Health Care Unions Find a Voice in the Pandemic
Faced with the urgent need to protect nurses and other frontline workers, labor organizations are pushing hospitals to do more. Kayla Wilson, a registered nurse, used her lunch break to join nurses demonstrating last month against unsafe staffing practices at Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose, Calif.Credit.Sarahbeth Maney for The New York Times
Published Jan. 28, 2021Updated Jan. 29, 2021
The unions representing the nation’s health care workers have emerged as increasingly powerful voices during the still-raging pandemic.
With more than 100,000 Americans hospitalized and many among their ranks infected, nurses and other health workers remain in a precarious frontline against the coronavirus and have turned again and again to unions for help.
November 19, 2020
One of my favorite poems in the forthcoming issue of NDQ (87/3/4) is Craig Santos Perez’s “from aerial roots [off-island chamorros]”. Part of what makes this poem so intriguing and exciting to me is the structure of the lines and their arrangement which really works much better in the print version of the Quarterly.
December 31, 2020
Usually the end of a year can be bittersweet, but I think that most of us can agree that there is very little sweetness in the passing of 2020.
That being said, we continue to be honored by the wide range of contributions that come to NDQ each week and the trust that our contributors have in us when they send us their work. As we have done for the last few years, we’re going to close submission to poetry and non-fiction tonight at midnight to give our poetry and non-fiction editors a chance to catch up and to have some much deserved rest. Our tireless fiction editor will continue to read your work.
“I feel like someone at war, it’s chaotic all the time.”
“Nurses do this because it’s their life’s work. But many are reaching their breaking point.”
“People’s lives are on the line,” she said. “We’re taking more patients, we’re working more shifts, sometimes 24 hours at a time. But we can’t give 100% to everyone.”
California surge and stay-at-home order
California continues to face a widespread surge of the novel coronavirus. In fact, officials recently told The Los Angeles Times that Southern California has 0% capacity in its intensive care unit beds, causing widespread concern about how health officials will care for sick patients.
►South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has tested positive for COVID-19, days after his wife, Peggy, was confirmed infected. Both tested negative eight days ago before attending a White House party. Gov. McMaster, 73, has mild symptoms with a cough and slight fatigue and will isolate for 10 days and be monitored for additional symptoms.
►Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, gave two thumbs-up after being vaccinated Tuesday. I want to encourage everyone who has the opportunity to get vaccinated so that we can have a veil of protection over this country that will end this pandemic, Fauci said.