A California nurse’s plea for people to “stop being careless” as the Covid-19 outbreak ravages the nation and its hospitals has racked up more than a million views on TikTok.
The video by Gayana Chuklansev, a surgical intensive care nurse, had been viewed 1.3 million times as of Monday.
In the video, Chuklansev wears blue scrubs while Christmas lights twinkle behind her. She chokes back tears as she says, “I don’t know how else to say this but I’m begging you guys to stop being careless.”
She then describes how overwhelmed staff have been at her hospital.
“We have no ventilators for patients. We have no sedating medications. Patients are dying like flies,” Chuklansev says. “We’re full. We’re at max capacity. We have no resources. We have no staff. Our doctors can’t even intubate because they have like 40 patients each.”
In a reply to a comment, Chuklansev said this was unfolding in Los Angeles.
The latest data from the official website for California Coronavirus Response, updated on Sunday, shows that the entire state has 0 percent ICU availability, including Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley.
There have been more than 2.1 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the state and more than 24,000 deaths, according to NBC News’ latest tally.
“It’s like a war zone and we’re asking for help and help’s not coming,” Chuklansev says in the video.
She also spoke out against the sentiment that overwhelmed nurses “signed up for this.”
“We didn’t sign up to watch patients die because we physically cannot help them,” she says. “So please stop being careless.”
At the end of the video, posted last week, Chuklansev asked that people not travel for Christmas.
Chuklansev did not immediately return a request for comment from NBC News.
The video has also gained more than 389,000 likes on TikTok and more than 11,000 comments.
“I’m so so sorry. My mom is also working Covid units and the stories she tells me daily are heartbreaking. My heart is with you,” one person wrote.
“My mom was a nurse. I live in LA. Nurses didn’t sign up for THIS. They didn’t sign up for the public not listening to them,” another wrote.
Medical workers across fields, including researchers and doctors and nurses on the front line, have used TikTok to discuss Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic.
Recently, they and vaccine trial participants have used the platform to debunk misinformation around the vaccines, with several of those videos also garnering millions of views.
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