The Heroism of Health Workers in the Coronavirus Crisis – The New York Times

The nurses never say no, they are always there, eight, 12, sometimes 15 hours a day, and then they do it again the next day and the next. They are the front line.

Michael Dewar
Guilford, Conn.
The writer is a cardiac surgeon at the Yale School of Medicine.

To the Editor:

Re “New Type of Outbreak Hoarding: Doctors Prescribe for Themselves” (front page, March 25):

Physicians and all medical professionals are taking an enormous personal risk, for themselves and their families, in caring for the sick right now. My daughter, a physician, and all those she works with do not have all the personal protective equipment required. In Italy about 10 percent of those infected are medical professionals.

Physicians and nurses are now being asked to work even if exposed to Covid-19, as long as they are asymptomatic. I know they find the idea of taking this infection home to their families and communities intolerable. My daughter will no longer see me or her grandparents.

As a retired physician, I put myself on the New York State volunteer list, but wondered how I would face treating patients without an N95 respirator mask. I have not prescribed hydroxychloroquine for myself or family members, but I do not begrudge physicians and other medical personnel who have. It may help them continue to fight Covid-19, even if only psychologically, and we need them to keep fighting!

Connie DiMari
New York

To the Editor:

As a member of the veterinary profession, I suggest that equipment, masks, gowns and gloves could be used by our human counterparts in medicine.

Further, perhaps there’s a place for doctors, technicians and nurses who care for beloved pets in helping to care for patients during this crisis. There isn’t a veterinarian who can’t put in an IV catheter or adjust a ventilator. All of us have been trained and use such techniques every day, and we could be useful in these trying times of staff shortages.

Seth A. Koch
Philadelphia

To the Editor:

At 86, I am absolutely fine with dying — although I’m healthy and active and would not turn down another five or 10 years. So if I wind up with Covid-19, give the ventilator to someone else.