"If we start to see hospitalizations go up and are unmanageable, we would cut back on elective surgeries. That's one example of a change that we could make." - @GovPritzker via @ABC7Chicago

https://abc7chicago.com/society/illinois-covid-19-cases-increase-by-857--with-39-new-deaths/6271789/

so here's the thing about postponing "elective surgeries"...

i think people hear about holding off on "elective surgeries" and they imagine nose jobs.

imagine you have been living with a medical condition for years that is not dangerous, but is extremely painful. you spend years going to different doctors.

finally, after about a decade, you get a diagnosis! you try medications, you try various therapies, and nothing really does the trick so you finally decide to commit to major surgery. you plan this for months. you take off from work, you time every element of your life around it.

this is a medically necessary surgery--without it you may indeed end up on disability, the pain has been steadily getting worse with time and while it will not kill you, it will frequently and unpredictably make you unable to work or feel joy. but it's not *emergency* surgery.

using the term "elective surgeries" to mean "surgeries that can be postponed for a few weeks without endangering the life of the patient, and so should be if there's a major surge in COVID-19 hospitalizations" really downplays the importance of the surgeries postponed

imagine it's four days before the surgery that has been your life's main focus for months. you get the call. all surgery that can be postponed is being postponed. instead of being stuck at home recovering for two months, you are stuck at home in quarantine, in the same old pain.

months later, you get a new surgery date. it's hard to prepare, because it sort of feels like it will never really happen. as it approaches, your city starts to reopen. people are eating on full patios, masks off. bars will open again soon, even as cases spike in reopened states.

can you imagine how it feels? knowing that you may have to wait for months, in pain, again, to get the surgery that will make your life more tolerable, because too many people missed going out, and too many people were forced back to work in order to make rent?

the nose job you may have pictured when you heard "elective surgeries"? consider how many surgeries considered "cosmetic" impact the lives of trans people on a life or death level, due to dysphoria or harassment? there are many ways in which surgery rescheduling can be painful

COVID-19 cases spiking is not unavoidable, so why are we letting it happen? why are we pretending like sacrificing other important medical care (and more importantly, PEOPLE'S LIVES who will die from COVID) is a fair trade for a brief illusion of social & economic normalcy?