The Week
South Dakota ER nurse recalls how dying coronavirus patients spend last minutes insisting virus isn’t real
South Dakota ER nurse Jodi Doering has seen some disturbing examples of COVID-19 denial as she works through the pandemic.After a Twitter thread of her experiences started circulating, Doering appeared on CNN’s New Day on Monday to describe how South Dakota hospitals are overwhelmed with coronavirus patients — and yet some of them don’t believe the virus they have is real. While many patients are “grateful for the care they receive” from nurses, some COVID-19 patients spend their last moments refusing to call family and friends because they’re convinced they’re going to be fine, Doering said. “Their last dying words are, ‘This can’t be happening. It’s not real,'” Doering recalled. In some cases, patients even insist they have the flu or lung cancer to avoid acknowledging the coronavirus.> A South Dakota ER nurse @JodiDoering says her Covid-19 patients often “don’t want to believe that Covid is real.”> > “Their last dying words are, ‘This can’t be happening. It’s not real.’ And when they should be… Facetiming their families, they’re filled with anger and hatred.” pic.twitter.com/tgUgP6znAT> > — New Day (@NewDay) November 16, 2020Doering went on to mention how more people have died of COVID-19 in South Dakota — 644 — than live in the town where she’s from. South Dakota has the highest COVID-19 mortality rate of almost anywhere in the world — only North Dakota and the entire countries of Belgium and the Czech Republic rank higher. Without a mask mandate and with low rates of mask wearing, the Dakotas have seen coronavirus cases spike over the past few months. > North Dakota is waaaayyy beyond just merely “hit hard”. It ranks as the 1 hotspot for COVID19 mortality rate ***in entire world***. South Dakota, Cook County (Chicago), Wisconsin and Montana not far behind. (HT @greg_travis and @VanGennepD) https://t.co/1dSpAQIz75 pic.twitter.com/X3VZ6sYKC5> > — Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) November 16, 2020More stories from theweek.com 7 scathingly funny cartoons about Trump’s refusal to concede Trump is reportedly ‘very aware’ he lost the election but is putting up a fight as ‘theater’ Texas senator suggests it’s too soon to declare Biden the winner because Puerto Rico is still counting votes
