With all the focus on COVID-19, we’ve seen little about what’s likely to become a serious problem. That is the impact school closings will have on crucial health and safety professionals. Bluntly, this will make it impossible for many vitally needed specialists to do their jobs.
 
It’s a near-certainty that both schools and child care centers will be shut down. And when intensive-care nurses or emergency medical technicians have to stay home with their children, a potentially dire public-health situation can only get worse.
 
That’s why key institutions here in Wilmington should be working together, right now, to coordinate solutions to this inevitable problem. Think about the unintended consequences when people who have to care for their kids can’t work: nurses, medical lab people, EMTs, cops, firefighters.
 
This isn’t idle speculation. People who know a lot about this are worried. Very worried. Michael Osterholm, an infectious-disease specialist at the University of Minnesota, was interviewed Tuesday on the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast. He said, “A recent study done showed 38 percent of nurses today in this country … have kids in school. If suddenly we’re closing schools for two or three months, who’s taking care of those kids?”
 
And with 40 percent of Americans having no sick leave, Osterholm added, if schools are closed, millions of other parents won’t be able to work. Bad as that is, it will be especially bad in places like nursing homes – and, scandalously, even some medical practices – that depend on low-wage or part-time or contract workers with scanty benefits. Or none at all.
 
Of course, most medical professionals do have sick leave. But do they have a safety net for their children? Especially given the certainty that many will be asked to work extraordinary schedules: extra hours, extra days, likely for weeks at a time.
 
Look at Italy, which is just 10 days or so ahead of America in this outbreak, to see what that will be like. Osterholm quoted a cardiologist in a Milan hospital, who said, “They’re deciding who they have to let die.” That’s because Italian hospitals are overwhelmed with critically ill patients. That with all available medical staff working, even if they are sick!
 
I heard a similar worry a few days ago. A senior police official in the Boston area – one of the pandemic’s epicenters – predicted that when schools closed, his officers who are single parents couldn’t cover their shifts. That would lead to a cascade of disruptions to patrol schedules, and unavoidable neglect of traffic enforcement and some criminal investigations. In short, direct harm to public safety.
 
As in Italy, exponential growth of infections may overwhelm hospitals, indeed the entire medical system. Every medical professional, from intensive-care physicians all the way down to lab techs and orderlies, will be critical to saving lives.
 
Some of these vital workers will have networks of family and friends to help with their kids. But many won’t. That’s why institutions like hospitals and schools should be thinking ahead. They should be forming alliances, right now, and working out systems to backstop these crucial personnel when things get bad.
 
In an unprecedented crisis, unprecedented measures and creative thinking will be necessary. New Hanover Regional Medical Center, school districts, the university and community colleges, even police agencies, have to start thinking unconventionally.
 
For example: It could be invaluable to set up some kind of clearinghouse or database or vetting process to match parents with one-on-one childcare resources. I say one-on-one, the equivalent of in-home babysitters. Because we can’t realistically expect anyone to want their children exposed to one another in sizeable numbers.
 
Here’s one notion that could address two problems. Working with the school district, the hospital could match idle teachers or aides or lunch ladies or bus drivers with critical medical staff members who need someone to care for their kids. The hospital certainly has the means to compensate folks for this service, folks who might otherwise end up without income. And as school system employees, they have already been vetted for their suitability to work with kids.
 
That’s essential. Nothing is more important to parents than confidence that their children are in safe hands. For similar reasons, police departments and sheriff’s offices may be able to play a role in matching public-safety and public-health workers with trustworthy child-care resources.
 
It’s significant that on Thursday Joe Biden urged the Trump administration and Congress to take specific steps in this direction. “The federal government must act swiftly and aggressively,” his campaign said, “to help protect and support our families, small businesses, first responders and caregivers essential to help us face this challenge.”
 
But as recent events have showed, it’s dangerous to wait passively for decisive federal action.
 
When the coronavirus arrives in Wilmington, as it surely will, NHRMC will be on the front lines. I’m confident its leadership is hard at work anticipating every contingency the hospital will face within its walls. At a minimum, those preparations should also include outreach to the schools and other public bodies to ensure that when the crisis breaks, it can count on all hands being on deck.
 
John Meyer is a freelance writer and editor, formerly managing editor of the Wilmington “Morning Star.”