More than 3,600 US HCWs dead from COVID-19

Editor's Note

A 12-month investigation by The Guardian and Kaiser Health News finds that more than 3,600 US healthcare workers (HCWs) died from COVID-19 during the pandemic’s first year, the April 8 Kaiser Health News reports.

Key findings include:

• People of color accounted for two-thirds of deaths.
• Risk of death was higher for nurses, nursing home employees, and support staff than physicians.
• More than half of HCWs who died were younger than 60 years.
• More than a third of those who died were born outside the US.
• Twice as many deaths were in nursing home employees as in hospital employees, and relatively few deaths were in academic medical center employees.

The death rate in HCWs has slowed dramatically since COVID-19 vaccines were made available to them in December. Many deaths could have been prevented with adequate supplies of masks and other PPE, more extensive testing, and better implementation of workplace safety rules, the report says.