The CDC: Center for Disease Redistribution?
If only the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would live up to their name. Has the country truly been paying attention to the way the CDC has managed (or not) the Ebola crisis? It is a scary time to be a healthcare professional. Even after the two nurses contracted Ebola in Texas, CDC Director Tom Frieden appeared on national television stating that it was not necessary for healthcare workers to wear protective head or foot coverings. He insinuated the nurses were to blame. Only after video images of him fully covered from head to toe in Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in Africa did the CDC change their position.
What no one is saying is the fact that there is not enough Personal Protective Equipment available for everyone who would need it if we had an outbreak of Ebola in this country. Hospitals across the country are trying to order supplies and are being told the wait could be two or three months. This might be OK for now, but what if these hospitals receive a patient with Ebola?
As of last week, we now have two aircraft in the country that can transport an Ebola patient by air. The CDC is quietly celebrating this. Prior to this there was only one aircraft and it was the one being used to transport Ebola-infected patients from Africa to the United States.
It’s no wonder professional healthcare worker associations have no confidence in CDC recommendations. When states declare their worker protection laws follow CDC guidance, it is now meaningless. States need to state that their personal protective equipment requirements exceed those of the CDC and how they do or the associations will rightly politicize these issues with state legislatures, the media and anyone who could exert influence on behalf of nurses and all healthcare workers.
Perhaps the CDC is not to blame, and it is the federal administration in general. There is a disconnect with what federal representatives say and what infectious disease professionals know to be factual. National conference calls with the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response of the United States Department of Health and Human Services have involved outrageous statements from federal representatives. One example is the recommendation that ambulance personnel may transport an Ebola patient for six to eight hours. Six to eight hours for Emergency Medical Technicians or Paramedics to stay in the confined back of an ambulance with an infectious patient in full Personal Protective Equipment? The professional guidance is two hours or one hour if the ambulance is not temperature controlled.
I might be biased after the H1N1 public health emergency. Before the media was aware of the issue, the CDC held conference calls with state and local public health representatives. The Director then opened his first two conference calls with the statement that he was very worried, he was “really very worried”. No one was interested in his emotional state; we wanted to know the facts.
Federal public health professionals have a lot to learn from the fire service. When firefighters respond to a large complex fire, you don’t hear them talking about their emotional state or how worried they might be. They focus on the mission because they must. Politics are not a factor. If they fight the fires well, they do not experience political problems for not doing so.
If the CDC correctly stated early on that full Personal Protective Equipment that left no skin exposed was required for all healthcare workers for the safe, effective treatment of patients with Ebola, they would have had credibility. They then should have begun partnering with companies that manufacture this equipment and supported the increased production of it with all the resources of the federal government. Downplaying the need because the supply was short, created more problems than they would have had if they were transparent.
The November 14th PBS Interview CDC Director Dr. Frieden gave was the first interview of his I have heard that did not contain double-speak. He admitted that we are “not out of the woods” with Ebola.
As a fact, none of the healthcare workers who have treated patients in Africa with the International Medical Corps (IMC) have contracted Ebola. The global healthcare community should learn much from this humanitarian, nonprofit organization dedicated to saving lives and relieving suffering through health care training, relief and development programs.
Nurses and all healthcare workers will continue to heroically treat their patients regardless of how helpful (or not) government is to keep them safe as they do so.
