The new Chair of the Board at Chatham-Kent Health Alliance says COVID-19 is not a hoax and those who think it's no worse than the flu are "simply wrong."
Board Chair Alan Wildeman said the idea that COVID-19 is not serious is causing unnecessary stress among his hospital staff.
Wildeman points to calculations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing that the flu has caused 1.8 deaths for every 100,000 people from 1999 until 2019 where COVID-19 is causing approximately 215 deaths per 100,000.
Hospital CEO Lori Marshall said there is no comparison between the impact of COVID-19 and the impact of the flu. Marshall said the effects of the unrelentless stress may never be reversed and she is bracing for nurses leaving the health care profession after the pandemic if they haven't left already.
"The impact of COVID has been significant and sustained and I would say changed the face of health care and us health care workers forever," said Marshall. "The morale of health care workers over the course of the last two years has been very difficult and it is something that is going to take a long time for us to recover from."
Wildeman said COVID-19 is no joke.
"The effects on staff are orders of magnitude greater than what typically has been experienced with the flu and things like that. This is a long-lasting effect of people who work in the health care system," said Wildeman.
Marshall hopes that young people continue to be inspired to work in health care in the future and the system will see a renewal.
