Markeitha Harris, an LA County Public Health Nurse, joins Juan Fernandez and Jasmine Viel to discuss concerns many healthcare workers have over policies that would put COVID positive workers back into the workforce without isolation periods.
“Son guías muy peligrosas y también contradictorias a la ciencia, y a lo que sabemos que si va funcionar”, dijo Ileana Meza, enfermera de oncología del hospital LAC+USC.
“The way that you drive this pandemic down is by staffing up properly: stop the county’s overreliance on registries, on traveling nurse registries, on contracting out,” nurse practitioner Ileana Meza told reporters.
The head of the union that represents nurses in the county called the new guidelines — which allow Covid-positive health care workers to skip quarantine if asymptomatic — “outrageous and dangerous.”
“Our patients have a right to know that their caregivers may be COVID positive,” said Kelly Zhou, a nurse anesthesiologist who has worked at Los Angeles County + USC Medical Center for 25 years. “We care for a population that is extremely vulnerable to mutiple medical conditions.”
SEIU 721, which is the county’s largest union, responded to the requirement in September. The organization said “the practical effective date” for disciplinary action would be at least late November, though the county slated it for Oct. 1.
Thousands of employees in the fast-food industry are going on strike across California, walking out for better working conditions, wages and hours and calling on lawmakers to offer them a bigger say in their futures.
