In an article published by Bloomberg Today, the famous journalist Michael Lewis, author of Money ball, The great short and The fifth riskAmong other notable works, he writes about his recent amazing visit to the Humboldt County Public Health Department, of all places. The piece is worth reading. You can see it here.
Much of the article centers on Lewis’s conversations with public health nurse Erica Dykehouse, who goes into great detail about the long days of work she has spent trying to prevent the local spread of COVID-19. The overall image he paints is not so comforting. Even as confirmed cases increase, she says that infected and potentially infected people she contacts are increasingly willing to help her or heed her advice.
“Many of these people are taking their medical information off Facebook,” Dykehouse tells Lewis. Another unidentified public health employee described Humboldt’s recent increase in coronavirus cases and said seriously: “We feel that we are losing control of the situation. People are understanding it and we don’t know where. ”
Dykehouse shared some stories about possible cases of Humboldt coronavirus that we’ll quickly share here:
Two cases caught in Erica’s mind. One was a 70-year-old couple, both possibly contagious. She found them, told them to quarantine, and they turned around and hosted a big barbecue on the fourth of July. When she tried to contact guests who might have been infected, she found them dismissive or rude. “You have all these little social networks that are hostile,” he said. “Most of the time they are polite enough to hang up. But I’m trying to develop thick skin. “
The other case that stuck in his head was the methamphetamine dealer. Public health nurses contacted him shortly after he became infected and, although he dismissed his advice, they said he would isolate himself. Erica suspected that he was still sneaking out at night, and her suspicion was confirmed when he infected a friend of hers, who in turn infected her daughter-in-law. The friend’s daughter-in-law, who had no symptoms, went to his job at Alder Bay Assisted Living, a nursing home in Eureka. More than a dozen staff members and residents were infected. Four died.
Read Lewis’s full article: “Confessions of a California COVID Nurse”
