As Donald Trump continues to downplay and fumble pandemic response, the nation continues to face the novel coronavirus with meager federal oversight or support. Meanwhile, cases continue to rise, and medical professionals continue to brace against growing patient numbers. Now, yet another medical professional that worked on the front lines to fight COVID-19 has died of the virus. Dr. Joseph Costa, who was the chief of the critical care unit at Mercy Medical Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, died on Saturday, according to a hospital statement. A spokesperson for the hospital confirmed to local outlet WTOP the physician died of COVID-19, at the age of 59.
“And when the global pandemic came down upon us, Joe selflessly continued his work on the front lines — deeply committed to serving our patients and our city during this time of great need,” reads a hospital statement, as reported by local outlet WBFF.
“I keep thinking, now there is one less ICU doctor to care for pandemic patients in Baltimore,” David Hart, Costa’s husband of nearly three decades, told The Baltimore Sun.
Sadly, this is not the first time Daily Kos has covered a medical professional battling the novel coronavirus dying as a result of the virus. For example, Dr. James Mahoney, also an ICU physician, died of COVID-19 after delaying his retirement to stay on at a Brooklyn hospital.
Emergency room physician Frank Grabin died of COVID-19 as New York battled the virus in shocking numbers. Janine Paiste-Ponder, a nurse in Oakland, California, died of COVID-19; while mourning her death, fellow nurses called out for better personal protective equipment (PPE). Lisa Ewald, a nurse in Detroit, Michigan, reportedly told her friends she wasn’t allowed to wear a mask at the hospital she worked at; she died after being diagnosed with coronavirus in late March. There are undoubtedly many more medical professionals not included here, and that doesn’t even begin to cover other people who work in medical settings, like janitors and cafeteria workers, or health aides.
Meanwhile, Trump keeps downplaying the global pandemic—and obsessing over his ability to pass what he calls a cognitive test.