSTORS AND IDIOTS

Another implication is that, even if young adults are not dying at the same rate as their elderly counterparts, the high numbers of hospitalization cases also means that fewer resources and beds for those in the older demographics, leading to more deaths.

The misleading notion of young people being virtually resistant to severe symptoms meant that many failed to change their lifestyles and at least initially engage in social distancing measures to curb the spread. Scores continued to travel and group together in Florida for spring break and in states like Kentucky, youth held “coronavirus parties” only days later to learn that attendees were then falling sick from the disease.

According to Whyte, increased risk in younger age groups appears similar to that for adults.

“It’s those young people who have chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer, or respiratory conditions. Of note, asthma is not believed to increase risk,” he explained.

Cece Guida, 19, top, of New York City, pushes on Sam Reddick, 20, of Evansville, Ind., as spring break revelers look on during a game of chicken fight on the beach in Pompano Beach, Fla.
(AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Children below the age of 10 make up the lowest numbers of critical cases but are still coming down with concerning symptoms.

A two-month-old child has tested positive for coronavirus in Nashville. Florida health officials on Tuesday also confirmed that a baby boy below 1-year-old, along with a 2-year-old girl, have contracted coronavirus. A three-week-old infant in New York has, in addition, tested positive.

But officials believe this may only be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to very young incidences of the disease.

On a global scale, more and more young people are also coming down with acute symptoms. In Spain, hospital data shows around 18 percent are below 50, and in South Korea, more than half the patients are under 50 – with the vast majority of those taking up hospital beds between the ages of 20 and 29.

In the United Kingdom, an 18-year-old with a pre-existing health condition is reported to have died from the disease.

A case study on the outbreak in China, which was published earlier this month in the Pediatrics online medical journal, underscored that the majority of coronavirus cases in kids appear to be mild, but infants under 12 months old face the greatest danger in ascertaining life-threatening maladies. Of the 125 children in the China study who became “severely or critically ill,” some 76 were aged 5 or below. Forty were infants less than a year old.

For much of the medical community, the sudden onset of a virus never before seen has left many medical researchers flying blind, with only pieces of the puzzle now beginning to come together.

On Friday afternoon, the global death toll for coronavirus surpassed 25,000. In the United States, there are more than 92,200 verified cases, and the illness has already claimed the lives of more than 1,300 people – a figure that is ascending by the hour.

CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE

But given the newness of the virus that – up until a few weeks ago, most around the world had never even heard of – there is a lot left to be determined.

“We don’t know exactly why youth don’t seem to be impacted as much. There’s some belief that since they are exposed to several different coronaviruses, they may develop some immunity,” Whyte surmised. “They may also simply be developing more mild cases. Also, young people typically don’t have heart disease or lung disease, which we know puts people at increased risk. So many do have a false sense of security, which then may lead them to not follow the current guidelines around social distancing.”

Coronavirus live blog: Infectious disease expert Dr. Melissa Nolan answers your questions

Video

Disputing the myths of COVID-19

Internal Medicine Physician Dr. Shoshana Ungerleider joins Trace Gallagher to breakdown COVID-19 fact from fiction.

Welcome to Fox News’ live question and answer session on the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, with Dr. Melissa Nolan, an infectious disease expert and assistant professor at the University of South Carolina. Our editors selected questions from the more than 1,000 you submitted for Dr. Nolan to answer.

Follow below on the Fox News live blog. Mobile users click here.

How long will coronavirus last in the US?

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Life in the United States has been completely upended by the coronavirus pandemic, leaving people trapped in their homes and others without jobs as businesses close.

Globally, more than 530,000 had contracted the virus by late March, including more than 85,000 in the U.S.

So when will it all be over? When will life get back to normal?

The short answer is we don’t know.

The long answer is more complicated.

Specifically, the pandemic won’t end until enough of the population is immune to the disease (at least 60 percent, experts say) – either by surviving it and becoming immune, which may or may not happen – or through a yet-to-be-made vaccination.

A high number of cases all at once, though, could overwhelm our hospitals and experts say a vaccine likely won’t be ready for more than a year.

Will coronavirus-infected people develop immunity?

WORST OUTCOME

In a worst-case scenario, without serious mitigation efforts, hospital beds in the U.S. could be full by April and 2.2 million Americans could die of the virus – not to mention those who would die of other ailments because they couldn’t get medical care – a study from the Imperial College London concluded, according to The Atlantic.

To avoid this bleak scenario, several things must happen. Firstly, Americans shouldn’t expect life to be back to normal by Easter. Those infected with the virus are often contagious while they’re asymptomatic and the incubation period can last up to two weeks. Since many states only instituted stay-at-home orders just over a week ago, cases should be expected to increase over the next couple of weeks and data from any flattening of the curve won’t be visible for weeks yet.

The country also virtually has no way of getting back to any sense of normalcy over the next few weeks unless the slow-rolled testing is massively increased. This week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said more than 67,000 have been tested in the state, but it’s still not close to enough to get a sense of when the infection rate will slow.

BETTER CASE

There’s a chance the virus could become less contagious in the summer like the flu in the Northern Hemisphere, The Atlantic reported. Of course, the Southern Hemisphere would be entering winter and could see the opposite trend.

Outdoor activities with a small number of people would likely be fine and bars and restaurants might reopen, Andrew Noymer, a public-health professor at the University of California at Irvine, told The Atlantic. But probably “no Lollapalooza, no Major League Baseball, no crowded beaches.”

If that’s the case, life could return to normal through the summer, but social distancing would have to continue in the fall if the virus acts like the flu, which hits harder when the leaves fall.

BEST CASE

It’s possible the bulk of social distancing could be over within a month or two if the virus turns out to be “not be a serious pathogen, suddenly,” said William Hanage, an epidemiology professor at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, according to the Atlantic, but experts say this scenario is unlikely.

“Right now if everybody complies [with social distancing] measures, we’re looking at a two-month window, three months at a minimum,” Lilian Alessa of the University of Idaho, told Live Science.

In a grim scenario, easing social distancing too soon could kill a large number of people quickly and lead to immunity for the rest who survive the virus, slowing it within a few months.

Hanage speculates, though, that within three to four months experts could learn enough about the virus to resume some – but not all – normal activities.

“One of them might be that we actually have substantial immunity already, through mild infections,” he said, according to The Atlantic.

“Once the [current] wave is dealt with, then some things might relax—a little,” Hanage said, but remote working, constant handwashing and food delivery would likely continue, The Atlantic reported.

CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE

The reality is no one knows how the virus will act in the coming months and with more than a year to wait for a vaccine, social distancing is the best thing Americans can do until health professionals understand it better.

EPA temporarily stops enforcement of environmental laws due to coronavirus

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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) suspended its enforcement of a variety of environmental laws on Thursday, saying that industries could have trouble complying with them due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The agency added that it won’t expect “to seek penalties for noncompliance with routine monitoring and reporting obligations.”

“EPA is committed to protecting human health and the environment, but recognizes challenges resulting from efforts to protect workers and the public from COVID-19 may directly impact the ability of regulated facilities to meet all federal regulatory requirements,” said EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler. “This temporary policy is designed to provide enforcement discretion under the current, extraordinary conditions, while ensuring facility operations continue to protect human health and the environment.”

AHEAD OF CORONAVIRUS STIMULUS VOTE, HOUSE LAWMAKERS CONCERNED REP. MASSIE MAY TRIGGER DELAY

FILE – In this Feb. 27, 2020, file photo, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler testifies during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Trump administration is steadily pushing major public health and environmental rollbacks toward enactment, rejecting appeals that it slow its deregulatory drive while Americans grapple with the pandemic. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

The temporary enforcement discretion policy is open-ended and applies to civil violations, although leniency for intentional criminal violations of law will not be provided, the agency said.

Fines or other civil penalties will be waived for companies that failed to meet certain requirements for releasing hazardous pollutants.

Certain industries, including the oil and gas industry, had previously requested relief during the pandemic — citing potential staffing problems. Oil prices have also greatly shrunk because of the outbreak, lack of demand, and overseas factors — with crude oil prices nearing 18-year lows.

Cynthia Giles, the head of EPA’s Office of Enforcement during the Obama administration said the new policy was “essentially a nationwide waiver of environmental rules for the indefinite future.”

“It tells companies across the country that they will not face enforcement even if they emit unlawful air and water pollution in violation of environmental laws, so long as they claim that those failures are in some way ’caused’ by the virus pandemic,” she told The Hill. “And it allows them an out on monitoring too, so we may never know how bad the violating pollution was.”

Giles said that while there were circumstances where a disaster like the pandemic might make compliance impossible, those instances called for narrow decisions by regulators on clemency.

The EPA directive said industries would be expected to comply with regulations “where reasonably practicable.”

CUOMO: NOT SURE IF CLOSING ALL BUSINESSES, KEEPING EVERYONE HOME WAS ‘THE BEST PUBLIC HEALTH STRATEGY’

Businesses that broke regulations would have to be able to show that they tried to reduce the harm, and show how any violations were caused by the coronavirus outbreak, the EPA said.

Giles said she couldn’t remember a time in the EPA’s half-century history where it “relinquished its fundamental authority.”

CLICK HERE FOR MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE

She added that Thursday’s policy did just that.

The EPA said it will assess “this temporary policy” on a regular basis and will update it when the agency determines modifications are necessary.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

Nashville woman, 21, regrets coronavirus video after falling ill herself: report

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Coronavirus was something that happened to other people, a 21-year-old Nashville, Tenn., woman said online recently.

Two days later Ireland Tate learned she was wrong, after testing positive for the virus, which is also known as COVID-19.

Now she’s quarantined inside her parents’ home with painful symptoms and is urging other young adults to take the virus threat seriously.

TENNESSEE MAN WITH CORONAVIRUS DESCRIBES LIFE AS ‘PATIENT ZERO’

“While it may not be affecting you, you could be affecting someone’s grandma or grandpa or aunt or uncle or sister,” Tate said, according to FOX 17 of Nashville.

Previously, Tate had scoffed online about the idea of social distancing – staying at least six feet away from others to avoid either catching the virus or spreading it as an asymptomatic carrier.

“So, I’m aware that we’re supposed to be self-quarantining and social distancing all these things to keep everyone safe. Cool. I get it,” Tate had said in a video. “I just don’t think that I’m going to get the virus.”

In a subsequent video she described the effects of the illness.

“It feels like someone is sitting on my chest at all times. It’s really hard to breathe. I’ve coughed until my throat has bled,” Tate said later, according to FOX 17.

Tate said she believes she caught the virus after going out with a group of friends who were intent on defying the city’s directives against group gatherings.

As of Wednesday, Tennessee had 224 confirmed cases of coronavirus involving adults age 21-30, the station reported.

CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE

Dr. James Hildreth, president of Meharry Medical College, who serves on the city’s coronavirus task force, said Tate’s case should be a warning sign to others.

“There are still those who only believe that the virus affects those who are elderly and with underlying conditions,” Hildreth told FOX 17. “That’s clearly not the case.”

Click here for more from FOX 17 Nashville.

Coronavirus unknowns altering pregnancy for many expectant moms

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MAHWAH, N.J. – When COVID-19 began sweeping the U.S., it was clear Rebecca Forman Lubin needed to alter her plans. The expectant mother canceled her baby shower, stocked up on all the infant essentials she could find online and heeded her doctor’s orders to stay at home.

But there’s one thing she isn’t prepared for: the possibility she might have to give birth alone without her husband at her side.

GIVING BIRTH DURING CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC: TIPS ON STAYING CALM

“The thought is very frightening and anxiety-producing,” said Forman Lubin, a teacher who lives in Mahwah, N.J., a suburb of New York City, the country’s current epicenter of the novel coronavirus.

Forman Lubin, who is due in May, said she will not let the fear and anxiety “reign over the magic moment of a baby’s birth.”
(Contributed photo)

“I’m praying that won’t be the case,” she said.

A total of 11 hospitals in New York City announced they are banning spouses from labor and delivery rooms to prevent possible exposure to the virus. Forman Lubin, who is 31 weeks pregnant and due in May, said she fears other hospitals, like the Valley Hospital in nearby Ridgewood, N.J., will follow suit as the number of COVID-19 infections rises exponentially.

There are many unknowns about the effect of COVID-19 on babies in utero, and Forman Lubin’s story underscores such uncertainty.

BANS ON BIRTHING PARTNERS AMID CORONAVIRUS ENRAGES EXPECTANT DADS

“When the outbreak first happened, I was 29 weeks pregnant and my doctor said, ‘This is no worse than the flu. You are fine as long as you wash your hands,’” she said. “But that wasn’t the guidance I got last week when my doctor told me to avoid leaving the house under all circumstances, even for groceries.”

“The fear and anxiety, however real, will not reign over the magic moment of a baby’s birth.”

— Rebecca Forman Lubin

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it does not know if a pregnant woman with COVID-19 can pass the virus that causes COVID-19 to her fetus or baby during pregnancy or delivery. The CDC also expressed uncertainty over whether the virus is harmful to unborn babies and newborns due to a lack of data.

“We do not know at this time what if any risk is posed to infants of a pregnant woman who has COVID-19,” the CDC says on its website. “There have been a small number of reported problems with pregnancy or delivery (e.g. preterm birth) in babies born to mothers who tested positive for COVID-19 during their pregnancy. However, it is not clear that these outcomes were related to maternal infection.”

“We don’t have enough research right now to identify all the risks,” said Texas-based physician Dr. Peter Papapetrou.

BANS ON BIRTHING PARTNERS AMID CORONAVIRUS ‘PERHAPS NECESSARY’ AT HARD-HIT HOSPITALS, DR. MANNY ALVAREZ SAYS

Trinisha Williams, a certified midwife and director of midwifery at the Brooklyn Birthing Center in New York, said the center is receiving a record number of calls from expectant mothers concerned about exposing themselves or their newborns to the virus at hospitals. A second concern, she said, is delivering without the support of a spouse or birthing partner, such as a doula.

“We typically handle about 15 births a month at our center,” Williams told Fox News. “Our capacity is 30 births a month and I think we’ll get to our capacity.”

Williams said her greatest fear amid the global pandemic is that some pregnant women will opt to deliver at home without the help of a midwife or medical professional.

“The midwives in New York state are really concerned that some women might want to do this at home,” she said. “We do not want any woman having an unassisted birth. That is our nightmare.”

Most hospitals across the U.S. are still allowing spouses to be present at birth but restricting all other guests – though that could change in the coming weeks if more draconian measures are adopted to slow the spread of the virus.

CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE

“I’m bummed that my son will not be able to come see the baby at the hospital after it’s born,” said 25-year-old Edy Comes, of Hillsborough, NC, who is due to give birth in April at North Carolina Women’s Hospital in Chapel Hill.

“My hospital said only your spouse or significant other will be allowed to come into the hospital,” Comes told Fox News.

The current U.S. death toll from COVID-19 hit 1,000 on Thursday, and that grim reality isn’t lost on 38-year-old Forman Lubin, who is in good physical health and thankful for access to expert medical care.

“I have enormous sympathy for all the families around the world who’ve lost loved ones to this horrible virus,” said Forman Lubin, “My thoughts are with them right now.”

“The birth of a baby is life’s greatest joy,” she said. “The fear and anxiety, however real, will not reign over the magic moment of a baby’s birth.”

Amid coronavirus pandemic, man’s note to hospital staff who saved wife goes viral

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A man in Morristown, N.J., has gone viral after he was spotted holding a sign thanking medical staff for “saving [his] wife’s life.”

The man, whose identity is unclear at this time, was seen through the back window of the emergency department at Morristown Medical Center.

MOM SURPRISES DAUGHTER IN ISOLATION FOR HER BIRTHDAY

“Thank you all in [the] emergency for saving my wife’s life. I love you all,” reads the sign. The man also appears to be holding his hand over his heart.

The man’s identity is unclear at this time.
(Allison Swendsen-Atlantic Health System)

While it’s not clear if the man’s wife was treated for the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, which has infected more than 4,000 people in The Garden State alone, the moment was touching nevertheless.

“This picture brought us all to tears. It’s amazing to see not only the ER staff but all the floors coming together during this challenging time. We couldn’t do this without nurses, techs, residents, doctors, secretaries, registrars [and] housekeeping,” Paige Vander Vliet, a nurse in the Morristown Medical Center’s emergency department, who shared the photo with her sister-in-law, who later posted the image to Facebook, told The Daily Record.

HOW TO HELP CORONAVIRUS RELIEF THROUGH DONATIONS

“We don’t know who the man is, we don’t know who his wife is. The nurses happened to be there and took his picture,” Karen Zatorski, the senior public relations manager at Morristown Medical Center, told The Daily Record, adding the moment was “beautiful.”

The news comes after a patient who recently recovered from the novel coronavirus went viral after leaving a touching message on the wall of his isolation room for the medical staff who helped care for him while he was in the ICU. During his stay at the Cleveland Clinic, the staff used the glass wall to communicate with the unidentified man to avoid the risk of COVID-19 contamination.

CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE

“This window has been the most impactful window in my life,” he wrote, in part. “On days when I watched you work hard to keep me and others alive, unable to thank you for the time that you poured into me – and although I will probably never get the chance to pour that same love and support into you, I want you to know that I think you are all rockstars.”

Fox News’ Alexandria Hein contributed to this report.

Alabama reports first coronavirus death

An Alabama resident who tested positive for the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, has died, according to the state’s health department.

The resident, who was not identified, had underlying health issues. His or her death marks the first time an Alabama resident who previously tested positive for the virus has died. The Jackson County resident “passed away in a facility outside the state of Alabama,” officials with the Alabama Department of Public Health said in a news release on Wednesday.

CORONAVIRUS: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

“We express our deepest sympathy to the family and loved ones of the patient who died, as well as to the families of everyone who has been affected by this outbreak,” said State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris, in a statement. “The health of our residents and the community is our greatest priority, and we will continue working together to care for the patients, protect the safety of health care workers, and protect the people in our state.”

No other information was provided.

CORONAVIRUS IN THE US: STATE-BY-STATE BREAKDOWN

As of Thursday morning, Alabama has reported 449 cases of the novel virus, with more than 2,800 tested for COVID-19 in the state, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health’s Data and Surveillance Dashboard.

To date, the virus has infected more than 480,446 people across 175 countries and territories, resulting in over 21,571 deaths. In the U.S., all 50 states plus the District of Columbia have reported confirmed cases of COVID-19, tallying over 69,197 illnesses and at least 1,046 deaths.

Doctors in distress, quarantine send SOS for more protective gear, tests: ‘It’s a complete mess’

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Frontline health care providers around the country are sounding alarm bells about the rationing of protective gear and lack of rapid response COVID-19 testing — and some are even doing so from quarantine.

Distressed doctors and other health care professionals have been sidelined from the pandemic response because they have suspected cases of coronavirus. They are home with their quarantined spouses and kids, but in a sign of how disjointed the coronavirus response has been, some doctors have no idea if they are actually infected.

NYC HOSPITAL STAFF SEEN WEARING TRASH BAGS FOR PROTECTION, CO-WORKER DIES FROM INFECTION

“It’s pretty frustrating that we have celebrities and basketball players getting tested the same day,” said Dr. Damian Caraballo, a Tampa emergency room physician who had been quarantined for a week before learning he was negative. “But if you’re a doctor or nurse you can’t get tested [immediately]. You’re waiting six or seven days to find out your results.”

Dr. Damian Caraballo, a Tampa emergency room physician, was quarantined after treating COVID-19 patients. He had to wait 6.5 days for his test results to come back negative.

Full NBA teams have already been tested for the coronavirus. The Brooklyn Nets paid a private company to get the tests and learned four players were positive. Politicians are getting tested and finding swift results. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, was tested Monday and got his negative results back the next day. Vice President Mike Pence and his wife were tested and seemingly received their negative results within hours.

Meantime, Caraballo, 39, and at least one of his colleagues had been home quarantined and presumed infected from one of the COVID-19 patients he’s treated in the emergency room. He’s joined with other health care professionals around the nation saying the lack of N95 respirator masks and other protective gear is a dangerous embarrassment that will lead to more doctors out of commission and unable to treat the rapidly spreading virus.

Not only is the dwindling supply of masks, gowns and gloves putting health care workers in peril, but the lack of widespread rapid response testing means doctors don’t even know what patients coming into their hospital need to be isolated, the doctors say.

CORONAVIRUS: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Patients can come into the emergency room without any coronavirus symptoms, for conditions such as a broken ankle, and they aren’t in isolation. Doctors aren’t necessarily suited up in gear for asymptomatic patients for rationing reasons. But the danger is that patients may still be infected without obvious symptoms and unprotected health care professionals are at grave risk, doctors say.

Dr. Haig Aintablian, president of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine Resident and Student Association, said up to 100 ER residents are in quarantine nationwide and the main two factors are lack of rapid testing and lack of personal protection.

“It’s a complete mess, and our government is not doing enough to fix this issue,” Aintablian told Fox News.

NYC’S ELMHURST HOSPITAL AT CORONAVIRUS BREAKING POINT AS 13 PATIENTS DIE IN 24-HOUR SPAN

“I’ve heard from numerous residents nationwide that they are being denied appropriate PPE (personal protective equipment) by administrators, likely due to a huge shortage,” he said. “Some residents are being handed one N95 mask to use for weeks at a time. We all know these masks are single-use, and using them multiple times can not only spread viral particles but also prevent their function in protecting our trainees.”

Doctors around the country have varying supplies of personal protective equipment. Some say they have enough gear now, but have to ration their masks because they don’t know when replenishments are on the way. Doctors want the ability to do on-site testing with results back in under an hour so they can accurately isolate patients and protect themselves.

Dr. Purvi Parikh, an immunologist in Manhattan, works in a clinic treating patients with allergies, asthma and immune deficiencies – a population that’s at a higher risk to contract COVID-19. But her office is out of N-95 masks and gowns and every time they try to place a new order it gets canceled.

She’s had to reuse her N-95 over and over again for the last week. She’s also down to her last box of less protective paper surgical masks. They’ve had to lock up the rest of the surgical mask supplies after a few boxes were stolen.

This is the last box of surgical masks in Dr. Purvi Parikh’s Manhattan office.
(Contributed photo)

“I’ve basically just been spraying the outside [of my N95 mask] with Lysol and hoping for the best,” Parikh said. “All doctors are sharing tips on how to sterilize something that’s not meant to be sterilized.

“These are disposable items you’re supposed to be using a different one with every single patient, whereas we’re using it for like days on end,” added Parikh.

Still, she considers herself lucky.

“People are jealous of me when they hear I have one [N95]. That’s how crazy it is,” she said.

DO YOU QUALIFY FOR A STIMULUS CHECK IN SENATE’S CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE BILL?

As more health care workers are quarantined or testing positive around the country, doctors said without the proper equipment and tests, more in their ranks will be knocked out.

It’s unclear nationwide how many health care workers so far are quarantined or have tested positive.

But the statistics available show a grim picture. In Ohio, about 16 percent of COVID-19 cases are health care workers, Cleveland.com reported Wednesday. And in Italy, France and Spain, more than 30 health care professionals have died of the coronavirus, and thousands of others have had to self-isolate, the New York Times reported Tuesday. In Spain, nearly 14 percent — or 5,400 people — of the country’s confirmed coronavirus cases are medical professionals.

In the U.S., at least two ER doctors, one in New Jersey and one in Washington state, were infected with coronavirus and were in critical condition, the American College of Emergency Physicians announced March 14.

Then on Tuesday, Kious Kelly, assistant nursing manager at Mount Sinai West in Manhattan, died after contracting the novel coronavirus, the New York Post reported. The lack of protective gear at his hospital was so dire that nurses were wearing trash bags.

Parikh, the Manhattan doctor, said the toll on health care workers is “heartbreaking” and especially tragic when professionals are resorting to office supplies to make masks just to do their jobs.

“It’s very scary because that could be me or anyone of my friends,” Parikh said after learning of Kelly’s death.

“If we lose our health care workforce, then who’s going to take care of all of the patients?” she said.

Caraballo, whose family of five was quarantined for nearly a week before getting his negative test result, called the lack of protective gear and the lack of knowing who is sick a “perfect storm.”

Doctors aren’t advised to be fully suited up for asymptomatic patients because of a scarcity of masks and then health care workers can get sick and pass it along to others. With testing taking so long, infected people unknowingly spread the virus “exponentially.”

Dr. Damian Caraballo is quarantined in Tampa after treating COVID-19 patients. This is message from kids in his neighborhood.
(Contributed photo)

Health care professionals Fox News interviewed for this article made clear their opinions are their own and don’t represent the hospitals or institutions that employ them.

But throughout the country, doctors were sending out an SOS message that the lack of armor, leadership and intel going into the war against the pandemic is causing great anxiety for health care workers.

“Everybody is on the edge of their seat. …Online, it’s a powder keg. I mean I’ve never seen [health care] providers so anxious in my life,” Caraballo said.

Dr. Damian Caraballo was quarantined with his wife and kids in Tampa while awaiting his test results.
(Contributed photo)

Caraballo’s nasal test swab was sent out to California where he had to await the results for 6.5 days. It’s been frustrated to see other countries — like South Korea — have widespread testing and their doctors wearing what looks like spacesuits to treat patients, he said.

Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is advising doctors dealing with a shortage of facemasks to use a bandana or scarf to care for COVID-19 patients as a last resort. Health care professionals without masks in contact with a COVID-19 patient are advised to stay away from work for 14 days, setting up a scenario for many more doctors and nurses to be absent from the frontlines.

“The CDC recommendations sound like we’re in a third world country,” Caraballo said.

The White House coronavirus task force has been working for weeks on boosting the supplies of protective gear and the availability of tests, but providers on the ground say the relief hasn’t come soon enough. The next big issue is a shortage of hospital ventilators when a community is overwhelmed with sick people who need hospitalization.

Congress is on the verge of passing a nearly $2 trillion stimulus package that should also send aid to hospitals, but frontline workers say they can’t wait any longer for relief. It passed the Senate unanimously on Wednesday and is set for a vote in the House on Friday morning.

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The lack of testing, scarcity of personal protective equipment and changing medical guidance have taken a toll on frontline workers, many of whom are dealing with the added stress of children home from school and daycare.

“It’s very chaotic and very scary. In a lot of ways, we feel a little bit helpless,” said Dr. Amy Cho, an emergency medicine physician in Minnesota and mother of four children.

Dr. Amy Cho, an emergency medicine physician in Minnesota, called the situation chaotic and scary.
(Contributed photo)

Almost three weeks ago, Cho’s independent physician practice was moving forward to set up drive-thru testing at one of their urgent care facilities in the Twin Cities area, but the effort had to be quashed for lack of masks for health care workers, she said.

“The situation is really desperate,” Cho said. “We don’t have the ability to test. We don’t know how prevalent it is in our communities because there’s been no surveillance testing. So we don’t even have the ability to make an educated guess. We’re flying blind and the direction changes over and over again.”

As she and her colleagues treat COVID-19 patients, they are acutely aware they may become sick themselves. Already one doctor Cho works with was out with symptoms but returned after testing negative.

“I’m friends with everybody I work with. I’m worried. Statistically what will happen is people on my teams will die from this and it will happen because they’re at work and they’re doing their job,” Cho said. “And I’m very terrified of that.”

Some health care employees have panned the CDC guidelines as being based on the scarcity of resources and not based on science. While CDC guidelines recommend protective gear when caring for COVID-19, some professionals have taken matters into their own hands —- especially since COVID-19 patients can show no symptoms of illness.

“You walk into a hospital, you have no idea who actually has this disease unless every single person has been tested,” said Dr. Christian DiPaola, an orthopedic spine surgeon in Massachusetts, who –like many health care workers in recent days–describes the hospital as a “battle zone” because it’s the most likely place healthcare professionals would come in contact with a COVID-19 patient.

So DiPaola decided to wear his surgical gear all times in the hospital — an operating room hood, mask, scrubs, protective eyewear and disposable jacket. “I stand out,” he admits.

The catchphrase of “flatten the curve” is all off, DiPaola says, because it assumes the health care system capacity is stable. But in reality, if teams of doctors and nurses are quarantined or fall ill, the health care system capacity will be greatly diminished. If one nurse tests positive, for example, 20 other health care employees she’s been in contact with may immediately be quarantined, too.

“I don’t know if I’m a carrier so I want to protect my patients,” said DiPaola, who is the medical team leader of the organization www.endcoronavirus.org. “And I don’t know which patient is positive and by the time we find out or even suspect, they could have contact with multiple personnel within the system. So my guiding principle is analogous to bloodborne universal precautions that we practice in the operating room: Assume everyone is positive and act accordingly.”

Dr. Christian DiPaola always wears full protective gear in his Massachusetts hospital, going much further than CDC guidelines.
(Contributed photo.)

Dr. Jason Adler, an emergency medicine doctor in Maryland and a husband and father of two, said frontline health care workers are grappling with their own mortality and their mental health.

Adler is worried about all levels of health care workers, from the lab technicians handling the COVID-19 swabs to the workers who clean up the hospital rooms after procedures.

“We’re probably going to get infected. Some people will do better than others, but it’s probably going to happen. As an ER physician, I think the likelihood is very high,” Adler said.

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The ambiguity and uncertainty surrounding the virus have taken a toll and emotions can whip up at home, on social media and over email.

“I am concerned about the mental health of our front line health care workers,” Adler said. “…We need a purge valve, and I’m concerned the front line workers, and many Americans, just don’t have that right now.

“It’s tough,” he said. “We run into the fires and not away from them. But at the same time. It’s very valuable to recognize that this is not normal.”

Why risk of contracting coronavirus isn’t enough to keep people apart

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Despite urging from public officials to practice social distancing and avoid crowded parks and beaches in an effort to control the spread of coronavirus, many can’t seem to grasp the concept. As a result, governors across the nation have moved to close parks and recreational areas, leaving others who were adhering to rules infuriated by their neighbors’ actions.

And while it’s almost expected that the nation’s youth would engage in “risky” behavior, many adults are also guilty of breaking the social distancing rules.

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“The ways in which we process information about risk make it difficult for us to understand how risky it is to be in contact with others,” professor Catherine Tinsley of Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business told Fox News. “There is something called a ‘near miss’ bias, which is: when people engage in an activity that they know has some risk but then nothing bad happens to them, they tend to ignore that the good outcome was partly due to luck.”

In fact, said Tinsley, an expert in risk management and decision making, every time a person experiences a “near miss,” they become more likely to discount the risk and less likely to take protective action.

“For example, if I believed there was a 10 percent chance of getting infected by going out with my friends to my favorite coffee shop, that may feel a little bit risky to me, but I really want to hang out with my friends so I go anyway,” she said. “The more I go, without any negative repercussions, the more likely I am to think that a 10 percent chance of infection is not very risky at all, and therefore not only am I more likely to go out to the coffee shop, [but I am also] more likely to go out elsewhere because the chance of infection no longer feels risky. These ‘near-miss’ experiences play on our gut-level feelings of whether or not something is dangerous.”

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And with COVID-19 incubation period of up to 14 days, Tinsley said the lag between the risky behavior and negative outcome makes it more difficult for people to associate one with the other.

“If you mingle with others and do get infected, the result is usually known several days later,” she said. “This time lag makes it more difficult for people to believe that any particular action five days ago was responsible.”

For teens who have been home from school and away from friends for several weeks at this point, the risk may seem inconsequential.

“As every parent of a teenager knows, these younger people tend to feel more invincible than we do,” Tinsley said. “They like hanging out with their peers away from home, and they tend to have a higher discount rate on risky behavior. Couple that tendency with the aforementioned ‘near-miss’ bias and delay of infection and you have a perfect storm for having them interpret every time they do hang out with friends without any immediate negative repercussions, as proof that the advice to social distance is silly and ill-informed.”

But it’s the younger generations, according to Dr. Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus response coordinator, who can play a crucial role in stopping the spread of COVID-19.

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“I want to speak particularly to our largest generations now, our millennials,” Birx said in a press briefing last week. “I am the mom of two wonderful millennial young women who are bright and hard-working, and I will tell you what I told to them: they are the core group that will stop this virus. They are the group that communicates successfully independent of picking up a phone. They intuitively know how to contact each other without being in a large social gathering.”

But Birx later added, they are still the group who are out and about risking the safety of others around them who may be more susceptible to the illness. An irate New York Gov. Cuomo, whose state has seen over 33,000 cases of the illness, said that over the weekend the city parks looked like any other weekend with large groups of people hanging out, risking further spread of the virus.

“Quite simply, the more people hang out with each other, refusing to socially distance themselves, the more they put themselves at risk,” Tinsley said. “And quite ironically, the less they feel that this behavior actually is risky.”

Tinsley said a way to change this behavior would be a change in message from national leaders who are often sending mixed signals to the public. She also said modeling social distancing behavior is crucial in getting the message across, but is often overlooked during official briefings and press conferences.

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“These mixed messages are extraordinarily damaging to uptake,” she said. “We can hardly expect people to swallow advice that starts as a bitter pill, and then is undercut by voices and actions that encourage us to ignore the bitter pill.”

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