Becker's Hospital Review

57 FINANCE CMO / CARE DELIVERY Alabama nurse fired after TikToks with COVID-19 misinformation, racism go viral By Gabrielle Masson A n Alabama nurse is out of a job af- ter TikToks featuring him spreading COVID-19 misinformation and mak- ing inflammatory comments went viral, e Birmingham News reported June 17. Nathan Coy was featured in a video posted June 10 by @rx0rcist. e TikTok takes snip- pets of videos posted by Mr. Coy on his account, @conservativecoy1776. "I warned you that we were going to hold you accountable," said the user associated with the @rx0rcist account. "While you've gotten su- per comfortable spreading COVID disinfor- mation, racism, homophobia, transphobia, Is- lamophobia — literally all the phobias you've hit in your videos — you forgot the part where freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences." e videos include Mr. Coy laughing at a vid- eo of someone crying about the high costs of a medical bill. Other clips include Mr. Coy say- ing COVID-19 isn't that dangerous and that Anthony Fauci, MD, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, paid to have the virus created. In some TikToks, Mr. Coy is wearing scrubs, and in others he's recording inside of a hospital room with a work badge on. Flashes of where he worked at Montgomery, Ala.-based Bap- tist Health were visible in a few videos on his account, which has since been deleted. Mr. Coy's name and license number couldn't be found in the Alabama Board of Nursing's database, according to e Birmingham News. Kadie Agnew, marketing and communications manager for Baptist Health, confirmed with e Birmingham News that Mr. Coy was no longer employed with the health system and hadn't been since April. "We do not tolerate discrimination of any type at Baptist Health," Ms. Agnew said, according to e Birmingham News. e @rx0rcist video featuring Mr. Coy was viewed nearly 660,000 times. n Woman co-infected with 2 COVID-19 variants prompts calls for more research By Erica Carbajal A 90-year-old woman in Belgium died after a simultaneous infec- tion with both the alpha and beta COVID-19 variants, according to a case report presented July 10 at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases. "This is one of the first documented cases of co-infection with two SARS- CoV-2 variants of concern," said Dr. Anne Vankeerberghen, lead author on the report and molecular biologist at OLV Hospital in Aalst, Belgium. "Both of these variants were circulating in Belgium at the time, so it is likely that the lady was co-infected with different viruses from two different people." The woman, who was unvaccinated, was admitted to the hospital March 3 after a series of falls and tested positive for COVID-19. Researchers said she had an unremarkable medical history. She did not initially display signs of respiratory distress and had good ox- ygen saturation but developed rapidly worsening respiratory symptoms and died five days after being admitted. Researchers tested the woman's respiratory sample and detected both the alpha variant, first identified in the U.K., and beta, first identified in South Africa. "Whether the co-infection of the two variants of concern played a role in the fast deterioration of the patient is difficult to say," Dr. Vankeerberghen said. "Up to now, there have been no other published cases. However, the global occurrence of this phenomenon is probably underestimated due to limited testing for variants of concern and the lack of a simple way to identify co-infections with whole genome sequencing." Researchers were unable to determine how she became infected. n Surgeons balk at CMS' payment rule update By Alia Paavola S hortly after CMS unveiled its proposed Physician Fee Schedule for 2022 on July 13, the American College of Surgeons released a state- ment strongly opposing the payment updates. Under the proposed payment rule, the conversion factor for 2022 would decrease 3.75 percent to $33.58. The conversion factor is the starting point for calculating Medicare payments to physicians. The American College of Surgeons, which represents 150,000 surgeons in the U.S., argues that surgical care "continues to be under threat in the proposed Medicare Physician Fee Schedule" and that the organization "strongly opposes the cuts" in the fee schedule. "Our patients deserve a healthcare system that invests in surgical care. CMS is taking notable strides to improve health equity; however, this pro- posal would achieve the opposite by threatening patient access to critical treatments and procedures," said David Hoyt, MD, American College of Surgeons executive director. "The ACS stands ready to work with Congress toward a sustainable, long-term solution in the interest of all patients." n

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