COVID-19: Our Greatest Fear About Letting Down Our Guard (Video)

Scripps nurses on the frontlines urge caution to reduce virus spread

Scripps nurses on the frontlines urge caution to reduce virus spread

In this video, Scripps nurses on the front lines and delivering care for COVID-19 patients urge the public to continue to be vigilant and take necessary precautions since coronavirus is still a serious health threat.


The emergency room and intensive care unit nurses strongly encourage people to continue social distancing, wear facial coverings and wash their hands frequently to reduce the risk of contracting the infectious disease.

Video Transcript

Lornna Hopping, RN, Scripps Mercy Chula Vista ER: We are social creatures. We want to be around our friends and family and there is a way to do that safely.

Terry Taylor, RN, Scripps Mercy Chula Vista ICU: I’m very happy that people are back to work and people are going to the beach and they’re doing what they think they should do. But for me, it’s extremely hard because I’m still seeing the reality of what’s going on in our hospital, in our unit. I’m much more paranoid and much more cautious than I probably have ever been in my life.


I would love to go do the things that everybody else is doing, but I can’t tell people to stay home and then me go out and go to the beach and do the fun things that we would like to do.

Hopping: It really is important right now what the community does moving forward. This means people staying within that six foot distance, wearing their mask, washing their hands, being safe, not coming in contact with anybody else if they’re symptomatic, using community resources to get tested and if they’re sick, coming into the emergency department so that we can care for them before their symptoms get worse.

Juliann Eigner, RN, Scripps Health: I can understand people want their lives back, but what we know is that wearing a mask helps prevent you from spreading your own germs and that staying socially distanced from people can prevent you from coming into contact with droplet transmission, which is how COVID-19 is spread.


I know this is really hard. It’s hard on all of us, but we do the hard things so that our hospitals can continue to provide this care. We need to follow the recommendations of the scientists that masks work and keeping our distance works.


Lightly edited for clarity.