Congratulations: Once 14 days has passed since completing all your COVID-19 vaccination shots you are now protected against severe COVID-19. This holds true for both the original strain and forms of variants that are now circulating. Good news: You are far less...
HCW HOSTED is a Tucson-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to facilitating community support of healthcare workers and their families during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
Because we can only be as healthy as the healthcare workforce that cares for us.
COVID-19 News
Vetted and collected by our Medical Anthropology & Epidemiology Team
Updated May 10, 2021
Nearly half the U.S. Adult Population is Fully Vaccinated
Good news: Nearly half the U.S. adult population is fully vaccinated and protected against from severe COVID-19 . However, adjusting for vaccination, the rate among susceptible, unvaccinated people is 69 percent higher than the standard figures being publicized for the population at large. See details at the Washington Post
It Is Important for Teens to Get Vaccinated
Younger teens may not be as likely to have severe COVID-19 as adults, but their hospitalization rates spiked early this year and left a large proportion in critical care. Notably, nearly one-third of the adolescent hospitalizations for COVID-19 required intensive care unit (ICU) admission, while 5% required invasive mechanical ventilation. No patients died.
These hospitalization rates were cumulatively 2.5 to 3.0 times higher than those seen with influenza over the three most recent flu seasons. Read More at the CDC.
Use of the Pfizer Covid-19 Vaccine Authorized by FDA for 12- to 15-year-olds in the United States.
The Food and Drug Administration has authorized use of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds in the United States. There is one more step before the vaccine will become available for this age group. An advisory committee of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to meet shortly to review the data and make recommendations for the vaccine’s use.
A randomized control trial found that occurrence of side effects in this age group was comparable to those seen among 16 to 25 years old. Fevers were slightly more common among inoculated 12- to 15-year-olds; about 20 percent of them had fevers, compared with 17 percent in the older age group. Read more at the FDA.
CDC Issues New Masking Guidelines for Fully Vaccinated People
If you are fully vaccinated you can start doing many things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic. Read more at the CDC.
HCW HOSTED Blog
Where We Are Now
I'm Brad Dreifuss--Emergency Medicine Physician, father, husband. Last March, my wife, Heather, and I watched with alarm as the pandemic began to sweep across the world like wildfire. We realized that our healthcare system, workforce, and our family would need help to...
Caring for Our Healthcare Workers
As a nurse (Karin) and a public health professional married to a healthcare worker (Heather), we both knew in March of 2020 that the world’s healthcare workers and their families were about to encounter an overwhelming challenge. They would need all the support they...
Donor Spotlight: Kaya Dreifuss, 11
Kaya Dreifuss, the 11-year-old daughter of two of HCW HOSTED's founders, Drs. Brad and Heather Dreifuss, became the first donor to HCW HOSTED, Inc. on June 20, 2020 when she donated $67. Kaya raised the money by making and selling several lavender pouches to be given...
Now That You’re Vaccinated
Congratulations on getting your COVID-19 vaccine! Thank you for doing your part to move our community one step closer to healthy. Now that you're vaccinated, you may have questions about what to expect and what you should do next. Our HCW HOSTED Epidemiology &...
Why Health Citizenship?
One of the primary roles of HCW HOSTED is advocacy for healthcare workers, broadly defined.1 High on our list, beyond advocating for support services and resources for healthcare workers, is advocating for public policies and social norms that prevent the health care...
Combating the Pandemic Infodemic
At present, we are facing not just a COVID-19 pandemic, but also an infodemic. We are inundated with a steady flow of information about COVID-19 that often appears overwhelming. Much of the information is highly technical and packed with statistics that are difficult...
Since Our Founding in April 2020
We Have Provided…
Services
Housing
A primary goal of HCW HOSTED is to provide safe quarantined housing for healthcare workers exposed to COVID-19 to reduce risk of exposure to families, loved ones, and colleagues at limited expense.
As of November 2020, we have facilitated housing for 35 healthcare workers for periods of 2 days to 5 months, providing them a safe space to live while they mitigate the spread of COVID-19 to their families. The typical stay has been 24 days.
Depending on the healthcare worker’s needs they are placed in local hotels or in homes provided by generous community members.
Emotional Support Services
HCW HOSTED offers free mental health and wellness support to healthcare workers enrolled in the program. Healthcare workers may experience significant physical, psychological, social and financial stress while responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
These stressors are complicated by being physically distanced from loved ones and normal routines of coping.
Healthcare workers trained in the Assisting Individuals in Crisis program through International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, Inc. and the University of Arizona Resilience in Stressful Events (R.I.S.E.) program are peer coaches who help other healthcare workers move through short term crises and to encourage and identify effective coping mechanisms.
As of November 2020, we have offered emotional support services to 51 healthcare workers.
Daily Monitoring
Every day, registered healthcare workers receive a 2-3 minute survey via text or email to check on their last work shift, COVID-19 symptoms, stress level, and sleep quality. HCW HOSTED staff check on healthcare workers when changes in their baseline daily monitoring occur.
As of November 2020, we have provided daily monitoring services to 49 healthcare workers and counting.
In the first phase of our existence, we have focused on smaller trials of services, refining our understanding of what services healthcare workers want. During this phase, we offered services to 135 Tucson healthcare workers.
We continue to offer those services locally as we develop a technological platform that can be used in communities around the globe to allow employers to contract for the services and connections in their local communities that will support the physical and emotional well-being of their employees.
Services sign up form will open in a new tab.
Advocacy
HCW HOSTED advocates for: 1) bringing healthcare worker voices and experiences to the public’s attention, 2) providing resources to keep healthcare workers and their families safe, and 3) promoting evidence-based policies that protect healthcare workers and the communities they serve. We believe in elevating the voices of healthcare workers, ensuring that those voices are a prominent part of the public conversation about the pandemic.
Healthcare Voices is a series of short articles from frontline healthcare workers discussing their experiences in the pandemic. You are invited to add your voice to the series, anonymously or credited.
The Health Citizen Pledge is a set of concrete, actionable steps that the general public can commit to taking to get the pandemic under control–and a call to our government and elected officials to do their part.
HOSTED in the News collects local, national, and international media appearances by HCW HOSTED team members, including the New York Times, BBC Newshour, Univision, and KGUN9 Tucson.
The Healthcare Worker Memorial was a live event we hosted on October 11, 2020 to memorialize U.S. healthcare workers who have died of COVID-19.
Information
Because COVID-19 is a new disease, information about it evolves continually. Our Medical Anthropology & Epidemiology Team reviews, evaluates, and compiles COVID-19 information as it emerges so that we can help you find current and accurate information about the pandemic.
We have categorized information into several categories for your convenience.
Staying Safe at Home and in the World covers the latest in COVID-19 prevention and management information for a general audience.
Healthcare Workers & COVID covers the mental and physical health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare workers.
Our COVID Overview discusses some of the most recent research on COVID-19 from evidence-based published and unpublished sources.
In Additional Resources, we provide links to other sites you may find useful.
We are healthcare workers & their family members, anthropologists, public health professionals, psychologists, epidemiologists, business professionals, and concerned community members.
We serve the whole healthcare team: from nurses to doctors to respiratory techs to EVS workers, CNAs, case managers, and all the healthcare team members who make frontline healthcare possible.
Get Involved
