Hospitals

Holes in reporting of breakthrough Covid cases hamper CDC response The agency originally tried to track all infections in vaccinated people, from mild to severe. But in May it decided to focus on the most severe cases. Erin Banco POLITICO

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is using outdated and unreliable data on coronavirus breakthrough infections to help make major decisions, such as who gets booster shots, according to three officials with direct knowledge of the situation.

Study: Patients, not staff, source of most hospital COVID spread Also, 21% of patients caused 80% of infections, UK researchers find. CIDRAP

Most hospital patients diagnosed as having COVID-19 contracted the virus from other patients rather than healthcare workers (HCWs), with 21% of patients causing 80% of cases, finds a UK study today in eLife.  ...

... Nursing shortages have long vexed hospitals. But in the year and a half since its ferocious debut in the United States, the coronavirus pandemic has stretched the nation’s nurses as never before, testing their skills and stamina as desperately ill patients with a poorly understood malady flooded emergency rooms. They remained steadfast amid a calamitous shortage of personal protective equipment; spurred by a sense of duty, they flocked from across the country to the newest hot zones, sometimes working as volunteers. More than 1,200 of them have died from the virus.