South Carolina Healthcare Workers Getting Sicker From Coronavirus Than Others, Due to the Nature of Their Work

The number of coronavirus infections in South Carolina has climbed to 3,553 known cases. Increasingly, Lowcountry healthcare professionals are contracting the illness from their workplace exposures. Troubling findings by CNN show that healthcare workers appear to get sicker from the coronavirus than other patients. This comes at the same time as painful news from the American College of Emergency Physicians of the death of a New Jersey emergency room physician from the coronavirus and New Orleans, where a nurse died after contracting coronavirus at her hospital workplace.

The CNN report quotes Dr. Peter Hotez, professor and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, as saying: “We know the high mortality in older people, but for reasons that we don’t understand, front-line health care workers are at great risk for serious illness despite their younger age.” While it is unclear why healthcare professionals appear to get sicker from the coronavirus than others, Dr. Hotez suspects it may be because healthcare professionals are exposed to a larger viral load from their workplace than the rest of the population.

The Steinberg Law Firm recognizes the heightened risks South Carolina’s healthcare workers face in fighting the coronavirus pandemic, and we want to express our gratitude for their work. Unfortunately, we know that some healthcare professionals will contract the coronavirus due to the nature of their work. We are here to ensure that those doctors, nurses, EMTs and other healthcare workers are given the treatment and compensation they deserve under South Carolina’s workers’ compensation laws. Taking care of those healthcare professionals who are taking care of our community is one way the lawyers at the Steinberg Law Firm hope to help as the Lowcountry, South Carolina, and the world deal with this pandemic.

For those who are not healthcare professionals, we hope that you will join the Steinberg Law Firm in staying home when possible, working remotely and practicing appropriate social distancing when you must leave home.

The more we as a community all stay home and practice social distancing, the fewer cases of coronavirus our healthcare workers will have to face. Please think of the nurses, doctors, EMTs, pharmacists, police officers, firefighters and others whose lives are at stake. Please stay at home for them so that they can go home to their loved ones.