No Murder Charge in Alleged Mercy Killing; Anti-Vaxxers Gain New Allies; COVID-21?

Welcome to the latest edition of Investigative Roundup, highlighting some of the best investigative reporting on healthcare each week.

Nurse Who Unhooked Oxygen Charged

The Indiana nurse accused of removing a COVID-19 patient’s oxygen last year has now been charged with a felony, the IndyStar reported — but not murder, manslaughter, or any homicide-related crime.

Connie Sneed, LPN, was charged only with practicing medicine without a license, although that could bring 6 years in prison and a fine of $10,000. She was fired from Wedgewood Healthcare Center in Clarksville, Indiana, in May, about a week after the incident.

Sneed had written a revealing Facebook post: “I just want y’all to know the hardest thing I’ve ever done in 28 years start a patient on O2 for 4 days 12 LPM. with a non-rebreather mask,” she wrote. “I asked him on day 4 if he’s tired he said yes I said do you want me to take all this off for you and let you go and fly with the angels and he said yes.”

“I took it all off of him I went in the hallway and I cried and I let him go and he passed away 1 hour and 45 minutes after I left.” The patient was a 72-year-old man who had been diagnosed with COVID-19 a few days earlier.

Another nurse at the facility reported Sneed to administrators there. The Indiana Department of Health and the state attorney general subsequently conducted an investigation, which led to the charges.

From Election Fraud to Anti-Vax

Right-wing groups that once railed against Donald Trump’s election defeat have now switched to opposing COVID vaccination, the New York Times reports.

Prominent voices from both the “Stop the Steal” and anti-vaccine movements helped organize rallies March 20 against vaccines and other public health measures in U.S. cities including Portland, Oregon, and Raleigh, North Carolina, as well as in Australia, Canada, and other countries around the world.

Also, an April conference with the tagline “Learn How to Fight Back for Your Health and Freedom” will have appearances from Trump allies like Michael Flynn and Sidney Powell, along with well-known anti-vaxxers.

Much of the messaging is playing out on Telegram, a social media channel frequented by QAnon supporters and other conspiracy theorists.

Many channels link to the FDA VAERS database, which has registered more than 2,000 deaths among those who received COVID vaccines, with more than 126 million doses administered — though none of the deaths have been linked directly to the vaccines yet.

Experts told the Times that the “more vaccine opponents succeed in preventing or at least delaying herd immunity … the longer it will take for life to return to normal and that will further undermine faith in the government and its institutions” — which may be the point.

COVID-21: What Comes Next?

The terror of COVID-19 that existed this time last year is no more, but how we respond to so-called “COVID-21” could have long-lasting repercussions, argues James Hamblin, MD, in The Atlantic.

While it’s not clear exactly what comes next, Hamblin offered various scenarios espoused by different experts. Monica Gandhi, MD, MPH, of the University of California San Francisco, maintains that T cell-mediated immunity will see us through. Even if antibody levels in the vaccinated/previously exposed fall off, T cells will recognize the virus and prevent serious illness. (That hypothesis got more support from research published Wednesday, after Hamblin’s article appeared.) At worst, COVID-19 becomes a bad cold; at best, it’s gone completely.

On the other end of the spectrum, biotech legend William Haseltine, PhD, now of Harvard, said that while T cells may continue to recognize the virus, that doesn’t guarantee protection. Other seasonal coronaviruses come back every year, making herd immunity unlikely.

Another possibility is somewhere in between: the disease persists, and the number of lives it takes each year becomes acceptable. Hamblin called this the “most dangerous” scenario because it disregards the impact of the disease on other countries around the world.

“Avoiding this myopia is the central challenge of COVID-21,” Hamblin wrote. “It extends to the systemic problems highlighted by this pandemic. Much of the damage the virus has wrought has come indirectly, by exacerbating food and housing insecurity, for example, or restricting access to medical care.”

He called for “concerted measures to eradicate a life-threatening illness. Despite lingering unknowns about exactly how long immunity will last and how many cases we’ll continue to see, we now have the knowledge and resources to become much more certain very quickly. If we beat COVID-21, the numbering could end there.”

Hospitals in Survival Mode

Hospital administrators say their facilities have been operating in “survival mode,” battling staff shortages and financial instability, according to a February survey conducted by the HHS inspector general’s office.

The survey found hospitals are having difficulty balancing the resource-intensive treatment of COVID-19 patients with efforts to resume routine care. Staffing shortages have affected patient care, and trauma and exhaustion have taken a toll on staff mental health, administrators said.

In addition, the increased expenses of the pandemic, coupled with lower revenues due to a loss of normal procedures, have contributed to financial instability, they reported.

Administrators said the federal government could provide support by offering better COVID-19 information geared to hospitals — such as outlining ways to discharge COVID patients safely — and by helping to fill gaps in hospital staffing. Financial relief and measures to speed COVID vaccination would be welcome as well.

*** This article has been archived for your research. The original version from MedPage Today can be found here ***