In the Santa Cruz emergency room where Julie Gorshe works as a physician assistant, more and more patients are coming in wheezing, coughing and with shortness of breath — symptoms of
The virus has complicated people’s plans for relief. People who took an impromptu vacation or stayed with family after other fires now say they are confounded by the risks of air travel or the question of whether they can safely move in with family members until the air at home is safer.
Dolly Patterson, 62, who lives in Redwood City, not far from the giant C.Z.U. Lightning Complex fires, said she has been vomiting for eight days straight in response to the heavy smoke. Her throat is so dry that she can sometimes barely speak. She has considered retreating to stay with family in Seattle or San Diego, but for the moment, she is stuck.
“I cannot get on an airplane and risk Covid,” she said. “When I can escape, I will.”
Public-health experts suggest that people stay inside, buy expensive air-filtration systems and weatherproof their homes to keep the smoke from seeping in. But not everyone can afford such solutions or a $300 air purifier.
Tavo Diaz, a letter carrier in Santa Cruz, said he still had to deliver the mail, and even had to buy his own mask. He said the surgical mask provided by the post office was useless at filtering the fine particles that make him cough and redden his eyes, so he bought his own N-95 He takes his inhaler with him these days, and can taste the smoke long after he gets home at night.
“If it wasn’t for the N-95, I’d be with a sinus infection already,” he said. “This is not normal.”