After the COVID-19 outbreak in China, sales of condoms rose in the country

thursday, 04.09.20

The Student Voice Since 1960 ALESTLE T H E

vol. 73 no. 26

health care workers give hands-on view of Covid-19

Medical professionals provide a look at what’s behind the closed hospital curtains in the era of COVID-19

While the stay-at-home order has forced nonessential workers into their homes during the pandemic, health care workers are on the front lines facing off against the nation’s current largest threat — COVID-19 — while armed with latex gloves and kind hearts.

At every level of health care, from doctors to technicians, professionals are taking on the threat head-on.

Among these health care professionals is senior biological sciences major Hannah Niles, of Marissa, Illinois, who is working directly with patients affected by COVID-19 as a scribe at five different hospitals — two in St. Louis, Missouri and three in Illinois.

“So far we have seen cases of respiratory complaints with associated cough and fever. One case that stood out to me was a patient coming in with what looked to be a sinus infection, but after a chest JORDYN NIMMER lifestyles editor X-ray we decided to test for COVID-19,” Niles said. “This virus continues to expand on the type of symptoms. A few cases have shown digestive symptoms and others have mentioned being unable to smell or taste.”

Emergency room nurse Clayton Carmichael, of Marissa, Illinois, has encountered positive COVID-19 patients and said even seemingly healthy patients are not immune.

“Most of the people have been coming in with cold/flu complaints,” Carmichael said. “If the patients met testing criteria, we would test them. I have personally tested two positive patients. They were both young and relatively healthy.”

Since COVID-19 presents with a wide array of symptoms and can easily be confused for other illnesses, concerns are elevated among the public. Niles believes these concerns are justified.

“I’m taking the concerns with COVID-19 more seriously, because I know how dangerous this virus is,” Niles said. “Each day of work I’m informed on the progression of the virus and the changes in the care and handling of patients in order to prevent the spread and protect the patients in need.” During this time of uncertainty, it can be easy to feel HANNAH NILES senior biological science major, scribe at five local hospitals COVID-19 is a dangerous virus that continues to mutate. Instead of going to work in fear, I’m going to work feeling lucky to have this experience to be at the front line and to work toward what I want to do for the rest of my life.

see HANDS-ON on page 2 as though individuals have little control over surrounding circumstances. However, Niles said there are some key preventative measures the public should take.

“People should be patient and take the stay-at-home order seriously,” Niles said. “The stay-at-home order is in place for our protection and to decrease the spread of this virus. COVID-19 continues to spread throughout the U.S., and the only chance we have to contain this virus is to listen to the stay-at-home order.”

The elevated concern should be a lesson to focus on healthy habits even when the crisis has passed. Carmichael believes we should all practice healthy habits to prevent outbreaks in the future.

“As ER nurses, we started taking measures to control our exposure to respiratory illnesses when caring for patients,” Carmichael said. “If people would use proper ways to decrease getting sick — washing hands, using tissues to cough/sneeze, not wiping their face with dirty hands — all the time, not just now, viruses would not spread as rapidly.”

Niles believes we should extend gratitude to essential workers during this time period, especially those working in health care.

“People should know that health care workers are doing everything they can to prevent the spread within hospitals and

SIUE makes plans for if COVID-19 were to cross campus borders

With confirmed COVID-19 cases in both campus communities, SIU Carbondale and SIUE are working with their respective county health departments on safety plans.

Students at both SIUC and SIUE have tested positive for COVID-19. The two students at SIUC are both staying on campus in the dorms and the SIUE student is residing off campus.

At the Board of Trustees meeting March 30, SIUC Chancellor John Dunn talked about the precautions SIUC is taking.

“On Saturday [March 28], we chose, with input from Jackson County Health Department, to quarantine 21 students living in the residence where the affected ALEX AULTMAN reporter students live,” Dunn said. “Thus far, the quarantine is going well, and no one is exhibiting any signs of any kind of distress, etc.”

SIUC has a similar amount of students remaining on campus to SIUE. However, they were divided between the housing buildings, which allowed SIUC to quarantine the specific hall the infected students were living in.

Dunn said the administration is trying to limit interaction between students and food service workers on campus as much as possible.

“Related to food, we are now boxing all lunches for students who live on campus,” Dunn said. “The student approaches the table where the box lunches are, swipes their card, takes the box and returns to his or her room. This is going well, and there is no direct interaction between the student and food worker.”

However, the precautions SIUE is planning in the case a resident tests positive are different because all of the remaining students have been consolidated to RICH WALKER vice chancellor for administration “We have a quarantine facility set up in Cougar Village that [an infected student] could go to, that is, to isolate them in case they wanted to or needed to stay in Cougar Village. see SAFETY on page 2

Prospective students can now visit campus digitally

DAMIAN MORRIS reporter

Prospective SIUE students now have an option to interact with faculty and staff remotely and visit the campus online, despite not being able to meet in-person.

Kelley Brooks, assistant director of admissions for campus visits & outreach, said there are new

things in place for virtual tours. SIUE is now offering one-on-one chats student ambassadors and presentations with admissions counselors that would normally take place in-person.

“The first component is the virtual tour. That was already in place. We’ve always had a virtual tour, and that’s always been available on our website,” Brooks said. “However, we did not have virtual presentations online with admission counselors. We also did not have the virtual chats.”

She said that the virtual admissions presentations take place Monday through Friday at 3 p.m.

“Those are one hour sessions with an admission counselor that is all about SIUE,” Brooks said. see TOURS on page 2 | Dominick Oranika / The Alestle