By ADAM GELLER and HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH, Associated Press When Brittany Palomo was hired as a nurse in March, her parents tried to talk her out of it, fearful of the fast-spreading coronavirus. All the more reason, she told them, to start the career that had been her long-held dream. The pandemic, though, is a nightmare — one that has now claimed 300,000 lives in the U.S. and counting. “Wake up, my