For well over a year, respiratory therapist Le My Hanh has worked in close contact with acutely infected COVID-19 patients. Though her tasks require routinely direct contact with patients’ bodily fluids, she has never experienced infection. At The Start Of The Pandemic In Cincinnati, Ohio, Le works at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center as a respiratory therapist. She assists various departments such as the emergency room, the intensive-care unit, post-op care, and the otolaryngology unit. For patients connected to respirators, respiratory therapists work together with the doctors to insert breathing tubes. When cases of COVID-19 popped up in major U.S. cities, around February or March 2020, the hospital started to change. At the beginning of the outbreak, Cincinnati had few COVID-19 cases. One day, the hospital’s switchboard received an onslaught of calls from ambulances bringing patients with symptoms of COVID-19 infection. The number of COVID-19 patients continued to climb …