Just the Facts: Protecting frontline clinicians during the COVID-19 pandemic

Atkinson, Paul; French, James; Lang, Eddy; McColl, Tamara; Mazurik, Laurie

Certain groups of society are at increased risk from coronavirus. This is also true among health care workers, and includes older adults (e.g., those over 60 years), those with underlying medical conditions (e.g., heart disease, chronic respiratory diseases, cancer), and those at risk due to a immunocompromise from a medical condition or treatment (e.g., chemotherapy). 5 Mortality rates have been cited as 10 times higher in patients between the ages of 60 and 69 and over 25% in age groups over 70 years. Pregnant staff are also a consideration, as literature is sparse but suggests they can have a severe clinical course with adverse fetal effects. 11 It seems wise then to protect these groups of health care workers from direct exposure to high-risk procedures, and perhaps restrict these staff to taking care of the lower risk stream of non-COVID-19 related cases in the ED.