Praying For The Dying, Chaplains Overworked As Deaths Top 400,000

ACROSS AMERICA — Chaplain Kevin Deegan has devoted his life in recent years to praying for people just before death.

Ministering to people undergoing hospice and palliative care — before becoming a chaplain at the Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley — Deegan told The Associated Press he and his fellow hospital chaplains have never seen more death than what has come from the 10 months of the coronavirus pandemic.

More than 400,000 Americans have been killed by the virus. The nation reached the somber milestone midday Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University totals.

At Providence Holy Cross — in the Southern California region that has become the epicenter of the pandemic in the United States — nearly a dozen people died in a single day last week along with another three in a span of 45 minutes the next day.

Deegan and other overworked and emotionally drained chaplains, such as Anne Dauchy, shared the helpless feelings of loved ones who are forced to say goodbye on an iPad, and the moments that warm the heart such as when a woman opened her eyes and smiled upon hearing her son's voice over the device.

"We try to kind of reframe what a miracle is," Dauchy said after hearing a patient's loved ones sobbing through the iPad with words like "I love you so much, Mamma" and "Thank you for everything."

"Perhaps that's the miracle, that she's at rest and at peace and not suffering anymore," Dauchy said.

The Latest

Under the guidance of now-President Joe Biden, the United States entered a new era Wednesday.

While messages of hope resonated from the steps of Capitol Hill throughout Biden's inaugural address, the nation's 46th president now faces immense challenges as the country remains in the midst of a pandemic that is now more than 10 months old and most believe is not under control.

Shortly after taking the oath of office, Biden is expected to sign a flurry of executive actions aimed at undoing several policies put in place by the Trump administration.

Many of the orders will be aimed at fighting the ongoing pandemic. Among them, Biden planned to sign actions that require masks for people on all federal grounds. He will also ask agencies to extend moratoriums on evictions and on federal student loan payments.

Biden is also expected to urge Americans to wear face coverings for 100 days while reviving a global health unit in the National Security Council to oversee pandemic preparedness and response, according to a Washington Post report.

Biden will also begin to reverse steps taken by President Donald Trump to withdraw from the World Health Organization by dispatching Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease official, to speak at the international group’s executive board meeting Thursday.

Just over 1 in 10 respondents to a poll conducted by The Washington Post and ABC News said they believe the pandemic is under control as the Biden presidency begins.

Poll numbers show a bipartisan belief that the virus is not under control, but Republicans are much more likely to believe it is. About 1 in 5 Republicans said the pandemic is at least mostly under control, while fewer than 1 in 20 Democrats responded that way, The Post reported.

After Biden takes office Wednesday, the focus from some on Capitol Hill will be on passing a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, according to the AP and other reports.

Janet Yellen, Biden's choice as Treasury secretary, said during her Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday that "more must be done."

"Without further action, we risk a longer, more painful recession now — and long-term scarring of the economy later," Yellen said.

Democrats voiced support for the Biden proposal while Republicans questioned spending nearly $2 trillion more on top of nearly $3 trillion that Congress passed in various packages last year.

Republicans questioned elements of the Biden proposal such as providing an additional $1,400 stimulus check to individuals earning less than $75,000. They also objected to the inclusion of such long-term Democratic goals as boosting the minimum wage to $15 per hour.

For 10 months, Americans have been told the coronavirus pandemic is "going to get worse before it gets better."

That message was repeated Sunday by Ron Klain, Biden's incoming White House chief of staff.

Klain warned that the United States virus death toll could hit 500,000 by the end of February.

"The virus is going to get worse before it gets better," Klain said while on CNN's "State of the Union."

"People who are contracting the virus today will start to get sick next month, will add to the death toll in late February, even March, so it's going to take a while to turn this around," Klain said.

If Klain's grim prediction comes true, it could be much more than a year before American life returns to pre-March 2020 regularity.

Since then, large public gatherings have been canceled, businesses shuttered and school buildings closed.

The largest school districts in the country have taken differing approaches to deal with the pandemic. Public schools in New York City were reopened in December; but in Los Angeles, officials there have said students will likely need to have a coronavirus vaccination before returning to the classroom.

"No different than students being vaccinated for measles and mumps or tested for tuberculosis before they come on campus," Austin Beutner, head of Los Angeles schools, told U.S. News. "That's the best way we know to keep all on the campus safe."

As students in other areas return to school after winter break, a nationwide teacher shortage continues to be made worse due to the pandemic.

It's actually the teacher shortage, in addition to the virus itself, that has forced the closure of some much smaller districts, according to a recent report from The New York Times.

"It's just such a ripple effect," Laura Penman, superintendent of a small district in Indiana, told The Times. Penman's district had to close in November due to one teacher's infection and contact with several colleagues.

Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have now said a far more contagious variant of the virus could cause yet another wrenching surge of cases and deaths.

Newest Numbers

At least 2,166 deaths and 149,442 new cases of coronavirus were reported in the United States on Tuesday, according to a Washington Post database. The Post's reporting shows that over the past week, new daily cases fell 19.1 percent, new daily deaths fell 9.2 percent and COVID-19-related hospitalizations fell 6.3 percent.

Currently, more than 123,820 people are hospitalized with a coronavirus-related illness in the United States, according to the Covid Tracking Project.

As of Wednesday, 44 states and Puerto Rico remained above the positive testing rate recommended by the World Health Organization to safely reopen. Only North Dakota, Vermont, Hawaii, Alaska, Connecticut, Rhode Island and the District of Columbia are currently below that rate. To safely reopen, the WHO recommends states remain at 5 percent or lower for at least 14 days.

As of midday Wednesday, the United States had reported more than 24.2 million cases and nearly 403,000 deaths from COVID-19-related illnesses, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Stay up to date on the latest coronavirus news via The New York Times or The Washington Post.

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