Thirteen years ago, a group of U.S. public health officials came up with a plan to address what they regarded as one of the medical system’s crucial vulnerabilities: a shortage of ventilators. The breathing-assistance machines tended to be bulky, expensive and limited in number. The plan was to build a large fleet of inexpensive portable […]
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On March 20, in an effort to control the growing number of coronavirus cases in New York — New York City in particular — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo issued an executive order requiring all nonessential businesses to keep their workers at home. Restaurants, grocery stores, pharmacies, convenience stores and hardware stores are all deemed essential, […]
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Of all the resources lacking in the Covid-19 pandemic, the one most desperately needed in the United States is a unified national strategy, as well as the confident, coherent and consistent leadership to see it carried out. The country cannot go from one mixed-message news briefing to the next, and from tweet to tweet, to […]
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LOS ANGELES — Joseph, a man in his 70s, has been on a ventilator for two weeks. His heart, lungs and kidneys are failing. Though I know these facts about his physiology, I will never see him up close. I can only glance at him through clear glass doors, the ventilator and dialysis machine obscuring […]
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Joe Alonso, the head stonemason at the Washington National Cathedral, had tended to the building for 35 years. He knew its nooks and crannies. So when news spread of a shortage of N95 masks needed to fight the coronavirus outbreak, Mr. Alonso remembered something nobody else did: More than 7,000 masks — purchased in 2005 […]
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To the Editor: Your Covid-19 coverage highlights the plights and heroic efforts of the countless health care workers on the front lines. My husband — a recent kidney transplant recipient — and I have been struck by the mind-blowing dedication of his team. We spoke with one of my husband’s physicians yesterday, aghast at his […]
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It was not even 9 in the morning and Dr. Sylvie de Souza’s green N95 mask, which was supposed to form a seal against her face, was already askew. In freezing rain on Monday, she trudged in clogs between the emergency department she chairs at the Brooklyn Hospital Center and a tent outside, keeping a […]
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HERAT, Afghanistan — Afghanistan has already imported its epidemic. And each day it adds to it, as thousands more displaced Afghans continue to flow across the border from Iran, which has reported among the world’s highest numbers of Covid-19 cases and deaths. The returnees, some surely infected with the coronavirus when in Iran, cluster shoulder […]
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As much of the world practices social distancing to stop the spread of coronavirus, trips to the grocery store are one of the few reasons many of us still are allowed to leave the house. But the logistics of shopping for groceries can be daunting. What happens if some key items on my shopping list […]
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More than 1,200 health care workers have used a private online document to share their stories of fighting the coronavirus pandemic on the front lines. In their accounts, they say the outbreak has turned American hospitals into “war zones.” They talk about being scared to go to work and anxious that they will become infected. […]
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They are scrounging for fabric, cutting it up, stitching it together. They are repurposing drapes, dresses, bra straps, shower curtains, even coffee filters. They are building supply chains, organizing workers, managing distribution networks. Most of all, they are sewing. All over the country, homebound Americans are crafting thousands upon thousands of face masks to help […]
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As hospitals prepare for a flood of desperately ill patients unable to breathe on their own, mechanical ventilators have become the single most important piece of equipment that can mean the difference between life and death. Now, with American hospitals facing a grave shortage of the vital devices, the Big Three automakers, small engineering firms, […]
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Why is the United States running out of face masks for medical workers? How does the world’s wealthiest country find itself in such a tragic and avoidable mess? And how long will it take to get enough protective gear, if that’s even possible now? I’ve spent the last few days digging into these questions, because […]
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I’m writing on behalf of six other leaders of large academic health systems in some of America’s Covid-19 “hot spots” to urge our national leadership to resist pressure to lift tough social restrictions intended to subdue this outbreak and save thousands of lives. While some say the economic damage of these measures will cause more […]
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ImageVentilators under assembly at a medical supply company in Britain. The lack of such equipment has already created wrenching decisions for health care workers in Italy.Credit…Neil Hall/EPA, via Shutterstock How do doctors and hospitals decide who gets potentially lifesaving treatment and who doesn’t? A lot of thought has been given to just such a predicament, […]
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Preparations for the Cadaver Ball, at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, begin in the fall. Radial Grooves, an a cappella group, selects two songs to perform; the campus hip-hop and bhangra groups choreograph routines. This year’s theme was the “Roaring 2020s,” which was a relief to the class president, Varun Menon, because it meant […]
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SAN FRANCISCO — Wildfires, earthquakes, mudslides. California knows disaster. Yet if dire predictions hold, the state’s experience and vast resources do not seem adequate to hold back the tsunami of coronavirus cases that experts fear are on the way. Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday said that California would be short about 17,000 hospital beds, raising […]
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America is losing the war against Covid-19, but we can win it with decisive and extraordinary actions now. Health experts have not been overreacting. Models from Imperial College London and others suggest that up to 2.2 million Americans could die within a year without sufficient efforts to “flatten the curve.” At the same time, it […]
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How to stay safe. How to protect others. How much risk to take when the smallest act can be a risk: touching a doorknob, buying milk. Whether or not the virus has reached your neighborhood, what’s swept into everyone’s lives is a set of confounding dilemmas. So send your questions to us, at dilemmas@nytimes.com. There’s […]
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Three weeks after its first coronavirus infection was discovered, the New York City region reached an alarming milestone on Sunday: It now accounts for roughly 5 percent of the world’s cases, making it an epicenter of the global pandemic and increasing pressure on officials to take more drastic measures. Moving to stem the crisis on […]
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The retailer Target apologized on Saturday after coming under criticism for selling N95 masks, which are in acute demand by medical providers during the coronavirus pandemic, at some stores in Washington State. The masks were made available to the public for purchase “in error” in select stores in Seattle, the company said in a statement […]
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ImageBoth tourists and New Yorkers on March 14, at the World Trade Center in New York City.Credit…Elizabeth Bick for The New York Times Last week the American fashion industry went dark as stores and factories closed, both voluntarily and by government decree, to help prevent the spread of the new coronavirus. Yet by this weekend, […]
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President Trump on Saturday sought to assure an anxious American public that help was on the way to overwhelmed hospitals, and that private companies had agreed to provide desperately needed medical supplies to fight the fast-spreading coronavirus. But Mr. Trump resisted appeals from state and local officials and hospital administrators for more aggressive action, saying […]
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