Thursday, April 30, 2020
Sunday, April 26, 2020
FEMA Reportedly Took The 5 Million Masks Ordered For Veterans To Send To Stockpile
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Five million face masks ordered by the Veterans Health Administration to protect staff at the department’s hospitals and clinics were taken by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for the Strategic National Stockpile, a top official told The Washington Post.
Five million face masks ordered by the Veterans Health Administration to protect staff at the department’s hospitals and clinics were taken by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for the Strategic National Stockpile, a top official told The Washington Post.
“I had 5 million masks incoming that disappeared,” said Dr.
Richard Stone, the executive in charge of managing the nation’s largest health
care system with 1,255 facilities that serve more than 9 million veterans. He told
the Post that FEMA instructed vendors with protective equipment ordered by the
Veterans Administration to send the shipments instead to the stockpile.
“The supply system was responding to FEMA,” Stone, a former
Army deputy surgeon general, told the Post. “I couldn’t tell you when my next
delivery was coming in.” Veterans’ health care facilities were going through
about 200,000 masks a day, according to Stone.
Stone acknowledged the problem after Veterans Administration
officials had denied their facilities were grappling with shortages even amid
mounting complaints from health care professionals.
After an appeal from Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert
Wilkie to FEMA, the agency provided the VA with 500,000 masks this week, FEMA
officials said in a statement to the Post. FEMA officials did not address the
issue of diverting supplies ordered for veterans to the national stockpile.
The short-changing of hospitals caring for the nation’s
veterans is similar to FEMA issues at other facilities and states across the
nation. Hospital officials and governors have complained that FEMA is snatching
equipment ordered by communities — rather than providing much-needed supplies,
which officials had been counting on the agency to do.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer — a Democrat who President
Donald Trump has frequently targeted because of what he calls her “complaints”
— revealed last month that vendors with whom her state had contracted for
desperately needed medical equipment were told “not to send stuff,” on orders
from the Trump administration.
Several hospitals in seven states surveyed by the Los
Angeles Times complained that FEMA officials were showing up unannounced and
seizing their supplies, leaving them desperately short and uncertain about
where to turn for more equipment.
NVLSP Fact Sheet on CARES Act
The National Veterans Legal Services Program (NVLSP) recognizes that veterans may have questions regarding the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. We have compiled a fact sheet to help address some of the common questions.
NVLSP continues to work to ensure that the government delivers to our veterans, active duty personnel and their families the benefits to which they are entitled due to disabilities incurred during their military service.
Should women be eligible for US military draft?
One of the starkest ways American women have achieved
equality with men in the workplace has occurred in the military.
The decision five years ago by then Defense Secretary Ashton
Carter to open all positions in the armed forces to women - including combat
duty - was largely applauded as a necessary step that benefited the military
and society.
But this levelling of the military playing field has led to
a more divisive consequence - at the end of March the government's National
Commission on Military, National and Public Service declared it is now time
that women become eligible for the military draft - the procedure by which
individuals are chosen for conscription - just like their male counterparts
between the ages of 18 and 25.
Currently, all male US citizens in that age bracket,
regardless of where they live, and male immigrants - documented and
undocumented - residing within the US, must register through the Selective
Service System.
These registrations create a pool of men who could be
pressed into service if the US needs tens of thousands more troops to fight a
war or if the country faces an existential crisis.
Women have also been serving the US military for
generations, from sewing uniforms during the Revolutionary War to nursing the
wounded in World War II. But they have never been required to register for the
draft, a stance increasingly at odds with the reality of American's modern
military.
"The mere fact that women would have to register would
signal a national recognition that everyone is expected to serve if needed and
that everyone's service is valued equally," says Kara Vuic, a war studies
professor at Texas Christian University, who is writing a book called Drafting
Women.
Writing contest on Agent Orange, dioxins held for first time
Hanoi (VNA) - A writing competition on the subject of Agent
Orange and dioxins and their aftermaths, the first of its kind in Vietnam, has
been launched to mark the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the use of Agent
Orange and dioxins in the country on August 10, 1961.
Held for both professional and non-professional journalists,
it aims to promote the role of the media in raising public awareness of Agent
Orange and dioxins and their consequences and to express support for the
victims.
Entries can be a news story, an interview, a commentary, or
an investigative piece published in Vietnamese in domestic print or online
magazines and newspapers between January 1 and March 30.
They must be true stories and honestly depict people having
a positive influence on the community and contributing to caring for and
supporting victims of Agent Orange and dioxins.
Each writer can submit no more than three entries. The
winners will be announced and receive awards in August, when the anniversary
will be marked officially./.
Veterans group accuses VA of using coronavirus patients as ‘testing subjects’
WASHINGTON — A national veterans group has accused the
Department of Veterans Affairs of using patients as “human testing subjects”
for an anti-malaria medication that some believe could be useful against the
coronavirus.
The VA is giving hydroxychloroquine to some patients as a
“last resort,” the department said Thursday, even though it’s unproven to work.
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America took issue with the
department doling out an unproven treatment for the coronavirus after a study
was published this week that determined the drug had no benefit for VA
patients.
“This is incredibly troubling for a number of reasons and
raises so many questions that we need answered,” said Jeremy Butler, CEO of
IAVA.
There is no proven treatment for the coronavirus, which has
killed more than 45,000 Americans and infected nearly 845,000, according to
Johns Hopkins University. Hydroxychloroquine, which is used to treat rheumatoid
arthritis and lupus, entered the public spotlight after optimistic claims by
President Donald Trump that it could be a “game changer” against the virus.
Veterans Affairs coronavirus cases top 6,000 as vice president touts department progress
A day after Vice President Mike Pence said that Veterans
Affairs is “not seeing cases in its facilities increase,” the department’s
coronavirus count topped 6,000 after one of its largest one-day jumps in the
last month.
The number of deaths within the VA health system also rose
to 391 on Thursday morning, up 18 from the day before. The department has seen
a steady rise in cases and fatalities since March 22, when officials reported
just 160 cases and a single death from the fast-spreading illness.
Nationally, more than 800,000 Americans have contracted the
virus and more than 44,000 died have died from complications related to the
illness.
Some medical center employees had been receiving only one
mask a week to protect against infection.
On Wednesday, during the daily coronavirus briefing at the
White House, Pence praised efforts by VA officials to deal with the outbreak.
“We are also very proud of our team at the VA,” he said.
“The VA has addressed its capacity issues. It’s not seen cases among the
veterans in its facilities increase, so they are deploying teams to focus on
nursing homes.”
Wednesday, April 22, 2020
VA Head Acknowledges Challenges For Health Care Workers Battling Coronavirus
The Department of Veterans
Affairs is the country's largest health care network with 300 hospitals,
clinics and nursing homes nationwide. More than 9 million American veterans get
care from the VA, and today VA doctors and nurses serve on the frontlines of
the pandemic crisis.
In March, VA Secretary Robert
Wilkie told NPR's All Things Considered that his department was well-prepared
for the outbreak of COVID-19, and had good supplies of masks and testing kits.
The reality is different today, he said.
"Since then, as the national
emergency kicked in since I did that interview, the normal supply chains have
dried up," said Wilkie.
Wilkie insists the VA did
sufficient planning, with "war games" of the outbreak earlier this
year. And he said the VA had replenished its national emergency cache of health
supplies before the virus hit. That planning has not measured up to the crisis.
No VA hospital has run out, but that's because the VA has been forced to
carefully ration equipment.
"For those who are on the
front lines in the emergency rooms, in the COVID wards, who are in the nursing
homes, they have the normal supply of equipment. It's those who do not have
that direct contact with patients that we've asked to follow CDC guidelines,"
he said.
Wilkie admits the Centers for
Disease Control guidelines are based more on adapting to the crisis than on
ideal medical practices.
"We are ensuring that those
on the front lines have what they need," he said. "Does everyone in a
hospital have all of the changes in gear that we would have in a normal
situation? No."
Sunday, April 19, 2020
VA Instructs Coronavirus-Exposed Staff to Continue Working, Places Those Who Don’t in AWOL Status
Employees at the Veterans Affairs Department are feeling
pressured to return to work even after they've been exposed to the novel
coronavirus—a new VA policy requires them to continue showing up, and threatens
discipline along with the possibility of losing pay for those who stay home.
The situation is creating a stressful environment in which
VA workers worry their colleagues may be hiding symptoms while they have
insufficient equipment to protect themselves and others from spreading the
virus. Government Executive spoke to employees at more than a half-dozen
facilities, all of whom said management was providing inconsistent guidance and
creating unsafe working conditions.
To date, more than 5,000 patients and 1,600 staff at VA
facilities have tested positive for COVID-19; more than 300 patients and more
than a dozen staff have died from the disease. Until recently at some
facilities, staff told Government Executive, some administrative staff were not
even allowed to wear masks, either because there weren't enough to go around
and they were being reserved for medical personnel with more sustained patient
contact, or because supervisors were worried about alarming patients and
visitors.
At some facilities, VA officials have instituted policies
under which employees who worked with COVID-19 positive patients before their
status was known—and therefore were not wearing the proper equipment—should
continue to work until they develop symptoms, after which they could be tested
for the virus. In some cases, those employees included nurses and doctors who
subsequently tested positive for the virus but returned after seven days when
their symptoms were no longer evident, employees said. One memorandum sent by a
top official at a medical center in Indianapolis said VA facilities should
consider enabling employees “who have had an exposure to a COVID-19 patient to
continue to work after options to improve staffing have been exhausted.”
In Vietnam, There Have Been Fewer Than 300 COVID-19 Cases And No Deaths. Here's Why
Vietnam shares a border with China, yet it has reported no
deaths from COVID-19 and just 268 confirmed cases, when other Southeast Asian
nations are reporting thousands.
Experts say experience dealing with prior pandemics, early
implementation of aggressive social distancing policies, strong action from
political leaders and the muscle of a one-party authoritarian state have helped
Vietnam.
"They had political commitment early on at the highest
level," says John MacArthur, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention's country representative in neighboring Thailand. "And that
political commitment went from central level all the way down to the hamlet
level."
With experience gained from dealing with the 2003 SARS and
2009 H1N1 pandemics, Vietnam's government started organizing its response in
January — as soon as reports began trickling in from Wuhan, China, where the
virus is believed to have originated. The country quickly came up with a
variety of tactics, including widespread quarantining and aggressive contact
tracing. It has also won praise from the World Health Organization and the CDC
for its transparency in dealing with the crisis.
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc recently characterized
Vietnam's efforts as the "spring general offensive of 2020," a
reference to the 1968 Tet Offensive, which many claims helped turn the tide of
the Vietnam War.
Tens of thousands have been put in quarantine camps. By the
end of March, Vietnam had banned all international and domestic flights. The
government locked down the country on April 1. State-run media say the current
social distancing and stay-at-home orders are to be extended for at least
another week.
8 ways veterans are particularly at risk from the coronavirus pandemic
Among the most hard-hit are veterans, who are particularly
susceptible to both health and economic threats from the pandemic. These veterans
face homelessness, lack of health care, delays in receiving financial support
and even death.
I have spent the past four years studying veterans with
substance use and mental health disorders who are in the criminal justice
system. This work revealed gaps in health care and financial support for
veterans, even though they have the best publicly funded benefits in the
country.
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