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Once relegated to the background, infection control specialists are now at the center of hospitals’ biggest challenge: responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. But there are concerns among physicians and nurses in the field that the workforce is being stretched thin and hospital-acquired infections may be rising as a result. (Castellucci, 8/22)

After five months working shifts at an emergency department in Oakland, Douglas Frey says he's mentally and physically spent. Most days the tall, athletic-looking 47-year-old nurse ends his shift depleted by what he calls an undercurrent of tension. Every day, Frey worries he'll make a mistake — picking up a contaminated mask, perhaps — and bring the virus home to his two boys and wife, who is immunocompromised. He's worried about his hospital's ability to source enough masks and protective gear for him to do his job safely. (McClurg, 8/22)

At least 600 healthcare providers have died from the coronavirus. Another 128,000 have been infected with COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While many American workers stayed home to limit the virus’ community spread, healthcare workers headed to the front lines. For months, they have put their own safety—and that of their families—at risk to care for those in need. (Christ, 8/22)

As COVID-19 spread through New York City in the early months of the pandemic, Columbia University’s nine hospitals had filled up with 2,500 coronavirus-infected patients by April 14. Clinicians on the front lines worked long hours and took on new roles. Meanwhile, leaders at the health system took action to support their workforce. They provided housing to many workers, extended financial support for child care, expanded mental health benefits and offered bonuses to help employees deal with expenses they hadn’t anticipated, said Donna Lynne, chief operating officer of Columbia University Irving Medical Center and CEO of ColumbiaDoctors. (Castellucci and Livingston, 8/22)

Their final breaths are tormented. Rublas Ruiz has seen too many of them -- the last gasps of 17 men and women who died of the coronavirus. A 41-year-old ICU nurse in Miami’s Kendall Regional Medical Center, Ruiz has witnessed the desperate, pleading, wide-eyed, barely there gasps. “The fear in their eyes when they can’t get enough air. They are so scared,” he says, quietly. “Their eyes are big, desperate to get the oxygen and that makes me so sad.” (Kennedy, 8/22)

Kaiser Health News and AP: Florida’s Cautionary Tale: How Gutting And Muzzling Public Health Fueled COVID Fire

On a sweltering July morning, Rose Wilson struggled to breathe as she sat in her bed, the light from her computer illuminating her face and the oxygen tubes in her nose. Wilson, a retiree who worked as a public health department nurse supervisor in Duval County for 35 years, had just been diagnosed with COVID-19-induced pneumonia. She had a telemedicine appointment with her doctor. (Ungar, Dearen and Recht, 8/24)

A low-cost portable isolation unit that reduces the need for personal protective equipment goes into production in late August. The Care Cube has a glove window that allows medical personnel to touch patients without wearing personal protective equipment. As Jon Kalish reports, the Care Cube also has a hug suit for loved ones to see and hug patients with COVID-19 or other infectious diseases. (Kalish, 8/21)

When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told Americans in January that they didn’t need to wear masks, Dr. S. Vincent Rajkumar, a professor at the Mayo Clinic and the editor of the Blood Cancer Journal, couldn’t believe his ears. But he kept silent until Zeynep Tufekci (pronounced ZAY-nep too-FEK-chee), a sociologist he had met on Twitter, wrote that the C.D.C. had blundered by saying protective face coverings should be worn by health workers but not ordinary people. “Here I am, the editor of a journal in a high profile institution, yet I didn’t have the guts to speak out that it just doesn’t make sense,” Dr. Rajkumar told me. “Everybody should be wearing masks.” (Smith, 8/23)