Thursday, April 2, 2020

STUDY SUGGESTS HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE MAY HELP CORONAVIRUS PATIENTS


NYT: Small Study Shows Hydroxychloroquine's Positive Impact on Coronavirus Patients

Guy Benson
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Posted: Apr 02, 2020 1:15 PM

NYT: Small Study Shows Hydroxychloroquine's Positive Impact on Coronavirus Patients
A few caveats, to begin: First, Dr. Anthony Fauci is correct to caution that before we start celebrating a true therapeutic breakthrough that can be safely applied to Coronavirus patients writ large, reliable clinical studies must be completed.  Second, the following headline is based on a study performed in China, so there are reasons galore to view it skeptically.  Nevertheless, the accompanying New York Times story is hopeful -- and this development is another breadcrumb along a trail to real progress:
The malaria drug hydroxychloroquine helped to speed the recovery of a small number of patients who were mildly ill from the coronavirus, doctors in China reported this week. Cough, fever and pneumonia went away faster, and the disease seemed less likely to turn severe in people who received hydroxychloroquine than in a comparison group not given the drug. The authors of the report said that the medication was promising, but that more research was needed to clarify how it might work in treating coronavirus disease and to determine the best way to use it. “It’s going to send a ripple of excitement out through the treating community,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University. The study was small and limited to patients who were mildly or moderately ill, not severe cases. Like many reports about the coronavirus, it was posted at medRxiv, an online server for medical articles, before undergoing peer review by other researchers. But the findings strongly support earlier studies suggesting a role for the drug, Dr. Schaffner said.
Additional breadcrumbs: Tucker Carlson highlighted a French study that also seemed to show positive effects from hydroxychloroquine, which reportedly had some major methodological issues.  But time is of the essence, and if a number of smaller, less-than-reliable studies are pointing in the same, optimistic direction, it would be malpractice not to take notice.  Here's another doctor touting this form of treatment (in a clip shared by another doctor), noting the impact among his patients:
A man from Michigan, meanwhile, has credited this same drug combination for a rapid reversal of fortunes in his battle with COVID-19:
"I was struggling to breathe. I felt like I was slowly drowning and I was sitting there thinking I'm not going to make it until midnight," he said. Santilli says the experimental drugs Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin brought him back from the brink.  The 38-year old was prescribed the drugs a little more than a week ago at Henry Ford Macomb where he was hospitalized for COVID-19. He says a doctor told him they'd exhausted treatment options. An infectious disease physician recommended he try both. "He stated at that point for COVID-19 patients they saw a lot of positive results in China and South Korea it would be advantageous to try it," Santilli said. "Right away I saw improvements in a few hours: the gasping for air stopped; a lot of my symptoms went away, and really it was a turning point almost a 180 degree turn as to what I was experiencing." The FDA recently approved shipping Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine products to public health authorities across the country to treat severe cases of COVID-19
I am (obviously) not a doctor, and I'm not saying that this is anything close to a silver bullet.  I agree that wider trials are needed in order for the Hydroxychloroquine/Azithromycin cocktail to be considered a bona fide, approved treatment.  One such trial is currently playing out in real time among more than 1,000 patients in New York, and another is ramping up in Seattle.  For the moment, evidence remains scant, anecdotal, and small-scale.  Shortages are a real concern.  But the drumbeat of negativity from many in the press -- which has certainly felt like more than healthy journalistic skepticism at times -- seems to be about President Trump's optimism in mentioning this particular mix of drugs.  
The worst example of this political "gotcha" was a now-infamous NBC News story about a couple (lefty Democratic donors, as it turns out) who ingested aquarium cleaning product, mistaking it for the drug Trump had mentioned (with more rhetorical restraint than usual, I'd add) on several occasions.  The husband tragically died, the wife implicated the president, and NBC reported it, burying the 'aquarium' detail, and setting off a fevered round of Trump blame among the usual suspects.  As more optimistic evidence on this front arrives (this thread is also anecdotal but worth considering), the reflexive naysaying -- which was tellingly directed at Trump, but not Cuomo -- looks ever pettier and more partisan.  Twitter ought to explain why conservative Americans are being suspended for discussing these outcomes, while Chinese propagandists remain free to share their actual misinformation on the platform.  I'll leave you with more potentially good news on antibody treatment and vaccine developments, as well as a reminder about the urgency of verifying and implementing such treatments over the coming months:

Out of Work: Jobless Claims Jump to 6.6 Million

American Optimism Amid Coronavirus
Gabrielle Lurie/AFP/Getty Images
4:55
More than 6.6 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week.
The record 6,648,000 seasonally adjusted claims figure comes after 3.3 million sought benefits two weeks ago. Claims have skyrocketed after large segments of the U.S. economy shut down in response to government orders aimed at combating the coronavirus pandemic.
Economists had expected claims to remain around 3 to 4 million but few had confidence about such forecasts in light of the rapidly changing economic conditions.
On an unadjusted basis, new claims came in at 5.8 million. Some economists will look to that as a more accurate read of the labor market because seasonal adjustments are less relevant in the unusual circumstances prevailing now.
Initial jobless claims are a proxy for layoffs. The extremely high levels recorded in the past two weeks are an indication that businesses have let go millions of workers as demand for goods and services, as well as the ability to provide them, has fallen dramatically due to fears of the virus and orders to stay at home.
The layoffs are widespread across the U.S., according to state-by-state data reported with a one week delay. All states reported increases in initial claims for the week ending March 21. The largest increases were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Massachusetts, Texas, and California. The smallest increases were in the Virgin Islands, South Dakota, West Virginia, Vermont, and Wyoming.
“This kind of upending of the labor market in such a short time is unheard of,” said Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank.
Some of last week’s jobless claims are likely delayed filings from the previous week, when state offices that handle unemployment benefits were overwhelmed by a surge of online and telephone claims. Yet many of those offices are still struggling to process all the claims they have received. As a result, applications for benefits will likely remain extraordinarily high over the coming weeks.
The magnitude of the layoffs has led many economists to envision as many as 20 million lost jobs by the end of April. That would be more than double the 8.7 million jobs lost during the Great Recession. The unemployment rate could spike to as high as 15% this month, above the previous record of 10.8% set during a deep recession in 1982.
Employers are slashing their payrolls to try to stay afloat because their revenue has collapsed, especially at restaurants, hotels, gyms, movie theaters and other venues that depend on face-to-face interaction. Auto sales have sunk, and factories have closed.
Roughly 90% of the U.S. population is now under stay-at-home orders, which have been imposed by most U.S. states. This trend has intensified pressure on businesses, most of which face rent, loans and other bills that must be paid.
Requests for jobless aid soared in all 50 states. In California, nearly 900,000 people sought benefits last week, almost four times the previous week’s figure, and equivalent to 5% of the state’s workforce.
In Michigan, jobless claims more than doubled last week to 311,000. In Florida, filings tripled to 227,000. In South Dakota, they quadrupled to 6,645.
How long the waves of layoffs last — an unknown — will be a key factor in determining the depth of the recession. Some companies are maintaining ties to laid-off workers, in hopes of rehiring them once the coronavirus outbreak passes. Relatively swift rehirings would help the economy rebound quickly. But if business shutdowns persist into the late summer or fall, many smaller businesses will likely go bankrupt. That would make it harder for workers to find jobs and would prolong the downturn.
The $2.2 trillion rescue package that was signed into law last week includes $350 billion in small business loans that can be forgiven if the companies use the money to retain or rehire workers. This provision could help limit future layoffs or lead some companies to recall employees back to work.
“The program is unprecedented, generous and ambitious and could be successful,” said Luke Tilley, chief economist at Wilmington Trust. “That said, it is challenging to roll out quickly.”
The economic rescue package also added $600 a week in jobless aid, on top of what recipients receive from their states. This will enable many lower-income workers to manage their expenses and even increase their purchasing power and support the economy.



Third World Immigrant Medical Workers Exploited by NYC Democrats





For the last two weeks my cellphone has been ringing non-stop as healthcare recruiters from all over the Northeast have been trying to contact me.  Pay rates for RNs, LPNs, PCTs, and CNAs in New York City have almost doubled seemingly overnight and they keep going up.  Salaried doctors and nurses already on staff are facing some pay cuts, but NYC hospitals and nursing homes are desperate, and many recruiters are about to make a killing adding desperately-needed support staff that deal directly with pateints.  Something’s not adding up.
Less than a month ago, at the now infamous Elmhurst Hospital in Queens where patients with the Chinese virus are reportedly dropping like flies, the same recruiters were only willing to pay nursing assistants and patient care techs the federally mandated minimum wage with zero medical benefits, zero paid time off, and zero opportunities for a pay raise or professional advancement. 
To put this into perspective, just a month ago, a person pouring hot beverages at an upscale coffee house or bagging groceries at a high-end food emporium in New York City made more money than a healthcare worker who was exposed to some of the same chaos and life threatening illnesses as is being reported on the news today. 
The 24-hour news cycle shows Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo falling all over themselves to commend the “bravery and selflessness” of New York City’s frontline medical personnel.  But why has it taken this pandemic for all of this praise and money to be heaped upon people who have been overworked and underpaid for years?
The answer is simple.  Most of these workers are Third World transplants that form an endless pool of disposable low-wage labor for New York City’s nursing homes and hospitals.  Many of them, yes even the RNs, have very low literacy skills; and having barely passed their licensure exams, they will put up with anything to keep their jobs.  No amount of abuse is too much.  And in fact, most of them are locked into their pre-Chinese virus wages, which means they are risking their lives and those of their loved ones for $15.00 an hour in one of the most expensive cities in the world. 
However, the despicable ways in which these medical workers are treated notwithstanding, there are other issues that make this topic somewhat challenging to deal with.  Unfortunately, it is impossible to draw attention to the conditions that these people are subjected to without drawing attention to ways in which they contribute to their own suffering and to the suffering of others around them. 
For one, these workers tend to have complete disregard for professional standards.  Second, because they are willing to work for cheap, healthcare facilities are reluctant to hire actual Americans with standard literacy skills; and third, since they tend to be ignorant of and apathetic towards the state labor laws, they enable abusive behavior from foreign born superiors -- behavior that would never be tolerated by acculturated Americans.  Although what these immigrant medical workers have to deal with on a daily basis is quite profound and needs to be addressed, one first needs to talk about how these people contribute to their own wage stagnation and why they are treated by healthcare agencies and many direct employers like slave laborers.
When I first started receiving calls about a week ago to work permanently at Elmhurst Hospital, even though the money was very tempting, two things made me decide against it: my health and the prospect of working with these low culture immigrants, mostly women from the Caribbean (Jamaica and Haiti), Africa, and the Philippines.  My apprehension was two-fold.  These women tend to be unhelpful, verbally combative and sometimes even outright refusing to speak English on the floor, making their medical units a multicultural nightmare.  Their indifference to professional protocol also means that they can put your own license at risk.  I have personally witnessed medical directors coming close to being suspended and investigated for careless mistakes made by medical subordinates who lied and covered up to save their own hides. 
Careless mistakes happen because these workers tend to be very easily distracted, with very short attention spans.  The chief contributor to all of this is that most of them are unnaturally addicted to their cellphones, using every free moment to check social media accounts, make calls, and to watch insipid videos.  In most unionized facilities in New York City (1199 SEIU), walk onto any medical unit, especially in the nursing homes, and you will see bells ringing non-stop and patients in distress.  But somewhere on the floor you will also find a cluster of nursing aides and nurses laughing loudly while watching videos until a supervisor is forced to come to the floor to crack the whip.  In union houses they are very difficult to get rid of, and in non-union houses a flock of new hires is always waiting to take the place of those who have just been cut off.  It’s a no-win situation.
Americans like me stick out like a sore thumb among people like this, which is why you see so few of us on these units.  Various forms of subterfuge are used to discourage skilled Americans from applying for these jobs.  Proper English grammar skills, both written and oral, are not seen as an asset, they’re seen as a threat.  Being able to relate to patients in a professional manner instead of inspiring a calm and positive working environment, inspires jealousy.  And advanced technical knowledge or even trying to maintain cleanliness and order is met with antipathy.  Based on my experiences, I am convinced that one of the reasons that the Chinese virus has spread so rapidly in the city’s hospitals and nursing homes is because many of these workers have poor hygiene habits.  In my observations, they use bare hands to do almost everything, with scrupulous hand washing rarely taking place.  Being around people like this literally gives me the willies, which is why, again, I have turned down numerous offers. 
In the end, workers like this who are simply not willing to raise their professional game tend not to have a leg to stand on when it comes to rate increases or being treated with respect.  Their lack of interest in professional advancement is what continues to keep them at the bottom of the food chain in the medical field.  But the effects of their dysfunctional behavior are very far reaching.
Socialist Dems like Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo know that the heartbeat of far-left New York is heavily dependent upon this kind of disposable and civically ignorant labor.   Those workers who have managed to attain American citizenship overwhelmingly vote Democrat as CNN and MSNBC are the televised mainstays in most medical facilities.  Their hatred for President Trump is rabid because they see him as anti-immigrant. 
Thus, the mayor and other politicians like AOC never encourage this group to aspire towards attaining higher skill sets to meet market demands and making more money. Instead, they frame their plight in the language of division: the proletariat vs the bourgeoisie; business owners against the working class; President Trump against The Immigrant.  Third World people who come from socialist countries with authoritarian leaders are very comfortable with understanding their lives in this way.  This is how political jujitsu works.
There is a pandemic going on that is helping to move this vital issue away from the close scrutiny that it deserves.  The Democrats have managed to talk out of both sides of their mouth regarding this issue, demonstrating their absolute best identity politics skills.  They are teaching the master class how to keep the boot on the necks of the working maggots, as they feign compassion for the very people that they are crushing. 
On the one hand, they pretend that they want the best for these people, like making more money and access to best that they city has to offer.  Frontline workers this, frontline workers that.  On the other hand, the politicians need these people to stay poor, uneducated, and to be filled with despair, or else they are out of a job.  That’s just how the game works because no one is willing to call their bluff.

JOBLESS CLAIMS SOAR! - DEMOCRATS AND BIDEN SAY AMNESTY FOR 40 MILLION ILLEGALS WILL ENABLE THEM TO BRING UP THE REST OF MEXICO, VOTE DEMOCRAT FOR MORE AND KEEP WAGES DEPRESSED!

Coronavirus: As unemployment claims surge, non-English speakers struggle to file applications

For some, lack of internet access compounds the challenges

 

PUBLISHED:  | UPDATED: 
Candelaria Pablo Perez picked up the phone recently and heard what is now a familiar story. The man on the other line, a non-English speaker, had lost work due to the coronavirus shutdown and had questions about how to file for unemployment.
But in Perez’ case, the situation was a little more unusual: The man spoke Mam, a Mayan language native to Guatemala that is becoming increasingly common in the Bay Area.
Pablo Perez, a native Mam speaker who was hired as a community engagement assistant by the Oakland-based Unity Council, walked him through the application over the phone, answering his questions about eligibility and helping translate his application into English before it was submitted. The process took nearly two hours.
Pablo Perez’s client is among the tens of thousands of Californians applying for unemployment as coronavirus-related closures put increasing numbers of people out of work. But like many foreign language speakers, he faced the additional barrier of having to submit an application in Spanish or English, the only two languages unemployment insurance claims can be submitted in. He speaks neither of those languages fluently. Unity Council said it is fielding so many requests that it is now training existing staff in how to help field the growing number of unemployment questions from clients more comfortable in their native languages.
In diverse California, where roughly 44% of the population speaks a language other than English at home and 27 % are foreign born, the state’s Employment Development Department offers more than 70 language options to translate the content of its website, from Latvian to Yiddish, Swahili and Hmong, among others. But to file for unemployment, the applications themselves must be filed out — either online, faxed or mailed — in English or Spanish. The department does provide sample applications for Armenian, Chinese-Cantonese, Chinese-Mandarin, Hmong, Korean, Laotian, Punjabi, Russian, Tagalog, and Vietnamese, speakers, but will not accept claims submitted in those languages.
Organizations working with immigrant communities and non-English speakers  — from Mam to Vietnamese and Chinese — say clients are having trouble submitting claims on their own at a time when they can no longer get help in person because most non-profit employees are working remotely.
The challenges are primarily twofold: Many of these new filers do not understand the bureaucratic and technical language of the application even when it is translated into their native languages, and low-wage and elderly workers without internet access or basic computer skills have few options for filing now that agencies, nonprofits, libraries, and cafes that used to offer internet access or support are closed.
In California, the number of new unemployment claims last week totaled nearly 879,000, the U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s almost five times more than the jobless claims filed statewide in the week of March 21. Gov. Gavin Newsom estimated the state has received roughly 1.6 million claims for unemployment insurance since mid-March, an increase that could thrust California into an unemployment rate of 12  this spring.
EDD does not track claims by language, but for those not fluent in English or Spanish, filing a claim is daunting.
“Giving something that’s translated from English to Vietnamese doesn’t help them,” says Shirley Gee, executive director of the Vietnamese American Community Center of the East Bay, which works primarily with local Southeast Asian communities. “They don’t know what to do: ‘Do I go online? How do I fill this out? What does it mean when they say this?’ You literally have to have someone who speaks the language who can ask the question in different forms so they can provide the answer. You have to talk them through it orally.”
George Chan, executive director of the San Francisco-based Chinese Newcomers Service Center, estimates that about one-fifth of the people his organization works with don’t have internet access — particularly the elderly and economically insecure, two populations they serve. The EDD recommends filing unemployment claims online for the fastest processing, a challenge for low-income and low-tech Californians who are at home without internet. Although 74% of California households in 2017 had broadband services at home, just 55% of low-income households had internet access, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. African American and Latino households also had less access than the statewide average.



Out of Work: Jobless Claims Jump to 6.6 Million

American Optimism Amid Coronavirus
Gabrielle Lurie/AFP/Getty Images
4:55

More than 6.6 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week.
The record 6,648,000 seasonally adjusted claims figure comes after 3.3 million sought benefits two weeks ago. Claims have skyrocketed after large segments of the U.S. economy shut down in response to government orders aimed at combating the coronavirus pandemic.
Economists had expected claims to remain around 3 to 4 million but few had confidence about such forecasts in light of the rapidly changing economic conditions.
On an unadjusted basis, new claims came in at 5.8 million. Some economists will look to that as a more accurate read of the labor market because seasonal adjustments are less relevant in the unusual circumstances prevailing now.
Initial jobless claims are a proxy for layoffs. The extremely high levels recorded in the past two weeks are an indication that businesses have let go millions of workers as demand for goods and services, as well as the ability to provide them, has fallen dramatically due to fears of the virus and orders to stay at home.
The layoffs are widespread across the U.S., according to state-by-state data reported with a one week delay. All states reported increases in initial claims for the week ending March 21. The largest increases were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Massachusetts, Texas, and California. The smallest increases were in the Virgin Islands, South Dakota, West Virginia, Vermont, and Wyoming.
“This kind of upending of the labor market in such a short time is unheard of,” said Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank.
Some of last week’s jobless claims are likely delayed filings from the previous week, when state offices that handle unemployment benefits were overwhelmed by a surge of online and telephone claims. Yet many of those offices are still struggling to process all the claims they have received. As a result, applications for benefits will likely remain extraordinarily high over the coming weeks.
The magnitude of the layoffs has led many economists to envision as many as 20 million lost jobs by the end of April. That would be more than double the 8.7 million jobs lost during the Great Recession. The unemployment rate could spike to as high as 15% this month, above the previous record of 10.8% set during a deep recession in 1982.
Employers are slashing their payrolls to try to stay afloat because their revenue has collapsed, especially at restaurants, hotels, gyms, movie theaters and other venues that depend on face-to-face interaction. Auto sales have sunk, and factories have closed.
Roughly 90% of the U.S. population is now under stay-at-home orders, which have been imposed by most U.S. states. This trend has intensified pressure on businesses, most of which face rent, loans and other bills that must be paid.
Requests for jobless aid soared in all 50 states. In California, nearly 900,000 people sought benefits last week, almost four times the previous week’s figure, and equivalent to 5% of the state’s workforce.
In Michigan, jobless claims more than doubled last week to 311,000. In Florida, filings tripled to 227,000. In South Dakota, they quadrupled to 6,645.
How long the waves of layoffs last — an unknown — will be a key factor in determining the depth of the recession. Some companies are maintaining ties to laid-off workers, in hopes of rehiring them once the coronavirus outbreak passes. Relatively swift rehirings would help the economy rebound quickly. But if business shutdowns persist into the late summer or fall, many smaller businesses will likely go bankrupt. That would make it harder for workers to find jobs and would prolong the downturn.
The $2.2 trillion rescue package that was signed into law last week includes $350 billion in small business loans that can be forgiven if the companies use the money to retain or rehire workers. This provision could help limit future layoffs or lead some companies to recall employees back to work.
“The program is unprecedented, generous and ambitious and could be successful,” said Luke Tilley, chief economist at Wilmington Trust. “That said, it is challenging to roll out quickly.”
The economic rescue package also added $600 a week in jobless aid, on top of what recipients receive from their states. This will enable many lower-income workers to manage their expenses and even increase their purchasing power and support the economy.



Third World Immigrant Medical Workers Exploited by NYC Democrats





For the last two weeks my cellphone has been ringing non-stop as healthcare recruiters from all over the Northeast have been trying to contact me.  Pay rates for RNs, LPNs, PCTs, and CNAs in New York City have almost doubled seemingly overnight and they keep going up.  Salaried doctors and nurses already on staff are facing some pay cuts, but NYC hospitals and nursing homes are desperate, and many recruiters are about to make a killing adding desperately-needed support staff that deal directly with pateints.  Something’s not adding up.
Less than a month ago, at the now infamous Elmhurst Hospital in Queens where patients with the Chinese virus are reportedly dropping like flies, the same recruiters were only willing to pay nursing assistants and patient care techs the federally mandated minimum wage with zero medical benefits, zero paid time off, and zero opportunities for a pay raise or professional advancement. 
To put this into perspective, just a month ago, a person pouring hot beverages at an upscale coffee house or bagging groceries at a high-end food emporium in New York City made more money than a healthcare worker who was exposed to some of the same chaos and life threatening illnesses as is being reported on the news today. 
The 24-hour news cycle shows Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo falling all over themselves to commend the “bravery and selflessness” of New York City’s frontline medical personnel.  But why has it taken this pandemic for all of this praise and money to be heaped upon people who have been overworked and underpaid for years?
The answer is simple.  Most of these workers are Third World transplants that form an endless pool of disposable low-wage labor for New York City’s nursing homes and hospitals.  Many of them, yes even the RNs, have very low literacy skills; and having barely passed their licensure exams, they will put up with anything to keep their jobs.  No amount of abuse is too much.  And in fact, most of them are locked into their pre-Chinese virus wages, which means they are risking their lives and those of their loved ones for $15.00 an hour in one of the most expensive cities in the world. 
However, the despicable ways in which these medical workers are treated notwithstanding, there are other issues that make this topic somewhat challenging to deal with.  Unfortunately, it is impossible to draw attention to the conditions that these people are subjected to without drawing attention to ways in which they contribute to their own suffering and to the suffering of others around them. 
For one, these workers tend to have complete disregard for professional standards.  Second, because they are willing to work for cheap, healthcare facilities are reluctant to hire actual Americans with standard literacy skills; and third, since they tend to be ignorant of and apathetic towards the state labor laws, they enable abusive behavior from foreign born superiors -- behavior that would never be tolerated by acculturated Americans.  Although what these immigrant medical workers have to deal with on a daily basis is quite profound and needs to be addressed, one first needs to talk about how these people contribute to their own wage stagnation and why they are treated by healthcare agencies and many direct employers like slave laborers.
When I first started receiving calls about a week ago to work permanently at Elmhurst Hospital, even though the money was very tempting, two things made me decide against it: my health and the prospect of working with these low culture immigrants, mostly women from the Caribbean (Jamaica and Haiti), Africa, and the Philippines.  My apprehension was two-fold.  These women tend to be unhelpful, verbally combative and sometimes even outright refusing to speak English on the floor, making their medical units a multicultural nightmare.  Their indifference to professional protocol also means that they can put your own license at risk.  I have personally witnessed medical directors coming close to being suspended and investigated for careless mistakes made by medical subordinates who lied and covered up to save their own hides. 
Careless mistakes happen because these workers tend to be very easily distracted, with very short attention spans.  The chief contributor to all of this is that most of them are unnaturally addicted to their cellphones, using every free moment to check social media accounts, make calls, and to watch insipid videos.  In most unionized facilities in New York City (1199 SEIU), walk onto any medical unit, especially in the nursing homes, and you will see bells ringing non-stop and patients in distress.  But somewhere on the floor you will also find a cluster of nursing aides and nurses laughing loudly while watching videos until a supervisor is forced to come to the floor to crack the whip.  In union houses they are very difficult to get rid of, and in non-union houses a flock of new hires is always waiting to take the place of those who have just been cut off.  It’s a no-win situation.
Americans like me stick out like a sore thumb among people like this, which is why you see so few of us on these units.  Various forms of subterfuge are used to discourage skilled Americans from applying for these jobs.  Proper English grammar skills, both written and oral, are not seen as an asset, they’re seen as a threat.  Being able to relate to patients in a professional manner instead of inspiring a calm and positive working environment, inspires jealousy.  And advanced technical knowledge or even trying to maintain cleanliness and order is met with antipathy.  Based on my experiences, I am convinced that one of the reasons that the Chinese virus has spread so rapidly in the city’s hospitals and nursing homes is because many of these workers have poor hygiene habits.  In my observations, they use bare hands to do almost everything, with scrupulous hand washing rarely taking place.  Being around people like this literally gives me the willies, which is why, again, I have turned down numerous offers. 
In the end, workers like this who are simply not willing to raise their professional game tend not to have a leg to stand on when it comes to rate increases or being treated with respect.  Their lack of interest in professional advancement is what continues to keep them at the bottom of the food chain in the medical field.  But the effects of their dysfunctional behavior are very far reaching.
Socialist Dems like Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo know that the heartbeat of far-left New York is heavily dependent upon this kind of disposable and civically ignorant labor.   Those workers who have managed to attain American citizenship overwhelmingly vote Democrat as CNN and MSNBC are the televised mainstays in most medical facilities.  Their hatred for President Trump is rabid because they see him as anti-immigrant. 
Thus, the mayor and other politicians like AOC never encourage this group to aspire towards attaining higher skill sets to meet market demands and making more money. Instead, they frame their plight in the language of division: the proletariat vs the bourgeoisie; business owners against the working class; President Trump against The Immigrant.  Third World people who come from socialist countries with authoritarian leaders are very comfortable with understanding their lives in this way.  This is how political jujitsu works.
There is a pandemic going on that is helping to move this vital issue away from the close scrutiny that it deserves.  The Democrats have managed to talk out of both sides of their mouth regarding this issue, demonstrating their absolute best identity politics skills.  They are teaching the master class how to keep the boot on the necks of the working maggots, as they feign compassion for the very people that they are crushing. 
On the one hand, they pretend that they want the best for these people, like making more money and access to best that they city has to offer.  Frontline workers this, frontline workers that.  On the other hand, the politicians need these people to stay poor, uneducated, and to be filled with despair, or else they are out of a job.  That’s just how the game works because no one is willing to call their bluff.