COVID-19 cases rise in the US as health care workers struggle...

With infections and deaths from COVID-19 reaching exceptional levels in the United States, resistance from nurses and healthcare workers to the unbroken spread of the disease and the unpreparedness of hospitals for the flood of sick patients is emerging.

The US has seen a sharp increase in coronavirus cases, which coincides with dangerous increases in hospital stays. Cases confirmed daily hovered near or above 100,000 for the past few days, hitting record-breaking numbers, surpassing the number of infections in April when the virus peaked. The total death toll is currently nearly 240,000.

Nowhere are these conditions more catastrophically expressed than in hospitals, which are experiencing a spate of COVID-19 patients that could bring the country’s healthcare system to the brink of decline. An estimated a quarter of US states reported a peak in new cases in the past month, including most cases in states where officials were most interested in reopening their economies early.

These include Ohio, Indiana, north and south Dakota, Wyoming, and Wisconsin. Capacity levels are also becoming more acute as 80 percent of hospital beds in cities like Atlanta, Minneapolis and Baltimore are near full.

The shortage of health workers is catastrophic. In Montana, where infections are rising dramatically, the staff shortage caused by the pandemic has closed a clinic in the state capital. Staff at a regional hospital in the northwest who were exposed to COVID-19 were told to keep working despite the danger.

St. Vincent Hospital in Billings, one of the largest cities in Montana, expanded three COVID-19 units last week after the state reported its second highest daily cases. Michael Skehan, St. Vincent’s Chief Operating Officer, described the situation in front of the hospital as a “crisis”. A hospital health worker told NBC News, “I never thought we’d be anywhere near where we are now. I’m a good nurse – and the nurses I work with are good nurses – but we’re broken. ”

In North Dakota, a state where the number of cases is growing faster than any other state, hospitals are again having to forego elective surgery due to the increase. Many hospitals are debating plans to seek government assistance to hire more nurses, given the poor workforce.

Despite the impending hospital crisis, nurses and healthcare workers are being forced to battle the virus with no change in hospital conditions or adequate protection. The anger of health workers has recently been expressed in several demonstrations calling for safe conditions.

In San Luis Obispo, California, workers from 11 hospital conglomerates owned by Tenet mostly voted in favor of strike action against unsafe conditions and hospital neglect. The 4,300 workers in the region voted with 96 percent for the strike.

Tenet is a multinational, investor-owned healthcare company with 65 hospitals and more than 500 healthcare facilities. The company has generated more than $ 1 billion in profits to date in 2020 and has received more than $ 250 million in bailouts from the California government related to the CARES Act. The company issued an official statement condemning the strike vote and threatening to hire strikers. “Our hospitals remain fully operational and patient care continues uninterrupted,” said the company.

In Connecticut, more than 400 nurses went on a two-day strike in mid-October over low wages and serious shortages of personal protective equipment. Dozens of nurses have picketed the William W. Backus Hospital in Norwich to accuse the hospital of “unfair labor practices”. Many nurses sing “PPE over profits”. The Backus Federation of Nurses, a subsidiary of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), called the limited strike to allow workers to blow off steam while behind the scenes negotiating a sell-off contract that failed to meet the demands of the nurses.

In Redding, Calif., Shasta Regional Medical Center (SRMC) health workers picketed the hospital for two hours on October 28, calling for a change in the hospital’s intolerably low staffing levels for months.

Healthcare workers Casey Fatch, CEO of the SRMC, sent a petition a month ago, according to the California Nurses Association (CNA), outlining more than 200 employee concerns about patient safety protocols and staff policies. However, the hospital management responded to the nurses’ demands with a dismissive discharge. Fatch told a local newspaper, “The workforce is adequate and adequate for our census and patient care needs.”

The unions have refused to fight to bring nurses and other health workers across the state together in a concerted fight against health monopolies and the insecure workforce that threatens both frontline workers and patients. Instead, the AFT, the United Nurses Association of California / Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC / UHCP), and other unions announced on October 29 that they had sued Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia and the OSHA for failure to protect workers in healthcare during the pandemic.

There is no doubt that the Trump administration and OSHA are criminally responsible for illnesses that, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have infected more than 192,000 healthcare workers and resulted in at least 771 deaths. But just as guilty are the Democrats, including California Governor Gavin Newsom and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. It was Cuomo who added liability protection for nursing home chains to the state budget. A Biden administration will stand up for the profit interests of the health giants just as Trump and the Republicans do.

The Washington Post reported that the lawsuit was the result of Labor Advocates and Democrats’ frustration over OSHA’s criminal refusal to enforce safety guidelines in hospitals and other workplaces. During the summer, a judge dismissed a similar lawsuit by the AFL-CIO as the pandemic raged across industries after lockdown measures were lifted.

The OSHA filing is a publicity stunt by the unions that have done nothing to protect health care workers. Because of this, nurses, doctors and other health workers need to form safety committees independent from the unions to unite their struggles and enforce health and safety. This must be coupled with the development of a powerful working class political movement against both corporate-controlled parties to fight for socialism, including replacing for-profit medicine with a socialized system that guarantees free and high quality care for all.