Corona Virus Update 4/18

There is a message about Randi’s weekly telephone town hall below. In it she points out this. More than 30,000 Americans have died from COVID-19. That includes at least 75 AFT Members.

I hope that we are close to the worst of this pandemic. The last 3 days have seen a slowing of the total number of people currently hospitalized. But 3 days does not a trend make. I hope the hospitalization and death rates will drop. I hope we can open things up again soon.

But I worry.

I worry what opening up too early might mean. I worry a whole new group of people could become infected and we’d be right back were we are now.

I just got off the phone with one of our local leaders. They told a story about a patient coming to CT Scan without a mask on because they had 2 negative tests for Covid. The Scan showed Covid like pneumonia and the third test was positive. While on the scanner the patient coughed and one of the two techs in the room didn’t have an N95 on. Our leader closed the room for a terminal cleaning and air exchange before they would let any other patient into it. Now we need to watch the tech for symptoms.

Our leader’s point was that the tests are not foolproof. False negatives happen. We should air on the side of caution. I’m glad our leader took charge of the situation and closed the room. They also complained to management about a patient with a respiratory illness traveling the hospital without a mask on.

We’ve seen enough people we know and care about get sick and we’ve seen too many of them die. I don’t want any more of us to be at risk than needs to be. 

Essential workers are more at risk.

For their sake, if no one else, please lets take our time and do this reopening right.

There is a movement to reopen quickly. 

I get the reasoning. 

I just question the science.

I have an ask of AFT CT leaders and members on how you can help with this rush to restart. See below and please do what you can.

We are 43 days since our first confirmed Covid positive case in Connecticut

58,213 have been tested

17,550 have tested positive

1938 are currently hospitalized, down 8 from yesterday

1086 have died, up 50

John , I’ve heard from many of you that our Tuesday town halls have been a helpful source of comfort and connection during the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s incredibly important to me and all of us at the AFT that the union remain a resource for you, and a place where you can get trusted information, guidance and a space to share your thoughts and feelings. As long as you keep attending, we’ll keep doing them! Next week’s telephone town hall will be an exciting one. We’ll be joined by several U.S. governors who, like many of you, are on the frontlines of this crisis. The governors will provide an exclusive briefing on how they’re leading their states. We’re finalizing the details today and tomorrow, so I’ll follow up with you over the weekend announcing which governors will join us. Many of you have already registered to be on every Tuesday telephone town hall. But if you haven’t registered and want to make sure you’re on the list, you can register here. As always, I want to ask you to share the link with your members, too. That’s the best way we can make sure they have the opportunity to get on this call and hear these important updates. Yesterday, we passed another devastating milestone: More than 30,000 Americans have died from COVID-19. That includes at least 75 AFT members in Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey and New York. The Detroit Federation of Teachers, Health Professionals and Allied Employees, and the Public Employees Federation in New York are among the many AFT affiliates that are mourning losses. In fact, the United Federation of Teachers alone has lost at least 40 members and 11 retirees. My heart breaks when I think about this. Our members are in the thick of this fight. That’s why we’ve fought so hard for personal protective equipment, for support of public services, and all the tools our members need to get through this crisis. The health and safety of our members continue to be our priority. I want to make sure you saw a few of the things we rolled out this past week, all of which we’ll continue to share and promote, and we hope you will too. First, we launched these new hard-hitting ads calling out President Trump for his offensive comments about healthcare workers and inaction on getting equipment to frontline workers. The ads are running on CNN, MSNBC and digitally. We also launched this new site, VoicesFromTheFrontline.org, which highlights all the work our members are doing to fight this pandemic. Finally, I wanted to make sure you saw this video where I honor the frontline workers trying to save lives every single day. I hope you’re staying safe and healthy. In unity, Randi Weingarten

I am reaching our to leaders to see if you would be comfortable in doing any or all of the following. We currently have a request from Connecticut legislative friends for healthcare leaders to speak out against reopening our state too quickly and what that might mean for a rebound of cases, but we also get other requests. 1. 30 second video for FB/Twitter/Press 2. Letters to the editor 3. Speaking to reporters (either on or off the record) 4. Sending internal messages to your members (many already doing this) Just email or text me to let me know, or if any of your members are up to it. Reminder: Please give me as much info as you can about what the different hospital systems are doing as far as Workers Comp on these points: 1. Are members being put on Paid Administrative Leave if they are Covid positive/out sick? 2. Are member’s medical bills being covered by the hospital? 3. Are members having problems with the healthcare systems trying to say an illness was not acquired at work? I need to get these answers to the Governor’s office ASAP. Thank you to those who have responded. Please take care of yourselves, John