‘Every single death takes a little piece of me’
Four nurses and a doctor witness struggles to survive in the COVID-19 units at Maine hospitals.
Angela Smith is a registered nurse who cares for COVID-19 patients at Maine Medical Center in Portland.
Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer
Angela Smith, an intensive care nurse at Maine Medical Center’s COVID-19 unit, said she will always remember the fear. The fear of the unknown at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the fear in the eyes of patients who contract the disease, and the fear they express as they gasp for what may be their last breaths.
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As COVID-19 vaccinations become more readily available to the general public, companies will be facing a decision: In order to ensure a safer workplace, should employees be required to show proof of inoculation?
Also, would such a mandate be lawful?
Laura Rideout, an attorney with Portland law firm Preti Flaherty’s labor and employment practice group, said certain industries indeed may impose such requirements in order to slow or stop the spread of COVID-19. Still, an informal survey of major employers in Maine by the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram found that none have any immediate plans to require their workers to be vaccinated.
Angela Smith is a registered nurse who cares for COVID-19 patients at Maine Medical Center in Portland.
Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer
Angela Smith, an intensive care nurse at Maine Medical Center’s COVID-19 unit, said she will always remember the fear. The fear of the unknown at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the fear in the eyes of patients who contract the disease, and the fear they express as they gasp for what may be their last breaths.
“The fear is ever-present,” said Smith, 50. “Many patients will say to me, ‘Am I going to die?’ I usually say, ‘Not on my watch.’ But I may be lying sometimes.”
Guests
Ben Bragdon, editorial page editor, Kennebec Journal/Morning Sentinel
Greg Kesich, editorial page editor, Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram
Sarah Craighead Dedmon, editor, Machias Valley News Observer
Julie Murchison Harris, editor, Bangor Daily News weeklies
Kenneth C. Davis, historian and author of the best-selling Don t Know Much About History series of books Resources
Difficult ethical choices await Maine’s vaccine planners: Who goes first?
Hospital and nursing home administrators will pick the first vaccine recipients.
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Dr Doreen Brown, 85, receives the first of two Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine jabs administered at Guy s Hospital in London, Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2020. U.K. health authorities rolled out the first doses of a widely tested and independently reviewed COVID-19 vaccine Tuesday, starting a global immunization program that is expected to gain momentum as more serums win approval. (Victoria Jones/Pool via AP) AP
Exactly who will be inoculated first against the ravages of COVID-19 remains unclear as Maine prepares to launch a statewide vaccination effort within days.