Officials with Kaiser Permanente’s San Jose Medical Center have spoken with additional staff members in recent days about working in the event there is a staff shortage following a coronavirus outbreak there, a hospital official said Monday.
A total of 44 staff members in the medical center’s emergency department tested positive between Dec. 27 and New Year’s Day.
According to Irene Chavez, the hospital’s senior vice president and area manager, the outbreak is believed to be tied to a staff member wearing an inflatable Christmas tree costume on Christmas Day.
The costume’s fan likely blew coronavirus particles into the facility, something Chavez characterized as “completely innocent and quite accidental.” The staff member had no symptoms at the time.
“Obviously this is a highly unusual situation involving a well-intentioned staff member acting on their own without advance notice or approval,” Chavez said in a statement. “We are reinforcing with our staff that we do not allow these devices in our facilities.”
Contact tracing is ongoing and all medical center employees suspected of having contracted the virus are not working for the time being and are isolating at home.
The emergency department itself is being deep cleaned in addition to the hospital’s existing cleaning standards, according to Chavez.
All health care workers at the facility will have access to weekly testing for the virus, with expedited results for those with symptoms or exposure to someone who tested positive.
The medical center remains open at this time, according to Chavez. Masks are required in all areas of the facility and additional safety precautions prohibiting sharing of food and drinks and gathering in break rooms remain in effect.
“Even as the vaccine is beginning to be provided in our communities, given the prevalence of COVID-19 in the community we are all still vulnerable and it remains critical for everyone to continue using the methods to help protect ourselves and others — especially masks, hand washing, avoiding gatherings, and social distancing,” Chavez said.
What?
What a ridiculous story. These public health officials are desperate for any kind of narrative that can keep the fear alive.
PCR tests were never meant to be used in medical diagnosis. The way the PCR tests are being used is a scandalous misuse of science. 44 people supposedly “tested” positive using an invalid test, but how many of these people are sick? How many had no symptoms at all, and therefore would never had been a “case” without the bogus PCR test?
A “super-spreader event” caused by an inflatable Santa outfit? These people have lost their minds. Only a fool would go along with such nonsense.
We need an immediate return to healthy skepticism and solid critical thinking.
So does this incident prove the airborne transmission thing ?
Wonder how many infected were only wearing a cloth mask and did any person wearing an N95 mask become infected ?
“… coronavirus is about 0.12 microns in diameter and N95 (masks) protect down to 0.1 microns, with 95% efficiency, …”
Most articles out there talk in terms of “percent”, while neglecting to mention particle size (in microns) cloth masks are capable of stopping.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-9080597/Cloth-masks-NOT-stop-spread-COVID-19-without-social-distancing.html
Evidence of airborne transmission was my first thought when I read about this.
However, the incident bothers me as it does not pass the smell test based on the information provided to the public. I’m assuming the person was wearing a mask and so the virus must have been on bits of skin debris that we are constantly sloughing off that was then expelled into the air by the inflatable suite. If that’s the case then people would constantly be transmitting the virus in the COVID-19 wards. The rate of casual transmission in public areas would also be much higher. Either it was a highly contagious mutant of the virus or there are aspects to the story that were not made public.
SFGate now has an article with a picture of what they believe is the costume. I had assumed the guy had been wearing one of those inflatables where the head is exposed and thus he would have had a mask in. The picture shows a costume where the person is fully inside and looks out via a grill. It’s possible he did not wear a mask. However, I still leans towards airborne transmission unless the person had no mask and perhaps was singing, laughing, or talking loudly while performing in the costume.
WC Resident, … good points. Had never heard of an inflatable xmas tree suit.
Judgement varies between employees and what they’re ordered to do by management. Went to get prescription refilled, did the hand washing bit at their portable wash station, then on top of that hand sanitizer. Then you got a colored dot to place on your shirt and instructed to enter a building and stand in a line.
Saw social distancing in a narrow hallway with people mostly using cloth masks, walked to end of the line, counted 18 people, turned around walked back out and told Kaiser employees forget it. Not about to stand in air in a confined area with little air circulation with people using cloth masks.
Went to another Kaiser facility, hand washing stand outside not being used and no employee standing near it to enforce it’s usage. Inside after a squirt of hand sanitizer got my refill.
This is ridiculous. They could test positive and not be sick. What a ridiculous story. I know people that have tested positive for it and hardly had anything other than a cold. The common cold is a coronavirus. Whatever
“Only” one out of the 44 employees has died from the corona virus infection tied to this incident so far. I guess that sounds like great odds to you. It doesn’t sound that good to me.
Hollywood is writing these stories. How stupid do you have to be to believe this? The logic and reason one needs to disregard to entertain this mountainous. Why would they lie like this? Did they have a party against protocols? All I know is if you went for this one, I have a bridge for sale. Our new normal is full on propaganda from all directions, all the time. Information warfare at it’s finest. Who wants to bet it’s the “new version”? I would expect more from Kaiser. How did 44 staff members catch the virus AT A HOSPITAL? Sure seems like us maskless idiots know how to keep from getting sick more then these “professionals”
Oh Lawd!!!
That costume would Never be permitted at my workplace and I’m not in the medical field.
But I understand with the Hospitals being EMPTY and the Staff being bored and making tik tok dancing videos and now this.
It may not have been the costume but COVID-19 is highly contagious.
Over 350,000 died from it.
My teen niece got covid a month ago. She lives with her parents and younger sister and none of them got covid. It’s not as contagious as we are told.
Apparently this well-intentioned staff member must have only been the only person able to infect them during this impromptu Christmas party…not days prior while working in the same building or any days following the gathering. Let’s just blame the festive tree costume fan, and not anyone else breathing…and only on that day. And how can they disinfect the ER more than usual? Shouldn’t they be doing that anyway during this pandemic? How much cleaner is a “deep clean” as opposed to “clean”?
Am I missing something?
What the media is failing to say is that a staff member spoke to the press and stated some of the employees were treating patients with respiratory problems in an area of the hospital that they were not supposed to and this person believes that’s where the others were infected.
It’s terrible how we are being mislead by the media and also Kaiser
I’d guess half or more of the medical community are unwitting, asymptomatic carriers and that many are not testing as they should be.
Same with grocery store employees, those handling the mail, and most friends & family.
The virus is a bio-weapon used by the Deep State against us to unseat Trump.
That accomplished, now they’re just rubbing it in our faces.
Socialists will go to any length for control & power.
As I understand the virus, it takes up to 14 days to incubate in the human body, yet they say that people tested positive 2 to 7 days after a supposed exposure. Must be common core mathematics.
And on top of that, somebody died within a week of transmission!! How does that work? Oh yeah, blame it on the obvious.
I am told by a physician that a death certificate lists a primary cause of death and up to three contributing factors. If ANY one of those four spaces lists COVID, it is considered a “COVID” death and the hospital gets extra funding.
And how is it that only employees got sick? What? No patients in the ER that night?
Do you understand that “up to 14 days” means exactly that the majority of people develop symptoms (and/or test positive) 5-10 days post-exposure; for some it takes as little as 2 days, while for a few others it may take as long as 14 days?
I’m not a fan of “common core” curriculum, but somehow it seems a better alternative to the “education” you’ve got. Time to revisit that GED?
The costume is a scapegoat. What about the fact that staff have reported aerosolizing procedures being done in a non-negative pressure room and other CDC guidelines not being followed. There is also the policy that allows staff to come to work with a known exposure as long as they are asymptomatic. Let’s also look at their breakroom and how many staff are on break together.
The absurdity continues.
This story is so ridiculous. That said, why with the pandemic and the cases surging of control in the South Bay would they ever allow ANY unnecessary people to enter the hospital at all? To clarify If you are not working a shift at the hospital or you are not a patient you shouldn’t be there period. I’m sorry but people are in the ER to get medical attention they are not looking for an inflatable walking Christmas tree to lift their spirits.
What’s even scarier than the story is that some people actually believe it’s true!!
IF person inside costume wasn’t wearing an N95 mask, suit acted as a containment for virus laden air, fan then pushed it out suit’s vents in a focused stream. Each time person in suit breathed suit acted to concentrate number of virus particles.
Virus particle is slightly larger than cigarette smoke, if person in suit were smoking a cigarette suit would hold in smoke and fan would force smoke out suit vents in a concentrated streams.
As a virus delivery system you’d be hard pressed to come up with a more ingenious and effective battery powered portable delivery system and it was an off the shelf consumer item. What’s surprising is health professionals didn’t perceive suit as a potential hazard.
https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-drifts-through-the-air-in-microscopic-droplets-heres-the-science-of-infectious-aerosols-136663
@Original G about “What’s surprising is health professionals didn’t perceive suit as a potential hazard.”
That’s not a surprise to me. It takes a rather unusual person to observe the seemingly mundane and to spot potential flaws or exploits. Even that person is unlikely to spot every single potential flaw or exploit regardless of how long they observe and experiment with something. Years ago I read a paper where the author argued, using complexity theory, that it’s mathematically impossible to prove that a system has no flaws. Engineers know this and so work to tilt the odds in their favor while keeping in mind that they are dealing with odds. A perfectly fitted N95 mask filters out 95% of particles. The other five percent get through the mask. A voting tabulator may be 99.9% accurate. How many votes do you need to count to have 100% confidence in the results? An engineer will say that 100% is impossible but she can tell you how to get to 99.99999% while also knowing that there may well be an inflatable Christmas tree sized flaw in her logic.
@Charlie – Relaxed and happy people tend to be better workers than the nose-to-the-grindstone environment that you prefer. I have no problem with the attempt to bring some cheer.
I was in Kaiser WC a couple of years ago and got a good laugh from this https://imgur.com/a/iGPAc8t
@Original G – I had a thought about the inflatable tree. What if the fan and intake is near the floor and there’s a small outlet at the top of the tree? The costume would then be vacuuming up whatever is on the floor and spewing it into the environment. Skin particles and other debris with the virus would then end up in the lungs of people in the area and also settling on all surfaces in the area. That would not be a good idea for any environment these days and particularly bad for an area that would have more than the usual number of people who are contagious with COVID-19.
@ WC Resident
It sure ended up bringing a lot of cheer, didn’t it?
Reminds me of the Eat Me cake in Animal House, totally toxic.
Would have been only one or two people if everyone had on proper respirators.
You can get emergency approved FDA 95+ rated Kn95s for like a dollar a unit here. I have zero affiliation and just want people to stop wearing worthless, irresponsible cloth masks and surgical masks. Everyone should be wearing a respirator or we may as well just stop masking.
https://bonafidemasks.com/face-masks/
N95 masks are not intended for full time use and are unsafe to use full time. You put one on for specific procedures such as intubating someone and then dispose of it. An N95 puts considerable strain on the body and lungs of the wearer. That’s why they are not used full time.
Cloth and surgical masks are safe for for full time use. Both are still widely used in the medical field.
sounds like a social gathering in the ER for xmas. food hanging out exchanging gifts. no PPE