Mistakes are inevitable. But we can try to do better.

Op-ed by Dr. Danielle Offri @ NYTimes.com, May 22; Dr. Ofri practices at Bellevue Hospital in New York and teaches at New York University.

The mean arterial pressure was well over 100 and the patient’s heart rate was racing. In an emergency room hastily converted into an I.C.U., abnormal vital signs were not unusual. Intubated coronavirus patients lined the unit, ventilators and IV pumps crammed in between their beds. The patients needed fluids, sedatives, paralytics, antibiotics. Some needed heparin (a blood thinner) for the raging blood clots that Covid-19 incited. Others whose blood pressure had plummeted were being given vasopressors.

One of the doctors, scrutinizing the armada of IV pumps, discerned the error. The patient had needed more heparin. But someone had accidentally increased the vasopressor, Levophed, instead. That’s like mixing up a blow torch and a chain saw. So now the patient was being flooded with an adrenaline-like medication, the equivalent of gunning a car engine, while the blood thinner was perilously low.

To his credit, the doctor didn’t blow a gasket. He calmly pointed out the mix-up and corrected it. The patient’s mean arterial pressure and heart rate gradually eased. Only eyes were visible amid the P.P.E., but the jagged sighs of relief from the staff members were audible. A bullet had been dodged.

This year is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale, who brought to light the distinctly unpalatable truth that medicine, for all its lifesaving accomplishments, can also cause harm. Exasperated, she wrote in 1863: “It may seem a strange principle to enunciate as the very first requirement in a hospital that it should do the sick no harm. It is quite necessary, nevertheless, to lay down such a principle.” [....]

@ NYTimes.com/Coronavirus Live coverage, May 21

A sophisticated fraud network targeting Washington State’s unemployment system claimed hundreds of millions of dollars before officials were able to identify and crack down on the coordinated attack, state officials said Thursday.

“I realize this is a jaw-dropping figure,” said Suzi LeVine, the commissioner of the state Employment Security Department. The fraudulent claims had been filed on behalf of tens of thousands of people, and many involved individuals who had not lost their jobs, she said [....]

The U.S. Secret Service said in a memo last week that it appeared that an international group of fraudsters was targeting unemployment systems, particularly in Washington State, but there was also evidence of attacks in Florida, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and Wyoming.

Investigators said the impostors appeared to be working with an extensive database of personal information stolen in earlier hackings that allowed them to submit claims.

Washington State had moved to make payments available quickly and deliver them to direct-deposit accounts. But the state began realizing the scope of the problem when people who had not filed for unemployment received mail saying that they had [....]

By Ben Guarino & Joel Achenbach @ WashingtonPost.com, May 21

The coronavirus primarily spreads from person to person and not easily from a contaminated surface. That is the takeaway from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which this month updated its “How COVID-19 Spreads” website.

The revised guidance now states, in headline-size type, “The virus spreads easily between people.” It also notes that the coronavirus, which causes the disease covid-19, “is spreading very easily and sustainably between people.”

The CDC made another key change to its website, clarifying what sources are not major risks. Under the new heading “The virus does not spread easily in other ways,” the agency explains that touching contaminated objects or surfaces does not appear to be a significant mode of transmission. The same is true for exposure to infected animals.

CDC spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund said Thursday that the revisions were the product of an internal review and “usability testing.” [....]

Long form, with audio version available.

A Few Weeks Later It Was Burned to the Ground.