“We pray before we go to work, praying that you won’t catch anything or bring home anything.” Some employees are so afraid that they have become almost germaphobic, spending the first hour and a half of their shift just cleaning machines, knobs, and rails. Sometimes they are so afraid they experience chest pains.

My mother comes into work in one pair of scrubs, changes into another set of operating room scrubs, folds her previous set and sends them to be thoroughly cleaned. When its time to leave, she changes into another set given to her, folds the old pair, and sends them back to be thoroughly cleaned. In the surrounding area, there is a 50% or more decrease in people coming in for elective surgeries or procedures, and people who are not as sick are opting not to come into the ER. This is affecting employees whose jobs usually do not require them to interact with COVID-19 patients, cutting their hours. Memorial Herman is being really nice towards affected employees, creating an employee pool where medical personal who are getting their hours cut can help in other sectors that need more personal. Local restaurants are also being really nice and helping them out, providing medical personal with lunch as their way of saying thank you.

For mothers, it’s also a more difficult time, “I have to cook more, I have to almost homeschool, and I constantly worry for the health of y family.” As a member of the medical field, and looking at how the virus transmits, my mother cannot stress how important it is that everyone washes their hands and does not touch their faces. Medical staff could walk in, check-in on an infected patient, and be fine as long as they wash properly and thoroughly and do not touch their face or touch an infected area.