President-elect Joe Biden on November 18 chatted online with four frontline workers, including a firefighter, a nursing home employee, an intensive care unit (ICU) nurse and a teacher, to
Mary Turner, president of the National League for Nursing in Minnesota, cried when talking about treating Covid-19 patients in the ICU of the hospital she has worked at since February.
`I personally have held the hands of many dying patients crying for loved ones they cannot see,` Turner said through tears.
That moment made Mr. Biden unable to contain his emotions and bent down to use a towel to wipe away his tears.
`You moved me,` Biden said.
Biden shed tears when hearing the nurse talk about Covid-19
Biden was emotional when he heard nurse Turner share.
As Covid-19 is increasing again in the US, medical staff say their hospitals are understaffed and lacking equipment to treat the increasing number of patients.
In a survey of 15,000 nurses, 42% said staffing had recently become short to varying degrees.
During the online meeting above, nurse Turner talked about the difficulties that the medical team at her hospital had faced since March, such as lack of masks, lack of breaks for nurses infected with nCoV, and the lack of time off for nurses infected with nCoV.
In May, the US House of Representatives passed the HEROES bill, which allows frontline workers such as nurses to receive an additional $25,000 subsidy until the end of 2020. However, the Senate did not pass this bill.
`There are no words enough to praise you,` Biden said.
The US, the largest epidemic region in the world, currently records more than 11 million cases of nCoV infection, of which more than 250,000 deaths.
On November 16, the President-elect warned that many people would die if Trump continued to delay the transfer of power, especially regarding the vaccine distribution plan.
`More people could die if we don’t coordinate. How can we get more than 300 million Americans vaccinated? That’s an extremely important thing to do,` Biden said.