THREAD - Why I feel an impending sense of doom re #COVID19 in America

Frontline HC workers have been increasingly treated as a commodity by the corporatization of medicine

They continue to be viewed as a dispensable commodity during this crisis...

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I’ve written about how millennial docs felt they were waking into a crisis for @Medscape

Big part of this crisis was how doctors were being devalued

And admins not on front lines of care have increasingly tried to influence practice of medicine

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/923456

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@danielleofri in her @nytimes piece wrote about how “The Business of Health Care Depends on Exploiting Doctors and Nurses
One resource seems infinite and free: the professionalism of caregivers”

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/08/opinion/sunday/hospitals-doctors-nurses-burnout.html

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Now the coronavirus crisis is here. Business as usual.

I’ve heard numerous reports of non front line admins blatantly disregarding the safety of their front line HC workers

4/x https://twitter.com/jfitzgeraldMD/status/1241911533912948745

Many reports of doctors being threatened for wearing masks in hospitals around non #COVID pts despite known asymptomatic transmission

Being threatened because they are causing “hysteria”

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Then you have government officials blaming frontline HC workers for a mask shortage

Similar to how government will blame physicians for high HC costs or “surprise bills” when this is utter nonsense

Doctors are always the softest target

6/x https://twitter.com/drdanchoi/status/1241942985295749120

There is a disturbing trend

It’s always the “greedy doctors” fault when it comes to HC system failures

Or in this case “the doctor who doesn’t know how to reuse masks”

Never mind masks were never made to be reused

7/x https://twitter.com/813jaferd/status/1241708860819341317

Now we are starting to see and hear about our colleagues getting exposed to #COVID and fall sick

We are starting to hear of colleagues getting killed by #COVID

8/x https://twitter.com/brianchiong/status/1241924168263897089

There is fear in the physician community

Fear that we are being thrown into the fire without adequate protection

Fear that we have to stare death in the face for the first time. That we may leave behind our families without a spouse or a parent

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There is anger in the physican community.

Anger that our hospital admins don’t have sound plans or equipment to protect us

Anger that the government has lacked in their preparation and we must pay for their ineptitude

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Their fear and anger likely won’t go beyond our closed WhatsApp/Twitter/FB chats but the quiet conversations are happening

These conversations are tough

I’ve heard of physicians consider filming good bye videos for their children

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I’ve heard of physicians contemplating....quitting

This isn’t said without anguish

If they pulled the trigger, they would leave behind colleagues with an even greater burden

And their patients would suffer

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But the anguish is real

Is it also fair that their own children or spouse may lose them due to the ineptitude of others?

I don’t disagree with them: We all took an oath to practice ethically, not to sacrifice our lives because of government ineptitude and corporate greed

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I don’t have a good answer or solution

But these quiet conversations are happening

Doctors will always be there for their patients

But they just can’t go running into the burning building without adequate protection

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@DrEricDing @EpsilonTheory @ddiamond @wendellpotter @DrDenaGrayson @ScottGottliebMD @SpeakerPelosi @megtirrell @somedocs