National Nurses United

the hospital refused to admit her to the hospital's ICU even as her family and coworkers wanted her there. "She would have been taken care of by those who loved her and she would not have been alone and passing away with strangers," said Streams, fighting back tears. C urrently, the healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) is updating the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Isolation Precautions guid- ance, which shapes infection control and prevention practices in hospitals, nursing homes, and other health care settings across the nation and around the world. "For too long, HICPAC's proposals have ignored critical science and weakened current protections for health care workers and patients because they have been dominated by infection prevention and industry viewpoints, to the exclusion of other essential expertise," said Nancy Hagans, RN and president of NNU. After a robust campaign, NNU achieved a remarkable victory this year, when two members of the NNU staff were invited to add their expertise to the CDC process. Thomason has been invited to join the HICPAC workgroup and Lisa Baum, lead occupational safety and health representative at NNU affiliate New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), has also been invited to join HICPAC. "This is an essential step forward for HICPAC to include labor, occupational health, and industrial hygiene perspectives in the workgroup," said Hagans. "Our expertise is essential to crafting robust, science-based guidance that fully protects health care workers and patients from infectious diseases." NNU continues to advocate for improved transparency and engagement with frontline nurses and other health care workers. F or streams and chaudhary, their lives have changed dra- matically since they became ill with Long Covid. Streams said her relationships have suffered because some people in her life have questioned why she has not been able to return to work. Her family's finances have suffered too as they became dependent on workers' compensation and then state disability insurance to help support the family of four. It is now three years after her first infection, and Streams still does not leave her house often and she suffers from bouts of lethargy and depression. "I've never had depression before until this," said Streams. "There were times I just wanted to cry because just [the way] all the things are, the stress of it." Workers' compensation initially approved therapy for Streams, but later denied the benefit. After fighting with the workers' com- pensation for years, Streams has recently been approved for mental health treatment. In March, she began taking naltrexone to combat her fatigue and brain fog. She said she has seen some improvements with the treat- ment as she sleeps better and her energy levels have improved. With her state disability gone, Streams is hoping to go back to work soon. But she is concerned about what awaits her. "I'm kind of scared because if there's a new strain coming around again," said Streams, "I don't know what to expect. I hope I remember what I need to do when I need to do it. I'm concerned about having brain fog, because a lot of being a nurse is teaching our patients and if I'm forgetting what the word is, I don't feel like I'm gonna sound like I know what I'm talking about." Chaudhary works light duty as a hospital operator. But he said he still deals with 10 to 20 Long Covid symptoms daily. "My most severe symptom right now is dizziness," said Chaud- hary. "Even turning my head can get me dizzy. I get blurry vision every time and my ears start ringing. So it's like I'm totally blind and deaf when I start getting dizzy." He wants nurses and other health care workers to understand that Long Covid is a serious illness. "A lot of people are not aware of how severe Long Covid can get," he said. "They think it is a respiratory illness. But I see like four or five different specialists already and all of them know it's Covid, but they don't have any idea how to treat me or what to do. At this point, my doctors are just doing symptom management treatment for me." Streams and Chaudry are adamant: Nurses must do everything they can to protect themselves from infection by wearing an N95 or better respirator, getting vaccines, and taking the time to learn the proper way to don and doff their PPE. "This is a novel disease," said Streams. "The doctors will gaslight you. Not everyone will believe you. You are a guinea pig with wha- tever medications they put you on. It's very frustrating." Rachel Berger is a communications specialist with National Nurses United. J U LY | A U G U S T | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 4 W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G N A T I O N A L N U R S E 19 To sign NNU's petition urging OSHA to issue a permanent infectious diseases standard for health care workers, please visit https://act.nnu.org/sign/osha-petition/ "Unless you have it, you don't really understand…It was hard to take a shower, I was dizzy all the time, I felt like I was blacking out." —Mirasol Streams, RN

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