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Boston Calling: Coronavirus coping

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Coronavirus coping

11/04/2020 GMT

BBC World Service - Boston Calling, Coronavirus coping

Healthcare workers ‘feel powerless’ in choosing who to treat for Covid-19

Healthcare workers ‘feel powerless’ in choosing who to treat for Covid-19.

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, medical equipment is in short supply, and health workers in countries around the globe have had to ration care. Now, doctors and nurses in New York are treating patients in overcapacity intensive care units with dwindling supplies of equipment. The issue of how to ration scarce medical resources is forcing healthcare workers to make impossible decisions. But is there a best way to make those decisions? This is the subject of a recent article in The New England Journal of Medicine; one of its authors, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, has some thoughts.

Also, we visit a primate research centre in Louisiana where scientists are working on a potential Covid-19 vaccine; we ask how temperature and humidity affects the spread of the coronavirus; we find out how people around the world are stocking up their pantries; and we check out the dating scene to find out how it’s surviving in this global pandemic.

Photo: Mirian Fuentes (L), a medical assistant, and nurse Laurie Kuypers check paperwork during a COVID-19 screening at an appointment-only drive-up clinic set up by the University of Washington Medical Center Northwest Outpatient Medical Center. Credit: Karen Ducey/Getty Images.

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