Slate "What Nurses Are Seeing and Hearing in South Dakota"

[NRaleighLiberal]

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/11/south-dakota-covid-healthcare-worker.html

The coronavirus pandemic is surging throughout the U.S., but in no place is it worse than the Dakotas. The states lead the country in cases and deaths per capita while also having some of the lowest rates of mask usage. North Dakota recently implemented an order requiring masks indoors in businesses and public spaces. But in South Dakota—a state that held its annual state fair and the massive Sturgis Motorcycle Rally—there is still no mask mandate, and Gov. Kristi Noem has consistently downplayed the threat of the virus and cast doubt on the science.

On Monday, a tweet from a South Dakota emergency room nurse—and her subsequent interview on CNN—went viral and brought extra attention to the challenges for healthcare workers in conservative areas where politically motivated misinformation finds a more receptive audience. The nurse, Jodi Doering, said that patients were denying the existence of COVID until their final breaths. “Their last dying words are, ‘This can’t be happening. It’s not real,’” she said. “And when they should be… Facetiming their families, they’re filled with anger and hatred.”

To get a better sense of whether Doering’s experience was widespread among healthcare workers in the state, Slate spoke with Ashley Kingdon-Reese, a healthcare worker in Huron, South Dakota. Kingdon-Reese owns a company that provides in-home care and other healthcare services. She was also recently elected to the Government Relations Committee Chair for South Dakota and has served on her county’s COVID Task Force since June. Our interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Slate: There’s been a lot of attention paid to Doering’s comments. How have the local healthcare workers you’ve known reacted to the news cycle?

Kingdon-Reese: I’ve known Jodi for years. I understand. I think her frustration is high. Certainly the amount of frustration she was voicing is not felt universally here, and there are many who aren’t seeing the same things. Some of the backlash has been about her generalizations. But the one message I did love is when she said that when you come in for emergency care, we don’t care if you’re Republican or Democrat. I don’t want her comment about political views not weighing on healthcare to get lost.

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