San Diego County Reports 2,206 COVID-19 Cases As First Vaccines Arrive

Speaker 1: 00:00 As you just heard after months of working under high-risk conditions on the front lines of COVID-19 San Diego doctors, nurses, and healthcare workers are finally getting some badly needed protection. The Pfizer vaccine with its 95% success rate, we'll remove the most lethal threats that healthcare professionals have been facing, but it won't remove the emotional toll that crowded ICU's and increasing deaths are taking on the staff. Joining me is Elizabeth Jones, a nurse at UCLA medical center in the Hoya whom we first spoke with in March. She joins us on behalf of the California nurses association. And Elizabeth welcome. Thank you for having me. Have you heard how hospitals plan to administer the vaccine? In other words, who on staff would we'll be getting at first? Speaker 2: 00:48 So I only know UCS plan, um, that was revealed to us on Wednesday during our weekly town hall. So the frontline will be, or the first recipients will be emergency rooms and ICU, uh, their nurses and doctors and, you know, specialty staff. And then it will be, it will roll out to secondary units that are not primarily COVID seeing. So our clean units would then get it and so on and so forth with people who are offsite, administrators, administration would not be receiving it until the very end. There's like 30 steps to this. So that's what they've told us. The plan is also because there are potentials for side effects that there'll be doing it in waves. So they won't do the entire department at once because they don't want everyone to be out with, you know, the potential side effects of flu and just feeling under the weather or if there is a much worse side effect that someone may have anaphylaxis. Um, so they're going to do it in, in small groups, in each department based on the tiers that they have set out Speaker 1: 01:53 Where in that line, will you fall as Elizabeth? What department do you work? Speaker 2: 01:57 Yeah, the way they've drawn this up, I work in a surgical oncology and transplant TCU, a progressive care, which is like an ICU step down. So my, I would be in the second or third tier, depending on how many injections they get. Speaker 1: 02:13 And what does getting this vaccine mean to you Speaker 2: 02:16 Personally? I have mixed reviews or mixed feelings about it. I'm really excited about it. The fact that we might, you know, if it works as well as a salient, because that we will have, you know, some immunity and I can go back to the way it was prior to COVID. And I would hope that he will be still be more cautious and we would take a lesson from what COVID has done to this country or to the world really, and just be more conscientious with hygiene and the way we treat the environment. Um, I'm also scared though, that this is a very, very new vaccine and it's a new virus that's come out and we don't know the long-term side effects of what had happened. So I have mixed feelings about it. I'm hopeful. I'm very hopeful. I have faith in the scientists that, that created this, but I'm also very, very nervous because we don't know what the long-term effects have been or how this virus really mutates in the long run. Since it is so new Speaker 1: 03:16 Or mixed feelings, do you plan to get the vaccine? Speaker 2: 03:20 I still, I'm going to be a hundred percent honest. I am very undecided. UC promises us that they will. If we, we have the right to decline and if we decline, they will ask us again, I'm going to wait and see how my colleagues do with it. Um, I also don't want to take away from the people who are dealing with it, head on from the beginning, from the front. So if I have to wait my turn, because I'm not seeing COVID patients, I'd rather someone from the ICU or the ER, edit over me because they're seeing them more frequently than I am. Now. Speaker 1: 03:55 We last spoke to you in March when there were PPE shortages calls for a safer working conditions for healthcare workers. Do you have enough safety equipment now? Speaker 2: 04:06 The PP? We absolutely do. Thankfully we have a good stock and we get daily briefings about how much, uh, you're either red, yellow, or green. And we're in the green with the, with the PPE, which is great. The issue now is staffing and that's available beds. We are as an, as a profession across the board, I would say probably across the entire world, we're tired. And every day we have more and more people who are just burnt out and they, you know, don't have the energy to come to work or they've been sick themselves or their family's sick and the need to take care of them. So we're, we're tired. And that's primarily where our stuff where our shortages. Now it's not the PPE. It's, it's the staff. Um, we've had a lot of retirees or, you know, older nurses who are on the brink of retirement say that this was the final straw for them because they were at a high risk of caching the virus. Instead, it's not worth it. I may as well retire. So we've had a lot of people leave as well. So that's where we're at with this is it's, it's a nursing shortage. At this point Speaker 1: 05:15 As a hospital load increases, there have been calls to decrease. The standard number of nurses required for each ICU bed. Is that a viable solution, in your opinion? Speaker 2: 05:27 It is so dangerous. I had this conversation with friends and family multiple times. We're really, really lucky in California. And this is a reason why a lot of people come to work in California. This nursing ratio is one of a kind, it's the only one in the country. And by increasing the amount of patients, nurses have to look after your increasing the risk for mistakes and death. Um, in these patient loads, I worked in other States where I've had eight, nine, 10 patients and things get missed. So this is really, really dangerous. And the patients that we're taking care of, because we've kind of limited who is being admitted and who we're operating now at this point with a surge coming, these patients that are in the hospital need to be there. And they're very, very, very sick. So that's more stress on us, more resources, more time at each bedside, but then you add another patient or a third, a fourth patient or fifth patient, and you're increasing the risk of things getting missed or people dying. It's a terrible idea. Speaker 1: 06:28 There are now some better treatments for cases of COVID. Have you been seeing better outcomes for patients lately? Speaker 2: 06:37 Um, yes, I would say so because we've had the data and we've, we've been able to learn as we, as we go along with these patients, we are treating better. I personally don't work in a COVID unit. I work in a clean unit, but we have seen the numbers drop and you know, around Halloween Thanksgiving, those numbers started to rise. So they are staying there longer and it is taking more of a toll. Yeah. Speaker 1: 07:01 Now, after months of this relentless work, how are you and the hospital staff doing Speaker 2: 07:09 Retired? Honestly, we are just so tired and it's really disheartening when we go into that into work every single day to take care of strangers. You know, our patients are strangers. We, we get to learn them and love them as, as time goes on. But these are strangers and we care for them. Like we care for our own family. This is a, a duty and a calling and it's something we're super passionate about. But then to turn around and watch the news and see people calling it a hoax, or even like I'm over the virus. I don't care anymore. If I get COVID we'll you'll care when you get it or your care, when you're second, you need a hospital or a bed or your grandmother or your parent gets it, or your kid gets it and they don't do well. You'll care when you can't breathe. Speaker 2: 07:56 And we're just hired. We don't get the luxury of getting to work from home on zoom. We have to go in every day, but the Kiki on earth masks, the entire duration of our shifts. My hands are bleeding from washing my hands so much. And I was pretty vigilant before, but now I'm pretty OCD about it. My hands bleed, they're tired. It's exhausting. It's absolutely exhausting. And it's, we don't get a break from it. It's either in the hospital or it's at home or it's on the TV or it's on the radio. We're tired. We're so tired. Speaker 1: 08:29 What do you want the public to know about what they might be able to do to help you guys out? Speaker 2: 08:36 I know most people don't care or they care and they don't think it's going to happen to them. But when it does happen to you you'll know all about it. And just because you recover and you're survived, COVID doesn't mean your life goes back to the way it was before I have a colleague who was one of the first patients to get it, and he's still not healed. He's still unable to work. He still reeling from his infection nearly a year later. And if you don't need to go out, please don't like gay miss holidays as healthcare workers all the time with our friends and family. I know it sucks, but please be thoughtful. Stay at home. If you don't feel well, don't show up to something. You can miss it. It's not this fear of missing out needs to end. So please just stay home and be respectful of the people who are working so hard to save the lives of strangers. Speaker 1: 09:32 I've been speaking with Elizabeth Jones, a nurse at UCLA medical center in LA Jolla. She, she was speaking on behalf of the California nurses association, Elizabeth. Thank you. Thank you for everything. And thank you for speaking with us today. Thank you Speaker 2: 09:46 Very much for having it really appreciate it. Stay healthy. Speaker 1: 09:49 It should be noted that Pfizer's clinical trials have shown no severe side effects to its COVID vaccine. According to information released by the FDA's vaccine advisory committee, the most common side effects or soreness at the point of injection fatigue, headache, muscle pain, chills, joint pain, and fever.