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I& #39;m angry and almost 62 and going in for (minor, routine) surgery on Friday, but life is uncertain and I have bad lungs. We& #39;re in a pandemic, so I need to get some things off my chest, if I can& #39;t later. Here it goes: We have a hell of a job ahead, recovering. 1/x
My wife is a children& #39;s hospice nurse. (Fortunately, her work is closed; this pandemic mostly spares children.) But everyone like her, on the front lines, is delivering care while cutting corners to preserve personal protective equipment (PPE) that keeps them safe. 2/x
It& #39;s worse than that, in the U.S. If you& #39;re a doctor, with $340,000 of student loans that your parents co-signed for, and you die because you emergency-intubated a patient to keep her alive, your parents owe that money. Without a doctor& #39;s salary to help pay it back. 6/x
Almost everyone else like her is going to work and risking their lives, and risking the lives of their roommates and spouses and dependents, to deliver care. Because that& #39;s what they do. The least you can do in return is to stay home, wear, a mask and wash up. 3/x
So, at the end of this, hospital workers who& #39;ve risked (and sometimes ruined) their health to keep us alive, will lose their jobs. It& #39;s: "Thank you for your service. Also, uh, you& #39;re fired. And now that your lungs and kidneys are shot, you& #39;re losing your health insurance." 5/x
This virus, and our clumsy, horrific response to it, is a hammer blow that will show us the awful cracks in our society in the U.S.
And we& #39;re much, much worse-positioned than any other developed country afterward. (with 4.4% of world population, 38% of new cases today.) 8/x
And we& #39;re much, much worse-positioned than any other developed country afterward. (with 4.4% of world population, 38% of new cases today.) 8/x
Oh. And this facemask? That I wear to the grocery store as required by my city to keep me alive? Well, good f***ing luck wearing that, if you happen to be black. You& #39;d have to actually weigh staying coronavirus-free or getting shot by cops. 7/x
The U.S. is run terribly during this pandemic, at the national level. Germany is run by a quantum chemist trying to manage to improve public health. The U.S. is run by a former reality TV show host trying to pump the stock market and get re-elected. 8/x
Here& #39;s the thing. A bunch of them, at the end of this, are going to get laid off. See, US hospitals cancelled elective surgeries. Everyone not Covid-19 is avoiding ERs. And when other people lose jobs? Health insurance lapses. So: massive layoffs of all hospital workers. 4/x
