A hospital stay was a death sentence for a local centenarian. I'm told that a 100 year old woman who lived a few doors down from Jersey City Free Books suffered a fall at home. This mishap was serious enough to require hospitalization. There, she was infected with SARS CoV 2 and quickly died.
Over the years I've heard stories of the seemingly healthy elderly elderly becoming bedridden from a relatively minor incident. Then, they quickly descended in a tailspin of illness and often died. Presumably, this is looming comorbidity for #CoViD19 .
For there to be a risk/benefit analysis concerning infection prevention in, say, a supermarket or a train station is now to be expected. I'd think that making certain that a hospital didn't pose a health risk should be priority number one.
A related discussion is health care facilities as threats to public health. I recall a study of ATMs near hospitals as possible shared hearths, for here the spread of disease instead of culture. I am always shocked to see doctors or nurses in their work clothes on public transportation.
Health care personnel wearing scrubs on their morning commute carry the current Top 40 disease causing organisms playing on public transportation in to the hospital. Wearing the same back home gives the general populace a chance of being exposed to suitcase pathogens and uber-mutated microorganisms having gained virulence and/or transmissibility in the health care setting a la mode Paul Ewald.
Health care workers should shower and change into uniforms upon arriving at the hospital. End of shift, they should again shower and put their street clothes back on. The garments worn while working should be laundered at the facility.
It's understandable that health care workers are proud of their service and want to signal it. Perhaps the institutions could issue jackets with "colors" like those worn by motorcycle clubs. On top could be the city. The main logo would represent the specific hospital. Patches would designate schools, degrees and specialties.
Official garb would also facilitate responding to an emergency.
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