What this Texas emergency room physician needs to treat COVID patients

Judy Woodruff:

The surge of COVID cases in the U.S. is putting tremendous pressure on hospitals and health care workers.

More than 100,000 people around the country are now hospitalized because of COVID. That's double the number compared to the start of November, according to the COVID Tracking Project. Texas and the Southwest have been particularly struggling with the pandemic.

And that's where Amna Nawaz focuses our attention tonight.

Amna Nawaz:

Judy, let's look at how this is playing out in the Lone Star State.

More than 9,000 people are hospitalized now, nearly a third in intensive care, and Texas' death toll is now above 23,000. Things are particularly dire in El Paso, but cases are spiking across the state, including in and around Houston.

And that is where we find Dr. Richina Bicette of Baylor College of Medicine. She's an emergency room physician treating COVID patients.

She joins us now.

Dr. Bicette, welcome to the "NewsHour" and thanks for being with us.

We can't be inside the hospitals to see what you see every day. So, take us inside for a moment. Describe to me what it looks like, what it feels like. And do you have what you need to do your job right now?

Richina Bicette:

Well, Amna, that's an interesting question.

Do I have enough ventilators to put people on? Sure. Do I have enough oxygen tanks for those that need it? Yes. But I don't have the reassurance that, when I go into work, I'm going to be safe and protected. I don't have the staff that I need to take care of all of the patients that I'm seeing.

I don't have the questions to all — the answers to all of the questions that my patients are asking me because of the large degree of uncertainty that surrounds this disease. So, in terms of equipment, we may have what we need, but there are still a lot of other things that we're missing in terms of taking care of COVID patients.

Amna Nawaz:

Dr. Bicette, we have seen vast disparities in how the virus is playing out in different communities. We know black and Latino and Native communities have been hit the hardest. Are you seeing the same thing in Houston?

Richina Bicette:

Absolutely.

In the state of Texas, we have a large Hispanic population. You mentioned earlier El Paso. El Paso County is actually about 82 percent Hispanic. So, definitely, the areas that are being hit hardest are made up of a lot of these minority communities. African-Americans and Hispanics are two times more likely to be diagnosed with COVID-19.

They're about four times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID, and they're almost three times more likely to die from COVID-19. So this disease is definitely affecting some communities more than others.

Amna Nawaz:

Dr. Bicette, do you know why you're seeing cases rising the way that they are now? Is any of this because of the Thanksgiving travel we saw?

Richina Bicette:

I actually don't think we're seeing a spike from Thanksgiving just yet. And that's actually horrifying.

Just yesterday, we hit over 213,000 new cases of COVID in a single day. And that's without us having yet to really realize the spike that's coming from Thanksgiving.

I think what's happening is that a lot of people are experiencing pandemic fatigue. If they have yet to be affected, they think that they can't be affected. So, they're continuing to go out. They're not social distancing. They're gathering with friends and family members who are not in the same household. People are not wearing masks. Businesses are open.

And, as people continue to go out, they continue to get sicker.

Amna Nawaz:

What about the fatigue among you and your colleagues?

The cases that you see are the worst of the worst. After all these many months, the better part of the year now treating these patients, what's the cumulative toll, both emotional and mental?

Richina Bicette:

I can't even begin to speak on what people are feeling right now. It's not just mental. It's not just emotional, but it's physical also. We're putting in long hours.

There are colleagues of mine that have been out sick for weeks, and some of them months. And so we're having to pick up the brunt of their shifts and work extra hours because of that. There's not a shift that I go into the hospital that I don't have to remind staff members to pull their masks up, or to make sure that they're distancing in the break room when talking to colleagues.

There's not a shift that a nurse isn't calling me into a room because a patient is argumentative, and they don't understand why they need to have a mask on.

Aside from pandemic fatigue, I think a lot of medical professionals are exasperated, because we're seeing people continue to travel. We're seeing people continue to go out and dine at restaurants. And we know that all of this is contributing to the sickness, to the death toll, to the hospitalization rate.

And we don't know what else to do to get the public to understand.

Amna Nawaz:

Dr. Bicette, in just a few seconds left, when you look at what leaders in Texas and other places are doing, is enough being done to stop and slow the spread of the virus right now?

Richina Bicette:

Absolutely not.

It's not about what the leaders are doing. It's about what they're not doing. There are still places in Texas where businesses are allowed to operate at 75 percent capacity. There are still places where bars are open.

"The New England Journal of Medicine," which is probably one of the most respected and most recognized scientific journals in the world, actually wrote a piece on it called "Dying in a Leadership Vacuum," where they stated that our leaders have failed us, they have failed this test, and they have turned crisis into tragedy.

Amna Nawaz:

Dr. Richina Bicette on the front lines of that tragedy in Houston, Texas, joining us tonight, thank you for all you do and for joining us tonight.

Richina Bicette:

Thank you for having me.