The Daily Signal - What a Nurse Wants You to Know About the COVID-19 Pandemic

Episode Date: March 23, 2020

America’s medical professionals are doing all they can to ensure the best care for COVID-19 patients. But in order to slow the spread of the virus and give hospitals the time they need to prepare for a potential influx of patients, nurse McKinley Mather-Pike says there are several things we can all be doing.  Mather-Pike, who lives in Wilmington, North Carolina, also explains how we can safely care for our elderly loved ones in this time and what to do if you think you might have COVID-19. Listen to the podcast below.  Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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This is the Daily Signal podcast for Monday, March 23rd. I'm Robert Lewy. And I'm Virginia Allen. We hope that you're all healthy and safe. We here at the Daily Signal are continuing to work from home, so we do apologize if our sound quality is not quite as good as usual, but we're definitely thankful for the ability to keep podcasting through this season. We sure are Virginia. On today's show, we will be sharing Virginia's interview with McKinley

Mather Pike. She explains what it is like inside hospitals right now and offers suggestions for how we can protect our elderly loved ones from contracting COVID-19. We also share your letters to the editor and some much-needed good news about how communities across America are helping senior citizens stay safe through the coronavirus pandemic. Before we get to today's show, we want to tell you about another great way to keep up with the news right now. The Morning Bell is a daily weekday newsletter that delivers the top news and commentary directly to your inbox for free. Every morning, the Daily Signal will send you the latest news on COVID-19, analysis from Heritage Foundation experts, and keep you up to date on the top news stories that conservatives need to know. It's easy to sign up. Just visit DailySignal.com and click on the news.

the connect button in the top right corner of the page. We'll start sending you the morning bell tomorrow. Now, stay tuned for today's show coming up next. I am joined by McKinley Matherpike, a nurse at New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, North Carolina, and a dear friend of mine. McKinley, thanks so much for being here. Absolutely. Now, most Americans are trying to stay away from hospitals right now because we know that you all are super swamped. So tell us a little bit about what the atmosphere is right now in your hospital. I mean, are patients pretty freaked out? Are people staying calm? I think, so it's, I think it varies significantly depending on the floor you're on.

I work on a surgical floor, and so, which will be quite interesting because the surgeon general actually has recommended that all elective surgeries be canceled in my hospital, just started doing that on Friday. And I've not been back to work since then. So I guess they started that, they started that today, I think, or they started it previously. But anyway, I work on a surgical floor. So that will be changing the way that we are working pretty significantly. But on the medical floors, that might look quite different because they're getting patients more so who are coming in with medical issues, which would be COVID-19, things like that. But we have only had in New Hanover County one confirmed case.

So at this point, things are not very significant. And I think for the most part, medical professionals are trying to keep the stress of that outside of patient rooms because, you know, that doesn't help patients who are trying to heal when they're stressed out about other things that are outside of their diagnosis. Sure, sure. So how is your hospital, though, preparing doctors and nurses for the potential of a flood of corona cases? Because I know North Carolina has had some of the fewest number of cases in as far as in the states. But obviously, things change rapidly, you know, day by day.

So are you all really be giving the tools and kind of the information for this is what it will look like if all of a sudden, you know, we do have hundreds of cases? Yes and no. I think there's, we really didn't know a lot about this virus when the outbreak started. And so it's quite interesting because information has been changing on almost an hourly basis. And I think the medical staff, especially nurses who are really involved with bedside patient care, have been very wary of it. and there's a lot more people who are coming in and being tested. And so the nursing staff that I have been around, they've been quite nervous. I think the hospital is probably the cleanest it's been in a really long time.

But it's also a little bit disconcerting because the hospital was saying, hey, don't wear the masks because we have a shortage of supplies with the COVID-19 virus. And so we want to make sure that if we do have an outbreak, we're able to protect people appropriately. And so they said, don't wear the mask. It doesn't help to prevent the spread of it. But then, on the other hand, when we went over what the protocol would be, if we're taking care of a positive COVID-19 patient, we're supposed to wear the mask, along with other articles of personal protective equipment. And so there is some difficulty in trying to decipher what is helpful and what is actually going to prevent the virus and what is not because we're hearing two different stories.

And I think that that's caused a bit of mistrust in the medical staff. And that's been a cause of concern. and just with the limited supplies, nurses have been, you know, that's what I can speak to the most, being that's my profession, nurses have been frustrated and wary with all of that. Yeah. And, I mean, it sounds like probably a lot of that confusion just comes from a lack of information. We don't exactly know what works to prevent that. Absolutely. Yeah. So if I think that I have COVID-19. Should I go to the hospital or what do I do? Yes. So you should most certainly quarantine yourself and you should wear a mask if you have one available so that in the process of getting

the adequate treatment, you're not potentially spreading it to more people because it is highly contagious. And so it would be ideal for you to go to a testing site, whether that's the hospital. there are some local places. I know in various regions that are offering test sites. And so whatever is your best option for getting to a test, that would be what you would need to do. And I know that some, I've heard in some places, like more on the West Coast, they've actually had hospitals that are now dedicated to if you have COVID-19, you know, go to this specific hospital. your community. How is your hospital and how are you hearing that other hospitals are dealing with, you know, having COVID-19 patients coming in and making sure that those patients aren't going to infect

other patients in the hospital that, you know, maybe just had a surgery or this or that? Yeah. Yeah. So in my hospital specifically, we have implemented very strict visitor limitations on, for all the patients in the hospital. And every, visitor who comes in is being asked a series of questions and they have to get their temperature checked and they are the only person who's allowed to visit that patient and they have to be an immediate family member. So that helps limit the amount of influx of people from the hospital. So that limits the spread of it if someone's coming in just visiting. And then with patients who come in who are deemed as patients under investigation, P-UIs, if they come in, if they come in,

they are as soon as possible given a negative pressure room, which is what you use for any sort of pathogen that can be transmitted through airborne transmission. And so this negative pressure room keeps all of that air inside the room and you have to go through a door that is like an antechamber into the room before you enter into that room. And so that keeps any airborne pathogens from getting into other areas where they could potentially infect other people. And then anyone who's entering that room has to have the appropriate personal protective equipment or PPE. Interesting. That makes sense. So what do we know right now about the way that Corona acts

in the body? I mean, if I get it, how long is a person usually sick, if they are reasonably healthy and, you know, able to recover? And what, what are those symptoms? Yeah. So, I'll be honest, I haven't done a ton of research, but what I know about it is, first of all, coronavirus is a very common virus. It's just this specific strain that has caused such an issue. Coronavirus can be the common cold, but it also has more severe strains like, like SARS and things like that. So coronavirus is, it comes in many, many forms. And this form is highly contagious. The COVID-19 form is very contagious.

And there are some people who are asymptomatic. But then there are the higher risk groups like our elderly population or immunocompromise population who experience this virus as much more severe. And that's where you're having the higher death rates and things like that. but there are a lot of people who are infected who would have minor symptoms, like a dry cough, sneezing, and fever. And so it would look similar to a lot of other colds. But being that it's going around quite quickly,

that would be something that you would need to be more wary about than, you know, typically in the winter, you're calm and cold. But with the population that is more significantly, affected. What you see happening is it ends up causing a lot of respiratory issues. And I think it is like around day eight is when they're seeing the respiratory issues become life-threatening for that at-risk population. And they're having to go on respiratory support and be ventilated at times. And that's where you're seeing the high mortality rates. Interesting. So for a person who gets it and recovers, do we know if there's a possibility of any, like, long-term damages to, let's say, a person's lungs or their health in general?

Yeah, not that I'm aware of. And, I mean, always if someone recovers from it and they had to be intubated or they had to be ventilated for a long period of time, of course, there are issues that go along with ventilator-associated complications. but as far as the sickness itself, I don't have an answer for that. But I do know that they have had cases where people have been reinfected who had COVID-19 and then they recovered and then they got it again. I think there was a case of that in China. Interesting. So unfortunately, it's also allergy season. So it can be a little bit confusing when you're starting to get allergies and then your mind is also raising a bit

I have COVID-19? Are there any tells of like, okay, you know, I know this is just allergies or wait, I should actually be more concerned that this is more than allergies or do we not know? Yeah, typically allergies, you're not going to have a fever, right? And so if you develop a fever along with those allergy type symptoms, then you would need to be concerned that maybe, hey, this is something more than just my seasonal allergies. Okay, that's good to know. All right, let's talk for a second about prevention. You know, so many people are social distancing and trying to avoid going out. How important is social distancing to keeping this virus from spreading? Oh, it's incredibly important. I mean, because this is spread from person to person through, I mean,

it's a respiratory issue. And so, you know, when you're coughing, you're spreading that and you can spread up to six feet. And so social distancing is highly important. It is the best thing that we can do as a community and as a nation to keep ourselves and our loved ones healthy, especially those who we might could bring it home to because like I said before, you can be a carrier like a vector and not realize that you are carrying at home. And even though you are most likely to spread it when you are exhibiting symptoms, you can spread it when you're not exhibiting symptoms. And so, for example, I live with a lady who is immunocompromised. And so me working at the hospital, that's been a concern for me. And so I've been trying to keep my distance from people as much as possible. But at the same

time, like when I go into work, I'm wearing a mask every day. And that's not required of hospital professionals, the healthcare professionals, but I'm wearing a mask so that I'm not bringing it home to her. So even if you're not at an at-risk category, there may be people in your life who are, and you have to think beyond just yourself. And like, you have to think about the people that you could come in contact to without realizing that you could be infecting them. So that social distancing is so important. You cannot state how highly important that is. Yeah. Now, let's say I go to the grocery store to pick up groceries for my elderly neighbor and, you know, I'm dropping them off, I'm leaving them on her front porch. I mean, even while I'm shopping for those groceries, should I be wearing gloves?

Like, do I need to be that conscious? So I don't know that you would necessarily need to be wearing gloves. But I would say hand hygiene is the most important thing that you can do to help prevent the social distancing and the hand hygiene. And so, and you want to make sure hand hygiene also includes that you're not touching. your eyes, your mouth, your nose, you know, you're not touching your face, keeping some distance there because you could potentially come in contact with the pathogen and then in the process of, you know, wiping your eye or something like that, you could introduce it to your own system. And so just making sure that you have hand sanitizer available, that you're washing your hands frequently. As soon as you

come into your house, when you're leaving the grocery store, you know, having some hand sanitizer that can just quickly put on your hands before you're getting into your car and even having some wipes where you can wipe down your handle, your wheel, things like that. Makes sense. So as a healthcare professional, are you optimistic about the future of this virus and a possible vaccine being discovered? The difficulty with vaccines and just any new medication. Vaccines, though, what we can speak to is that it takes a very long time to be able to have a vaccine that's ready for public consumption, so to speak. So like if you take the flu vaccine, for example, the flu vaccine takes the top strains from the previous year and they work during

that whole year to develop the vaccine so that we can introduce it as a live attenuated virus, as a live attenuated vaccine, I mean, so that, you know, they go through testing and they, It takes a lot. It's not just like, okay, hey, we'll, we'll capture the virus and we'll, we'll weaken it and then we'll inject it into people. Like, it has to go through so many different tests. And so I think because of how rapidly this is spreading, it would be, I think we would see our peak before we would see a vaccine, but not to say that we couldn't get one for the future, you know, and that it could be helpful for, you know, future, future viruses. but I think for right now, like in the middle of what we're in right now,

I think that we would definitely have already surpassed that critical period. Okay. Yeah. And I know, I mean, a lot of people are saying, you know, it's good that summer is coming and that we will likely see, you know, maybe the virus die down a little bit just in the warmer weather. Are you optimistic about that? I want to say yes because typically, you know, cold season is, is in the winter and this is sort of like a cold or respiratory issue and we have a lot more

respiratory issues in the winter months but then you look at other countries like you know south africa where we were seeing more cases crop up and uh they're in the heat of summer um or just past the heat of summer you know and so um i this could react differently from previous cold-like viruses that we've seen that typically present in the wintertime. But I don't know. I would like to say I'm an optimistic person, but just with this virus, I think there's a lot of unknowns with it. So yes, I'm hopeful, but there are cases where it shows that it could present otherwise. Interesting. McKinley, thank you so much for your time today. We really appreciate it. Absolutely. Thanks for having me on.

Do conversations about the Supreme Court leave you scratching your head? If you want to understand what's happening at the court, subscribe to SCOTUS 101, a Heritage Foundation podcast, breaking down the cases, personalities, and gossip at the Supreme Court. Thanks for sending us your letters to the editor. Each Monday, we feature our favorites on this show and in the Daily Signal's Morning Bell email newsletter. Virginia, who do you have? In response to Nicole Russell's article entitled Four Ways to Work from Home and Still Parent, amid the Coronavirus, pandemic. Jeff Stevenson writes, this type of information should be pushed over fear mongering. I would rather see information on sites I can go to for ideas to keep my kids educated,

busy, and interested. Well, thank you so much, Mr. Stevenson. We certainly appreciate that, and we hope that you continue to check out the Daily Signal and the Heritage Foundation website for resources, for ideas of things to do with your kids, and how to stay active and busy during this season. Well, I certainly am Virginia with two kids in elementary school. It has come in handy. And in response to Fred Lucas's article, Four Ways Coronavirus May Change How You Vote, Karen Calloway writes, I am not in favor of remote voting. If they require an ID and last known address, then it might be possible. Otherwise, it is a meteor hole that will allow a whole bunch of boat harvesting with no guarantee that the person is alive, a non-alien, has full citizenship, or they actually live in the district where they, are voting. Your letter could be featured on next week's show. You can send us an email at

Letters at daily signal.com or leave a voicemail message at 202-608-6205. Are you looking for quick conservative policy solutions to current issues? Sign up for Heritage's weekly newsletter, The Agenda. In the agenda, you will learn what issues Heritage Scholars on Capitol Hill are working on, what position conservatives are taking, and links to our in-depth research. The agenda also provides information on important events happening here at Heritage that you can watch online, as well as media interviews from our experts. Sign up for the agenda on heritage.org today. Virginia, you have a good news story to share with us today. Over to you. Thanks so much, Rob. All over America and the world right now, people are staying home in an effort to avoid catching or spreading COVID-19.

Coronavirus poses the greatest threat to the elderly, but so many communities and even, individuals have taken it upon themselves to deliver groceries, prescriptions, and other needed supplies to seniors. Lieutenant James Novak and Sergeant Tom Sheehan work for the Saranville, New Jersey Police Department and are regularly delivering groceries to those 65 and older. But they're not the only ones. People all across America are taking similar action to help the older generation in their community.

Kirkland Air Force Base firefighter Matt Mello posted on social media, offering to pick up groceries for those afraid to venture out. Albuquerque's K-R-Q-E-News 13 featured mellows acts of kindness in a recent story. Take a listen. My parents are both older, and it just got me thinking that while my parents have a support system, they're elderly and people with underlying medical conditions that aren't, that don't have that same support system. I really want to encourage all of our young listeners to call the older people in your life, people from your church or your neighbors and see what they need. And to our older audience, please do not hesitate to ask for help.

So many young people like myself, we're eager to help. We just don't always know how. So please reach out and let us know what you need. And if you're seeing acts of kindness being done in your community, we want to hear about those. So send us a letter at Letters at DailySignal.com. Or you can send me a direct message on Twitter, Virginia underscore Allen 5. and we might feature those stories right here on the podcast.

Virginia, thank you so much for sharing that story. We hope that everyone is staying healthy and safe. And with that, we're going to leave it there for today. You can find the Daily Signal podcast on the Rurkishay Audio Network. All our shows can be found at dailysignal.com slash podcasts. You can also subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app. And be sure to listen every weekday by adding the Daily Signal podcast, as part of your Alexa Flash briefing.

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