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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDoctor says U.S. response nothing short of criminal
From HuffPost:
Im A Doctor. The U.S. Response To Coronavirus Has Been Nothing Short Of Criminal.
With every crucial delay, with every blunder and misstep, the toll is going to be measured in lives lost.
Dipti S. BarotI am a doctor. And I am immunocompromised. I am safe at home screening patients over the phone for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, while my colleagues are marching into war with plastic water guns and papier-mâché bombs, lambs to the COVID-19 slaughter.
[ ... ]Unconscionable is a feather-light word to use for the response to this pandemic by those in charge. After weeks of inaction, of downplaying the pandemic, of calling it a hoax, President Donald Trump had no choice but to shift tone once this crisis was undeniable. He then stood shoulder to shoulder at press conferences, shaking hands while declaring a national emergency that his own experts said only social distancing would quell. He has failed our nation.
[ ... ]Each day we get more reports of health care workers infected, hospitalized, and dying all over the world. This week we lost the brilliant Dr. Steven Schwartz to COVID-19 in Seattle. Others will follow. They will continue to die because of the inaction of their leaders. Their lives will end because factories were not taken over by their governments to manufacture test kits and personal protective equipment in time. They will die because they are putting their limp, used masks in little brown paper bags after their 12-hour shift, to be used again tomorrow; they are wiping down their lone allotted face shields with disinfectant, or wrapping them in saran wrap, and cutting plastic Coke bottles to make new ones. They will inadvertently infect their patients because they are reusing disposable gowns, and MacGyver-ing equipment to make do with what they have to serve as many they can. Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is issuing guidance about how to use bandanas and scarves to deal with the dearth.
[ ... ]I want to tell you about a few people in my life, that I know or have worked with, who are forced to risk their lives because of the dysfunction of our government leaders, because of the utter failure of a health care system that is based on profit and not people. I want to plead on their behalf the way people on TV will implore the shooter brandishing a gun in their face to have mercy because they have two small children and a mom with Alzheimers, hoping that if the shooter sees them as a real person, maybe theyll survive. I want you to see them not as faceless health care workers but as humans behind their reused masks. They are the ones who will pay the price of terms like Democratic hoax.
[ ... ]
SunSeeker
(51,523 posts)BigmanPigman
(51,571 posts)They should be in jail now.
sheshe2
(83,669 posts)My niece is on the front lines, she has three children. Mom, 94 homecare. My sister and I, 60's. No clue who will be left standing.
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,271 posts)Doctors, nurses, orderlies, EMTs, plus all the people we normally don't even notice getting the work done. They are all in harm's way for us.
GOP needs to be called out for their despicable actions and failures on this.
captain queeg
(10,104 posts)I see he called today but I missed the call. Will call him back in the morning. Ill be interested to see what he has to say. He most always down plays anything that might be construed as criticism of doctors but Id think in this situation no one is blaming the doctors for anything so he might be forthcoming. He voted for Trump but for at least the last year has come to dislike him. Dont know how that has progressed because we dont talk about politics. I understand his wife is still a trump lover. But she has so many pre existing conditions shell be toast if she gets the corona.
CountAllVotes
(20,867 posts)As the Atlantic reported:
Those who are too old to have a high likelihood of recovery, or who have too low a number of life-years left even if they should survive, would be left to die. This sounds cruel, but the alternative, the document argues, is no better. In case of a total saturation of resources, maintaining the criterion of first come, first served would amount to a decision to exclude late-arriving patients from access to intensive care.
No reason to fear this as this is REALITY -- two ventilators in these parts! TWO!
Anyone with a brain must see that this is far more than "the flu".
This IS genocide!
sheshe2
(83,669 posts)They made choices of who lived or died. Someone codes, they stay with the one that is living. They left the other to die. They had no choice.
CountAllVotes
(20,867 posts)And yes, I am !!!!!!!!!
sheshe2
(83,669 posts)I know, CAV.
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,271 posts)My mother worked in Housekeeping for a nursing home for nearly 30 years. If she were here, now, she would worry herself sick over the possibility of carrying the virus into a home to "her" residents.
We don't have enough facemasks, face shields and disposable gowns for doctors and nurses. What do we do for the people taking care of those in nursing homes? Imagine if the Seattle nursing home infection happened with all nearby hospitals already filled to capacity.
cstanleytech
(26,251 posts)the way he has bungled this virus outbreak.