Tag: Helping

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Health

Serving to Runners With Lengthy Covid Get Again on Their Toes

Helping Runners With Long Covid Get Back on Their Feet

Penn developed a physical therapy program that varies depending on the severity of each patient’s symptoms. “For some patients who have been really seriously affected and unable to engage in activities, how do we go back to the housework that they have to do every day? How do we manage this during the day so that you don’t have to do everything at once? “

For those with less severe symptoms, the focus is on gradually getting active again and keeping the heart rate at 60 to 70 percent of its maximum for the time being. “If they tolerate it and agree to it for a week or two, we’ll build on it,” he said.

Long-distance Covid patients tend to “have a honeymoon, maybe two or three weeks after the acute illness,” said Dr. R. Kannan Mutharasan, cardiologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago and co-program director of exercise cardiology. “You’re finally feeling back to yourself and saying, ‘I’m going to run,'” he said. But afterwards they notice that they don’t feel like they used to. A few weeks later, they may experience “things like lightheadedness or a fast heartbeat even while walking.”

That happened to one of his patients, Hannah Engle, 23, who was diagnosed with Covid-19 last July. She tried running again in October and her heart rate rose to 210 beats per minute. She is now on her way to take it slow, but there are still setbacks if she overdoes it. For example, in May, after a seemingly simple exercise with jumping jacks and stretching, she began to experience chest pain and dizziness.

Ms. Engle has always been an active person. As a child, she competed in diving, cheerleading, and gymnastics, and even did gymnastics at club level through college. After graduation, she stayed active while working in Arlington, Virginia through CrossFit, weight lifting, and 5K running to encourage people to get into the STEM areas – science, technology, engineering, and math.

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Health

Serving to Drug Customers Survive, Not Abstain: ‘Hurt Discount’ Beneficial properties Federal Help

Helping Drug Users Survive, Not Abstain: ‘Harm Reduction’ Gains Federal Support

GREENSBORO, NC – The skinny young man quietly walked into the room while waiting for the free supplies to help keep him from dying: sterile water and a stove to dissolve illegal drugs; clean syringes; Alcohol swabs to prevent infection; and naloxone, a drug that can reverse overdoses. A sign on the wall – “We stand to love drug users for who they are” – felt like a hug.

It was the first day on which the contact point in a residential area here opened its doors since it was closed due to the coronavirus in spring 2020. “I am very happy that you have all opened again,” the man, whose first name is Jordan, said a volunteer who handed him a full paper bag while heavy metal music played over a loudspeaker in the background. He asked for extra naloxone for friends in his rural county, an hour away, where it was in short supply during the pandemic.

The death toll from overdose rose nearly 30 percent to more than 90,000 in the twelve months that ended in November, according to preliminary federal data released earlier this month – suggesting 2020 beat recent records for such deaths Has. The astounding surge during the pandemic is due to many factors including widespread job losses and displacement; decreased access to addiction treatment and medical care; and an illicit drug supply that became even more dangerous after the country was closed.

But the forced isolation for people struggling with addiction and other mental health issues is possibly one of the greatest. Now, with the nation reopening, the Biden government supports the controversial approach the center is taking here known as harm reduction. Rather than giving drug users abstinence, the main goal is to reduce their risk of dying or developing infectious diseases like HIV by providing them with sterile equipment, tools to check their drugs for fentanyl and other deadly substances, or even a safe place to nap Will be provided .

Such programs have long been under attack to facilitate drug use, but President Biden has made expanding harm reduction efforts one of his drug policy priorities – the first president to do so. The American Rescue Act earmarked $ 30 million specifically for evidence-based harm reduction services, the first time Congress has raised funds specifically for that purpose. Funding, while modest, is a victory for the programs, both symbolically and practically, as they often run on tight budgets.

“It’s a tremendous signal to recognize that not everyone who uses drugs is ready for treatment,” said Daliah Heller, director of drug-use initiatives at Vital Strategies, a global health organization. “Harm reduction programs say, ‘Okay, you do drugs. How can we help you stay safe and healthy and alive in the first place? ‘”

Although some programs like this one, run by the North Carolina Survivors Union, managed to keep holding some supplies – handing them through windows, offering roadside collection, or even mailing them – practically all of them stopped during the pandemic To invite drug users. Many customers, like Jordan, stopped coming and lost a trustworthy safety net.

Some former Greensboro Center regulars have died or disappeared. Many lost their homes or jobs. At the same time, the center was flooded with new customers and is now having problems keeping enough supplies on hand.

“The struggle that people are having right now, unrecognized and unanswered, is really difficult,” said Louise Vincent, Executive Director of the Survivors Union.

Yet many elected officials and communities continue to refuse to provide people with medication for drug use, including recently introduced test strips to screen drugs for the presence of illegally manufactured fentanyl, which appears in most overdose deaths. Some also say that syringes from harm reduction programs litter the neighborhoods or that the programs lead to an increase in crime. Researchers deny both claims.

West Virginia has just passed law making syringe service programs very difficult to operate, despite an increase in HIV cases from intravenous drug use. The North Carolina Legislature pondered a similar proposal this spring, and elected officials in Scott County, Indiana, whose syringe exchanges helped contain a major HIV outbreak six years ago, voted this month to end it. Mike Jones, a local commissioner who voted to end the program, said at the time that he feared the syringes being distributed could contribute to overdose deaths.

“I know people who are alcoholics and I don’t buy them a bottle of whiskey,” he said. “And I know people who want to kill themselves and I won’t buy them a bullet for their gun.”

Many harm reduction programs are carried out by people who have previously or are still using drugs, and their own struggles with addiction, mental illness, or other health problems have also flared up during the pandemic. In Baltimore, Boston, New York and elsewhere, beloved movement leaders themselves have died of overdoses, chronic health problems, and other causes in the past year. Her death left gaps in efforts to continue providing services.

Ms. Vincent, whose own opioid addiction stemmed from a long battle with bipolar disorder, made a brief return to illicit drug use this spring. She was keen to prevent withdrawal, she said after trying unsuccessfully to switch from methadone to another anti-craving drug, buprenorphine. She later learned that the small amount of fentanyl she was using was mixed with xylazine – an animal sedative that can cause weeping ulcers on the skin. She ended up in the hospital with her hemoglobin level so low that she needed a blood transfusion.

At the start of the pandemic, Ms. Vincent said street drug prices soared. Then drugs that were sold as heroin, methamphetamine, or cocaine were trimmed with unknown additives. Fentanyl was ubiquitous – including increasingly in counterfeit pills sold as prescription pain relievers or anti-anxiety drugs. But also substances like xylazine, which appears in illegal drugs from Philadelphia to Saskatchewan.

“It’s just poison,” said Ms. Vincent, who is being treated with methadone again. “The drug supply is like nothing we’ve seen before.”

On the afternoon of the center’s reopening, a young woman asked for a refresher on how to inject naloxone and if Ms. Vincent could explain what a meth overdose looks like. An older man asked if there was anything to eat besides clean syringes; a volunteer put a pastry in the microwave for him.

In addition to running the program here, Ms. Vincent is the executive director of the National Urban Survivors Union, a larger nonprofit, promoting harm reduction services across the country. In 2016, her 19-year-old daughter died of a heroin overdose while she was in an inpatient treatment center where naloxone was not available, she said.

Naloxone is more common now, but Ms. Vincent wants another life-saving tool to be disseminated: drug control programs that would allow people to find out exactly what substances are in illicit drugs before using them. Such programs exist legally in other countries including Canada, the Netherlands and New Zealand. Another type of harm reduction program used in other countries – where people use illicit drugs under medical supervision if they overdose – remains illegal here after a group trying to start one in Philadelphia so far lost in court.

“We cWe could have a real-time monitoring system instead of waiting for death reports from the coroner, ”Ms. Vincent said. “It would change the game, wouldn’t it?”

She found the xylazine in the drugs she recently took with a device called a Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer that a donor gave to her group this year. It can determine which substances contain samples of street drugs in minutes.

Jordan, who is 23 years old, had traveled from Stokes County, near the Virginia border, where the pre-pandemic overdose rate was nearly double the national average. His cousin, he said, was hospitalized weeks earlier after overdosing on a “really bad batch” of fentanyl that were found to contain traces of heavy metals in tests.

“At least 50 people in my area were rescued from here by Narcan,” he said, picking up several boxes of 10 vials of the injectable form of the antidote. “Even my grandmother knows how to manage it.”

Many harm reduction programs, including this one, help or sometimes even offer people to put people on drug treatment. But Jordan is one of the many drug users who are not interested in this path, at least for the moment. The next programs are in Greensboro or Winston-Salem, each a healthy drive from home. And treating food cravings like buprenorphine or methadone, which have been shown to save lives, “doesn’t really work for me,” he said.

The county that includes Greensboro, North Carolina’s third largest city, had 140 fatal overdoses last year, up from 111 the year before. The numbers don’t include the people who died from infections caused by injecting drugs, including the fiancée of a woman who walked into the center at dusk on the day of the reopening and called out to Ms. Vincent, “Where’s Louise?”

She met Ms. Vincent when they were both patients in a methadone clinic six years ago and regularly came to the center for injections and naloxone. She and her fiancé had tried to stop drug use during the pandemic, unnerved by the strange new adulterants that were showing up in the stash. But her fiancé started developing a high fever last December and was admitted to a hospital intensive care unit, seriously ill with endocarditis, a heart valve infection that can result from injecting medication. He died just before Christmas.

“Do you all have a meeting tonight?” Asked Ms. Vincent, referring to the self-help groups the center held several times a week before the pandemic.

“You’ll start again soon,” Mrs. Vincent assured her. “Being connected is much more important than any of us thought.”

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Politics

Congress Rushes to Assist Afghans Searching for Visas for Serving to U.S.

Congress Rushes to Help Afghans Seeking Visas for Helping U.S.

WASHINGTON – As President Biden’s September deadline for ending the long war in Afghanistan draws nearer, a bipartisan coalition in Congress is stepping up efforts to ensure that Afghans who retaliate there for cooperation with American troops and personnel go to the United States can immigrate.

The group of Republicans and Democrats, many of them military or veterans who have worked with translators, drivers and fixers in Afghanistan and other combat areas, are trying to legislate to aid the “Afghan allies,” as they are often called before American forces go home, leaving these allies unprotected against Taliban revenge attacks. Legislators want to make it easier for Afghans to qualify for a special visa, expedite the process and get them out of Afghanistan as soon as possible while they wait to be allowed to live legally in the US.

More than 18,000 Afghans who worked as interpreters, drivers, engineers, security guards and embassy workers for the United States during the war are stuck in a bureaucratic swamp after applying for a special immigrant visa – available to people who work for the government because of their work United States – some wait up to six or seven years for their applications to be processed.

The number of backward cases does not take into account family members, an additional 53,000 people, or the expected increase in requests for the withdrawal of American troops.

“We are frustrated here as lawmakers, especially those of us who have served and want to help the people who have helped us,” said Rep. Brad Wenstrup, Ohio Republican and Army Reserve colonel who served with Iraqi Collaborated with translators in Iraq in 2005 and 2006 as a combat surgeon.

Over the past few weeks, Mr Wenstrup said he had thought of the Iraqis he had served with – people who liked to sell art and pirated copies at the army base – including two killed in surprise attacks near Abu Ghraib and one third who finally got his visa and is now a US citizen and a successful cardiologist in Ohio.

“They will be your brothers and sisters,” he said.

Mr. Wenstrup is part of the Working Group Honoring Our Promises – comprised of 10 Democrats and six Republicans – that spearheaded laws introduced Thursday that would expedite special immigrant visas from Afghanistan, increasing the number available from 11,000 to 19,000. The group is also lobbying the Biden government in an unlikely attempt to initiate a mass evacuation of Afghan applicants, possibly to Guam U.S. territory, while visas can be processed.

The bill would expand the universe of eligible Afghans by removing what its proponents call “onerous” application requirements, including a “credible affidavit” of a particular threat and evidence of a “sensitive and trustworthy” job. Instead, the measure would de facto provide that any Afghan who has helped the US government will, by definition, face retaliation and apply for a visa.

“It became very clear to us that we had very little time left to help the people of Afghanistan,” said Jason Crow, a Democrat from Colorado, law sponsor and former Army Ranger who served in Iraq and Afghanistan Has. “I have very big concerns.”

While Mr Biden set September as the exit date, military officials have since indicated that the schedule has accelerated, with American forces and NATO allies planning to leave by mid-July.

Rep. Michael Waltz, Republican of Florida and former Green Beret who still serves as a colonel in the Army National Guard, said Mr. Biden was short of time to look into the situation.

“If he doesn’t act and doesn’t get these people out, blood will stick to his hands and the hands of his administration,” said Mr Waltz.

The nonprofit No One Left Behind has tracked the murder of more than 300 translators or their family members since 2014, many of whom died while waiting for their visas to be processed, according to James Miervaldis, chairman of the group and sergeant of the Army Reserve.

A death database maintained by the group serves as a catalog of horrors: an interpreter was killed in a suicide attack in front of a bank; another was captured and tortured along the Kandahar-Kabul highway; another was killed in a night attack on his home.

In a poll by the organization, more than 90 percent of the 464 Afghan allies surveyed said they had received at least one death threat because of their work with Americans.

‘They are all generally scared,’ said Mr Miervaldis.

He found that the average time an Afghan applicant waited for a special immigrant visa to be processed was 3.5 years.

“We have people who wait six years, people who wait seven years,” he said. “There is literally no opposition in Congress and it’s frustrating how slow progress is coming.”

A mass evacuation would be a logistical challenge, similar to moving a small town. To date, the Biden government has resisted such calls and the prospect seems very unlikely. In a recent interview on CNN, Foreign Secretary Antony Blinken called evacuation “the wrong word” and instead advocated improving the functioning of the visa program.

He said the Biden government recently hired 50 people to expedite the process.

“We are determined to fulfill our obligation to those who have helped us, who put their lives at risk,” said Blinken. “We have invested significant resources to ensure that the program can work quickly and effectively.”

But the pressure to do more is growing. Last week the New York Times published interviews with Afghan interpreters who said they feared for their lives while they waited for their applications to be processed.

“If the Taliban take power, they will find and kill me easily,” said one man, Waheedullah Rahmani, 27, who has been waiting for a visa decision since 2015. “Then my wife will not have a husband and my daughter will not have a father.”

The special immigrant visa has been plagued by chronic delays and congestion to varying degrees for more than a decade. Mr Crow said the problem was exacerbated by former President Donald J. Trump, who starved the program of resources and personnel, and then by the coronavirus pandemic, which suspended personal interviews and reviews.

In a January report by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “limited staffing” and “local security conditions directly related to the Covid-19 pandemic” were cited as “serious” implications for the visa application process.

Mr. Crow and Mr. Wenstrup have taken a number of steps, including this week, to speed up the process. A separate bill they drafted would remove the requirement for Afghan special immigrant visa applicants to undergo medical examinations. There is only one clinic in the country that carries out the examinations – a German facility in Kabul – where some translators have to travel far under sometimes dangerous conditions. And the exams are pretty expensive, said Mr. Crow.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, Republican from Illinois, and Earl Blumenauer, Democrat from Oregon, have taken another step to increase the number of visas available by 4,000. To date, around 15,000 visas have been approved since the program began, but only around 11,000 are still available – a number that, according to legislators, falls far short of what is needed.

“It was annoying: the dragging with the feet, the lack of coordination,” said Blumenauer. “It was incredibly frustrating. As a country, we have not met our responsibility. “

They found support in the other chamber from Senator Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa and Lt. Col. Army National Guard, and Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire. The couple have written to the Biden government asking for 20,000 visas to be added to the program and a resolution to the bureaucratic problems that have caused the backlog.

“We are deeply concerned about the fate of these people after the withdrawal of US troops,” wrote the senators in a letter signed by 18 of their colleagues. “While this would be an increase compared to previous years, it is necessary to do everything in our power to support the program as long as the US has the appropriate capacities in the country.”

Ms. Shaheen last week introduced laws that would expand and modify the Afghan special visa program for immigrants, postpone medical examinations, and extend visas for spouses and children of allies killed while waiting for their visas to be processed.

“Leaders from both parties have shown their support,” said Crow. “I expect we will get expedited handling of these bills.”

The bills have attracted dozens of co-sponsors, and legislators from both parties have given the visa program strong support in the past. In December, under a huge fallback bill, Congress raised the overall visa program ceiling by 4,000 to 26,500.

Several non-profit groups and refugee lawyers are urging the Biden government to do more.

About 70 organizations recently wrote a letter to Mr. Biden urging his government to “immediately implement plans to evacuate vulnerable US-affiliated Afghans.”

Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service who organized the campaign, points to a precedent in pointing to the 1975 evacuation of 130,000 Vietnamese refugees by the Ford government via Guam to the United States; 1996 Airlift of 6,600 Iraqi Kurds out of the country; and in 1999 the evacuation of 20,000 Kosovar Albanians to Fort Dix, NJ

“We promised them that we would not turn our backs on them and leave them behind,” said Ms. Vignarajah.

Abdul Wahid Forozan, 34, was a translator for the American military in Afghanistan, came to America a year and a half ago through the Visa program, is now married, a father and works as a concierge in College Park.

In an interview, he described the decision to leave Afghanistan as difficult and painful, but said it was his only option given the death threats he faced.

“Home is loved by everyone, nobody dislikes their country,” said Mr Forozan. “But if your life is in danger, if your family’s life is in danger, if you are threatened every day, I couldn’t live in Afghanistan.”

David Zucchino contributed to the coverage.

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Politics

Justice Dept. Requested to Study Whether or not Swiss Financial institution Stored Serving to Tax Dodgers

Justice Dept. Asked to Examine Whether Swiss Bank Kept Helping Tax Dodgers

WASHINGTON – The chairman of the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday asked Attorney General Merrick B. Garland for information on whether Credit Suisse continues to help rich Americans defraud the IRS, even after signing a settlement agreement with the Justice Department promising to to finish the practice.

It’s about a retired professor named Dan Horsky, who Credit Suisse helped avoid tax payments on assets of $ 200 million. In the summer of 2014, a whistleblower drew the attention of the federal prosecutor’s office to Mr. Horsky’s account and clearly violated the provisions of the settlement agreement that Credit Suisse had agreed a few weeks earlier.

However, the Justice Department under the Obama and Trump administrations never punished Credit Suisse for violating the agreement, despite the whistleblower’s information leading to Mr Horsky pleading guilty of tax evasion in 2016.

Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, asked Mr. Garland for more information about the Horsky account and anything else that could reveal whether Credit Suisse executives have made false statements to Congress, the Department of Justice, and the courts when it said it vowed to work with the US government’s efforts to force the richest Americans to pay their taxes.

The review of Credit Suisse’s private wealth management practices comes at a sensitive time for the bank. Significant losses were reported last week on loans to a collapsed investment firm and the Swiss financial regulator said it was investigating the bank’s risk management practices. Regulators are also investigating a spying scandal and sales of billions of dollars worth of investments reminiscent of the bad subprime mortgage bonds that led to the 2008 global financial crisis.

“Public reports and documents from the federal court raise important questions as to whether Credit Suisse has complied with its declaration of consent in full,” wrote Wyden in a letter to Garland.

“The plea agreement expressly depends on Credit Suisse fulfilling all essential obligations,” added Wyden. it “stipulates that the agreement not to initiate further prosecution will be void if Credit Suisse fails to fully comply with its obligations.”

Should prosecutors decide that Credit Suisse is in breach of its agreement with the Justice Department, the bank could face legal liability and higher fines.

Mr. Wyden requested the Justice Department to report the Horsky case by May 11th.

A spokesman said the Justice Department received the letter but had no immediate comment. A Credit Suisse spokeswoman said the company “has been and will continue to have fully cooperated with the US authorities since the 2014 settlement.”

Wyden also asked the department to help determine whether Credit Suisse executives had made false statements to the Senate in February 2014 when they testified whether the bank had stopped helping wealthy Americans evade taxes.

Brady Dougan, then managing director of Credit Suisse, told the senators that the bank had strived to “meet 100 percent of the US taxpayer’s requirements,” wrote Wyden. At the same hearing, the bank’s general counsel, Romeo Cerutti, testified that Credit Suisse is “really looking into whether someone is a US person” in an attempt to eradicate Americans who were hiding their assets from the IRS

For nearly 15 years, Republicans and Democrats have been participating in a well-known campaign to weed out tax evaders with Swiss bank accounts, with a focus on UBS and Credit Suisse, both of which are headquartered in Zurich.

When Credit Suisse executives testified in 2014, they were in the midst of negotiations with the Justice Department about an agreement on the bank’s treatment of US tax dodgers.

The two sides signed the deal in May 2014, in which Credit Suisse pleaded guilty to assisting some American clients with tax evasion and fined a total of $ 2.6 billion. But even higher fines were avoided because federal prosecutors swore they had abandoned the practice of “closing down all accounts of recalcitrant account holders” and helping the US with other criminal investigations.

The confession of guilt and the heavy fine were rare in 2014, and it was the first time in more than 20 years that a lender of his size had admitted wrongdoing in an American court.

But a whistleblower surfaced in July of that year telling Justice Department tax officials and federal attorneys who worked on the case about an account owned by Mr. Horsky, a retired economics professor who lived in Rochester. NY and amassed much of his fortune by investing in start-ups in the 1990s.

In September 2014, when Credit Suisse appeared in court to plead guilty, the judge asked both the bank and prosecutors if they had any information that would affect the settlement agreement. Both sides said no.

But the whistleblower spike let prosecutors find out that with the help of Credit Suisse bankers using offshore shell companies, Mr. Horsky had hidden a fortune of $ 200 million, court documents show. The deal lasted months after the bank signed its pleading agreement.

As part of the scheme to hide Mr. Horsky’s assets, it was placed by bankers in the name of a relative of Mr. Horsky who lived abroad. When an account of this size changes hands, it is subject to advanced due diligence, including notifying bank managers of the change.

Mr Wyden also sent a letter to Credit Suisse Tuesday asking for information on when the Justice Department told Credit Suisse about the Horsky account. He asked if the bank had informed the government of the account before reporting the whistleblower, and if not, whether it was due to poor internal controls or a deliberate decision not to report the existence of these accounts to US government agencies. ”

It is unclear why the Justice Department failed to inform the court of the whistleblower claim and change the terms of its settlement. The department would have had the authority to review the Credit Suisse case for possible violations and to pursue the bank.

Jack Ewing contributed to the coverage.

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Health

3M helps authorities cease scammers from promoting pretend N95 masks

3M is helping authorities stop scammers from selling fake N95 masks

Industrial giant 3M has been working with law enforcement agencies around the clock to stop the sale of millions of counterfeit versions of its N95 mask.

“We have taken very strong steps to address counterfeiting or pricing issues. We have done so over the last year in this limited supply and very high demand for critical products like the N95,” said Mike Vale, 3M Security Officer heads and Industry Business Group, said CNBC.

N95 were the gold standard during the coronavirus pandemic for their ability to filter out at least 95% of airborne particles. The masks, which are seen as critical for protecting frontline workers from Covid-19, were in short supply. 3M is the largest N95 manufacturer.

Federal agencies announced Wednesday that fraudsters had distributed millions of counterfeit N95s to healthcare workers in at least five states. To date, 3M has reported 11,000 cases of counterfeit masks, leading to 29 civil lawsuits. In total, the company said it had confiscated 10 million counterfeit N95s. In mid-January, 3M helped its home state of Minnesota avoid purchasing nearly 500,000 counterfeit N95s from a Florida company. 3M sued and won an injunction.

The news of the federal investigation into the counterfeit N95 comes after several hospitals in Washington state found their shipment of the masks contained counterfeit masks.

“It’s a breathtaking feeling … just to think that there are people … making the counterfeit personal protective equipment we need so badly right now during this pandemic,” Cassie Sauer, president of the Washington State Hospital Association, told NBC News earlier this week.

3M helped officials in Washington confirm that the counterfeit masks were purchased from an unauthorized dealer unrelated to the company. 3M advises that hospitals and medical clinics must verify that they are purchasing respiratory protective equipment from a verified, authorized dealer. One way to do this is to check the company’s website or call the anti-fraud hotline.

Despite concerted efforts to eliminate and hold fraudsters accountable, false masks continue to emerge in the US and worldwide. “Counterfeit N95s pose a serious health risk and I think 3M has been reasonably aggressive to get them off the streets. However, it’s a get rid of each other game,” said Scott Davis, CEO of Melius Research, who followed the development of 3M for several years.

In terms of manufacturing, 3M manufactures more than 95 million respirators monthly at its US facilities in South Dakota and Nebraska. By scaling production and hiring hundreds of additional employees, including 300 at its South Dakota facility, the company quadrupled production last year.

However, a number of doctors who spoke to CNBC said they are still rationing masks.

“Obtaining enough N95 to keep health workers safe and secure, especially for the smaller hospitals and health facilities, is an unresolved challenge. When we have to negotiate counterfeit products, it is even more difficult and impossible to get adequate protection for our front line to ensure.” said Dr. Natasha Anushri Anandaraja, who founded Covid Courage, a New York nonprofit that helps healthcare workers gain access to PPE, including N95 and reusable masks.

Because of the limited supply, Anandaraja says more and more healthcare professionals are choosing reusable options. “By providing each health worker with a unique reusable mask, the constant battle to find legitimate disposable masks is eliminated, and the need for health workers to reuse masks that were intended for single use, and in hundreds of health systems rescued.” of thousands of dollars a year. “

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Health

Serving to a Teen Who Is Indignant About Home Guidelines on Covid

Helping a Teen Who Is Angry About House Rules on Covid

Our adolescence columnist, psychologist Lisa Damour, answers a reader’s question. The question has been processed.

[To submit a question, email AskDrDamour@nytimes.com.]

Q. We have a very difficult time with our 15 year old grandson who lives with us. He finally made friends after fighting socially and wanting to hang out with them, but they don’t have social distance and don’t wear masks. Some of their families don’t really believe in this pandemic. It’s an absolute mess in our house because he’s struggling to be able to do things. He says he’s sick of Covid because while he stays most of his friends don’t and go about their lives like nothing has changed. He’s angry and depressed and we don’t know what to do.

A. You and your grandson find yourself in a heartbreaking situation for which there are no complete or satisfactory solutions. I can’t tell you how much I wish it wasn’t true. First of all, I want to acknowledge the painful reality of the circumstances you described.

Even if there are no perfect remedies, the situation can possibly be improved at least a little. First, note that you face two different, albeit related, challenges. One of them is that the pandemic has uprooted your grandson’s thriving social life. The other is that his perfectly legitimate need to stop being in touch with his new friends disrupted his relationships at home. On the first front, providing your grandson with more social opportunities than you already have can be difficult. On the second side, however, there may be ways to reconnect with your isolated teen who is now more in need of loving support than ever.

Empathy, empathy, empathy is the starting point. The situation he is in is miserable and not of his creation. It may be true that he is playing off and upset everyone around him, and that many other young people are in a similar situation, and that we are starting to catch a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel. Try not to let these factors affect your compassion for your grandson. The adjustments we require of teens, both in terms of the way they lead their social lives and in terms of learning, are almost all the fun for teens and have been in place for almost a year. No compassion for that is too much.

Without any further agenda, convey the message to your grandson that you are very sorry that the pandemic has devastated his social life. Affectionately communicate that you understand how painful it must be to know that your friends will get together without him. Let him know that you cannot believe the pandemic has lasted this long (roughly a tenth of the life he is likely to remember) and that you understand that family support, especially for teenagers, cannot make up for the loss of contact Friends.

Compassion won’t change your dire circumstances, but it can still help alleviate your emotional suffering. Feeling alone with mental pain is far worse than believing that your plight is seen and acknowledged. So do everything you can to show your grandson that you are completely on his team.

Updated

Jan. 29, 2021, 6:05 p.m. ET

There’s another point of view that can help you build a better relationship with your grandson: Realize that he may be engaged in a persistent internal battle – between wanting to see his friends and knowing that their way of connecting to tie, does not exist. t sure – into an external fight between him and you.

It is by no means uncommon for teenagers to turn annoying personal dilemmas into fragile family struggles. Imagine a (post-pandemic) teenager who both wants to go to a concert and is also irritated by its sketchy venue. She might seek relief in recruiting her parents to take up one side of the battle. Voting that fight would be as simple as wholeheartedly lobbying to go to the concert while rolling her eyes when her people ask reasonable safety questions.

Try to free your grandson from this instinctive approach by articulating his dilemma warmly and compassionately. “It’s really frustrating,” you might say, “that your friends do things in a way that you can’t see for sure. I understand why you are so upset. “This could open the door for him to welcome you as a strategic ally.” We will do everything we can to help you see your friends safely. Can you go bike rides together or throw a ball outside? Guilt if you want to record the need to be outdoors and wearing masks with us. Just let us know if you can think of anything we could do to make this work. “

It is of course possible that your grandson does not like your proposal or wants to test the strength of his friendships. If so, there is still something else you can try. New research in the journal Child Development has shown that adolescents can endure pandemic conditions better when their families support their autonomy. Are there any options you can offer your grandson that were not previously given to him? Maybe you can tell him more about how or where he studies, what he does in his spare time, who controls the remote control or what else you can bring to the negotiating table. Own the limits of what you can offer. Acknowledge that choosing the dinner menu does not resolve problems with his friends. But having new freedoms at home might help him feel better enough.

Hopefully your efforts will lighten your grandson’s mood. If he remains unhappy no matter what you try, make an appointment with his doctor to have him checked for depression, which teenagers often experience as irritability rather than sadness.

You and your grandson are not alone in feeling drawn into a terrible corner by the pandemic. While we are so much beyond our control, we shouldn’t overlook the incremental ways we can comfort and support our teenagers.

This column does not constitute medical advice and does not replace professional psychological advice, diagnosis or treatment. If you have any concerns about your child’s well-being, talk to a doctor or mental health professional.