Death Doulas Are a Growing Profession During the Pandemic
The pandemic’s staggering death toll—876,000 so far in the U.S.—is forcing Americans to think about their least-favorite topic. Contemplating and preparing for the end of life is anathema to people in the U.S.—in one 2017 survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 69% of Americans said that they generally avoid talking about death—but because of COVID-19, there are now signs that Americans may be starting to think about death more practically than they once did.
The number of Americans who have a will has risen, a 2020 Gallup poll found, and younger people are citing COVID-19 as their primary reason for making one, according to another poll from the caregiving website Caring.com. The number of Americans training to be death doulas, or end-of-life coaches that help terminally ill people die peacefully, has also increased. Membership in this niche profession has grown dramatically since the start of the pandemic. The National End-of-Life Doula Alliance, for instance, ballooned to more than 1,000 members in 2021, from just 200 in 2019.
In her new story, my colleague Melissa Chan explores the growing profession and the people who are joining it. “I wondered why hundreds of people, during a pandemic, were deciding to move closer to the dying rather than avoid the idea of death as much as possible,” Melissa says. “The reasons exemplify some of the best aspects of humanity.”
Death doulas, she found, often come to the profession from other careers after experiencing the traumatic death of a loved one. “So many were driven toward end-of-life work by their own personal grief,” Melissa says. “After carrying years-long guilt from not handling a loved one’s terminal illness well, they didn’t want others to experience such regret.” They don't prescribe or give medications. What they do provide is a soothing atmosphere for a person’s final moments, rather than a chaotic, panicked one. Melissa spoke to one death doula who tended to a dying man who wanted to be at the beach for his last moments. But he physically couldn't leave his bed, so the doula lit citrus-scented candles, warmed him with a sunlamp and dipped his hand into a bowl of sand. His death was not a medical event, but a deeply personal one.
The job is often misunderstood as a morbid, depressing occupation, Melissa says. “But death doulas today are trying to change that, by bringing more dignity and beauty into the inevitable dying process than sadness and fear.”
More than 362.1 million people around the world had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of 3 a.m. E.T. today, and more than 5.6 million people have died. On Jan. 26, there were more than 3.4 million new cases and 10,223 new deaths confirmed globally.
Here's how the world as a whole is currently trending, in terms of cases:
And in terms of deaths:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
And here's every country that has reported over 5 million cases:
The U.S. had recorded more than 72.9 million coronavirus cases as of 3 a.m. E.T. today. More than 876,000 people have died. On Jan. 26, there were 652,511 new cases and 4,035 new deaths confirmed in the U.S.
Here's how the country as a whole is currently trending in terms of cases:
And in terms of deaths:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of Jan. 27, 12 a.m. E.T. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
Moderna has begun testing its Omicron-specific booster shot in a clinical trial, the company announced yesterday. The research is still in early phases—only one person has been dosed so far—but will ultimately include 300 people. The news dropped on the same day as research published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which found that the current booster wanes in effectiveness after about six months. On Tuesday, Pfizer and BioNTech announced that they have also started studies on an Omicron-specific vaccine.
Getting a third dose of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine greatly decreases the risk of a hospitalization, even for people who are immunocompromised, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released today. The study, published in the agency's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, found that a booster dose of either the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine raised effectiveness of preventing hospitalization from 69% after two doses to 88% after three doses in immunocompromised adults. (For people without immunocompromising conditions, that number jumped from 82% to 97%.) The data add further evidence that booster doses offer significant extra protection for the vast majority of adults—not just for those with healthy immune systems.
As Beijing Olympics officials prepare for opening ceremonies early next month, theGames are facing the first COVID-19 cases among visitors. Today, Beijing officials announced that they had found eight new cases in the city’s closely monitored bubble for Olympics-related travelers, and 15 more had recently been detected among arrivals at the airport, the New York Timesreports. Since Jan. 4, 50 cases have been found in the bubble. Even with exhaustive testing and isolation hotels, China faces tough odds of stamping out the highly contagious Omicron variant at the Games.
Thanks for reading. We hope you find the Coronavirus Brief newsletter to be a helpful tool to navigate this very complex situation, and welcome feedback at coronavirus.brief@time.com. If you have specific questions you'd like us to answer, please send them to covidquestions@time.com.
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Today's newsletter was written by Mandy Oaklander and edited by Elijah Wolfson.
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