Concerns Grow About How To Protect America’s Healthcare Workers | Deadline | MSNBC

dr.

Patel take us through not just the protective gear that's required not just the expertise in the training required but take me through the emotional toll the treating patients and treating the volume of patients today and what's expected is taking on our health care professionals yeah thanks and thanks so much Nicole for putting a light on that issue I mean I would be lying to you if I told you it didn't affect me personally because it's just what what I see personally and in my colleagues is it's the same thing over and over it's this feeling of helplessness not just for yourself I mean I actually think most of health care workers have kind of gotten over it but it's this feeling of helplessness when you also have to admit patients and that they can't have any visitors and you know especially when one out of every three or four have to go into an intensive care unit that they might die and they'll have nobody there to hold their hand or say goodbye to them and that does weigh on you and then volume you mentioned volume so the volume the sheer number of people that we're seeing and admitting and then that are kind of going through the system so to speak is unlike anything any of us have ever seen before on the order of magnitude some places some emergency rooms are having up to 10 times their normal volume so it is incredible constant and in medical school we used to joke like we could go 24 hours without going to the bathroom it's not a joke anymore people are not eating they're not sleeping and then they come home and they're haunted by what they did or didn't do during the day so and this is again not just doctors I see it with charge nurses with janitorial staff who are being asked to kind of clean the rooms as frequently as possible it's it's kind of everywhere having said that there's an emotional strength there and I think sherry and some of the other folks have been covering and quite nicely there's a there's a spiritual kind of resilience that this too shall pass and we shall overcome but it isn't almost all of us go to bed and cry every night every night cheri your name has been invoked I've been reading your reporting for a long time and I don't know that anything has struck me and sort of reduced me to tears as quickly as your reporting from last week about the hospital in Brooklyn take me through what you saw and how they're doing this week as it's obviously getting worse getting more intense getting to be more of a grind it is unfortunately and what dr.

Patel said is right they are just continuing to work what's happened last week I spent time in the emergency room and then sort of followed patients through they had a tent where they were and still are testing people this week it has shifted it into more of that really very sick patient in the intensive care unit so as time goes on as the numbers of people get sick and then of course you you get sick there's an incubator incubation period you get sick and then for those unlucky proportion of people who get critically ill that's sort of what the hospitals are dealing with now more and more people of those critically ill at the same time that that is expanding the staffing there are people getting sick of course we've heard those stories you mentioned at the top of the hour so there's a shortage of staffing because of that and the intensity level of the patients is higher they are expanding in the hospital finding places to put people but you still need to provide that care so that's where that pressure point is and but they're going to work every day they're being creative but this is not when I was there it was not a hospital as usual it was very much like hospitals I've been in during a hurricane unfortunately this is a much more extended period of stress for our nation's hospitals you know dr.

Patel can you speak to that about the the duration this is not as sherry said this is not something that's going to hit us and then we begin our recovery this is something that's going to hit us harder and harder and harder and harder and harder until we reach a peak which in New York experts are saying is still weeks away can you talk about what's being done I mean it's not just as you've both talked about the physical toll not being able to go to the bathroom and I read reporting that it's the shortage of personal protective gear that means they don't stop and have a meal they don't take a break because they don't want to take that off and perhaps contaminate something else and then use up more equipment but this is a this is going to be our new normal for a long time right and and Nicole honestly it's it's the inability to kind of have that date certain I mean it would be one thing if we knew all right snap our fingers and June first things will go back to normal but the whole reason that everybody is working you know literally 24/7 in some cases is because we have to get through this surge but then even when there's a quote decline or you know kind of a lessening of the numbers of cases it's still about having the people that you have in the hospital and trying to make sure that they go through the recovery period and by the way there are 78, 000 and volunteers coming into the state of New York ready to help but they all you know all these people have to learn how to work in teams and so it's not just knowing how to do this with the personal equipment it's also dealing with the uncertainty and so you're absolutely right can you talk about the models I mean it's sort of a grim way to process what we're all living through but it is the models on the death toll of our fellow Americans that were expected to die under the best social distancing practices and dr.

Burke said yesterday that if we are perfect 200, 000 people will die what does that how do we begin to contemplate what that looks like for our health care professionals how many people will get sick for 200, 000 people to die yeah it's it's for two people yes absolutely so or 200, 000 people to die we know that we have to have you know millions who at least have the virus and then of that a percentage that will get sick and we know already that if one out of every three hospitalized people ends up in the ICU all those things just increase your chance of death and and candidly Nicole that's why we're still seeing we're seeing a lot of people coming into the clinics and the emergency rooms who really don't need to be there but that unfortunately is adding to the numbers that are kind of coming through the system so 200, 000 to die means that we're if you're going backwards that's millions of Americans affected by this in some way and keep also in mind we have not done the type of testing you've already heard the governor of Montana talk about how they were running out of tests in a day so we have not in certain hotspots like New Orleans and like other areas we've I've been tracking cities and testing we have not done anywhere near enough testing to be certain about these numbers so all these models if the data is only as good as the data coming in every day it's better but in certain places like Boston we might be seeing some progress and then in certain cities like New Orleans we're seeing numbers that are very troubling sherry you know you're reporting and the reporting of your colleagues in the New York Times tells the story of the plight of the health care workers in such vivid terms I wonder if you've been able to uncover through your reporting where the disconnect is why there could possibly still be a debate among political leaders and namely among this white between the White House and some governor's they seem to be mostly democratic governors and people who are leading states where some of the hotspots are now about what's needed about the numbers of ventilators about the amounts of protective gear there was an insinuation that doctors and nurses were doing something worse than hoarding I mean where if and I'm not saying it's easy to tell their stories but if the information if doctors and nurses are willing to talk about what it is they need where do you think the breakdown is for them to get it I mean it's hard right so you've got one thing as the projections the modeling of course every expert who is participating in those modeling exercises that it's a model it's an assumption it's hard to know exactly but certainly we don't want to be not prepared for some of the more worst-case scenarios and of course as people change their behaviors as we have the social distancing the numbers will decrease and there's a time lag to so you will still see the numbers going up for a while before those you know measures show themselves at the hospitals because again that time lag between infection and getting sick and then getting critically ill so that's one thing is there is uncertainty there are a range of models that's that's one basket of things and the other the the differences between the I mean I have to be honest I'm reporting so much that I'm not watching all the press conferences I know that there are some didn't but you're not missing anything the stage one and what the and then you know there's that extra factor even when it leaves the federal stockpile think about this gets to a state then gets down to a local level then gets to a hospital level and then gets out to all the units and the patients there's a time lag there so you may literally have things going out entering a supply chain and then not feeling it necessarily at the end of the supply chain or there can be disruptions along the way so all of that is in the mix and I'm sure there are a lot of factors and it's it's it's hard to have surety at this time but certainly we don't want you know it's very clear I think everybody can agree that it is preparedness now and and supplying these hospitals and the staff the brave staff going to work every day it's absolutely critical and I I'm seeing it with my own eyes they don't have enough they are conserving and that is a risk to them so yes it's all it's there's probably truth in in many aspects of it sherry I want to ask you about dr.

de Souza who comes to life through your reporting last week I want to know how she's doing this week but because I think you were with her last Monday but I want to read you some of what she wrote about her last week she said I have so many different fears on Wednesday if the patient volume increases that the current pay she's concerned the emergency room will be out of space by next week that would be this week if many patients are desperately ill and need life support she worries about having to choose between them her fears have come true already any update on how she's doing well and I should just say that that ventilator triage rationing essentially is something that many places are talking about we've certainly seen that happening in Italy those horrible stories of not having enough ventilators not having enough critical care space and actually implementing rationing to my knowledge it's still very much in the planning or preparing stage here I you know there are may be some decisions being made about conserving those resources but they haven't least as far as I know the triggers being pulled haven't exactly happened yet upon an official level and you know the emergency room is busier this week absolutely and doctor de Souza's colleagues are trying to force her to take a little bit of a break every once in a while I think people are just yeah it's it's so tough and they're so dedicated but they do have to pace themselves because this is a marathon it really is hey there I'm Chris Hayes from MSNBC thanks for watching MSNBC on YouTube if you want to keep up to date with the videos we're putting out you can click subscribe just below me or click over on this list to see lots of other great videos.