Running Out of Beds Is Only Part of the Problem
With Covid-19 infections surging in several provinces, we're being warned that hospitals are running out of ICU beds needed to treat severe cases. Some areas could be weeks away from being overrun, raising the prospect of medical staff having to choose who gets treated and who has to go without.
The system is becoming strained to the breaking point. That's in no small part due to the bastards who refuse all precautions as an affront to their rights. These are the same people who say they'll refuse vaccination.
The system is becoming strained. Remember, it's a system. It's not just isolation wards, intensive care and ventilators that are at risk. It's also the women and men who have been caring for Covid patients, often at risk to themselves. Some get sick. Some die. And they've been running a marathon for months. Now, at this critical juncture, we're facing another danger - burnout. The Brits are already on the edge.
Adrian Boyle, the vice-president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, told BBC Breakfast that health employees were “tired, frustrated and fed up”.
He said: “What is it going to be like over the next couple of months? I don’t know, I am worried. We are very much at battle stations.
“There will be short-term surges of morale but people are tired, frustrated and fed up, as everybody is, whether they work in hospital or not. The people who go into emergency medicine expect it to be tough from time to time.
“There is a real worry about burnout.”
We may have to formulate policies for dealing with the anti-vaxxers as the vaccines are distributed. Sure, it's their right to refuse vaccination for themselves and their kids. But it's our right not to have to be exposed to the risks they present.
Doctors have been dealing with this problem, telling patients who refuse to vaccinate that they'll have to find another doctor. Doctors are responsible for the safety of every patient sitting in their waiting rooms which means anti-vaxxers have to go.
I was reading the other day that in Ohio, up to 60% of nursing home staff say they will not get the vaccine, and 40% of frontline workers in Los Angeles will refuse it as well. I guess I just don't understand people anymore, Mound.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if they would be so averse if it was a condition of employment, Lorne. It strikes me that a nursing home operator would face a liability problem if they knowingly allowed an unvaccinated worker to spread the virus to their patients.
DeleteImagine if polio had been as transmissible as Covid-19 when we were kids, Lorne. People dying in droves, others in costly treatment involving "iron lungs" that sometimes took years. The lucky survivors often emerging maimed. What would have been our tolerance level when people insisted on their "right" to refuse vaccination? A population just emerging from WWII probably would have been less tolerant than we are today.
This is our golden opportunity to get this issue sorted out. We've been warned that Covid-19 won't be the last contagion and future pandemics could be far more lethal. We need government action to rehabilitate our pharmaceutical industry, bring Connaught Labs back from the grave, ready to launch into development of vaccines.
We need much better, earlier detection of these viral scourges. We need tough laws mandating what the public must do and when. We need it clearly stated that one person's right to refuse vaccination cannot prevail over the collective right to remain virus-free. There has to be a means of banishment - a choice to either support the community or leave it.
" We need much better, earlier detection of these viral scourges. "
DeleteI agree completely. And your comment sparked a thought:
it is more about using the tools we have ... and social cohesion the the resulting behavioral response.
* Alberta vs BC (where not a single gov't member has travelled on non-gov't biz since March)
* Canada vs Thailand. etc
And transparency in Government/authorities like WHO, CIA, CSIS
The WHO said this on Jan 4. ....
World Health Organization (WHO)
@WHO Jan 4, 2020
#China has reported to WHO a cluster of #pneumonia cases —with no deaths— in Wuhan, Hubei Province Flag of China . Investigations are underway to identify the cause of this illness.
Had China allowed professional/scientific communication in Dec 2019 & heeded the (now dead) doctor, they could have shut down Wuhan sooner, ie prior to Chinese NY travel. (Starting late January, China's response has been good.)
I'll bet your blog has a covid-19 entry in January. I know I was following the story closely prior to Chinese NY as I was hoping to avoid some of the winter in SE Asia).
If simple rubes in the hinterland (like us) knew this much, the WHO, CSIS & CIA knew more. We (the world) could have started curtailing travel & doing aggressive public health tracing in February (ala Thailand) .... as soon as we saw the temp hospitals in Wuhan and the news from Iran & Italy.
When tRump killed off his pandemic prep in 2018, he was following young Trudeau's precedent.
We have the tools. Are we strong enough to demand they get used in a timely basis the next time?
.. the salamander is on Twitter.. That's where any ICU nurse or hospital Admin or paramedic or parent or daughter or senior can 'say their say' with minimal effort, loudly, quietly, sadly, wisely
ReplyDeleteAt times, Mound, I feel I am limping back to the rear areas from a battleground.. mildly wounded just by hearing reports from the 'Front'.. the trenches or urban battlegrounds where the infantry battle is underway. I take a few stitches, scalp wounds appear grevious, mucho blood, but really 'dick on a stick'.. and all of nothing serious dried blood is wiped away.. I just need to wear a mask & stay home, wash my hands a lot.. and I feel noble, purple heart for sure.. some sort of medal comin my way..and yet inside I know I did dick, and am just coasting and dogging it.
I'm old, pulled my load.. soon to hit 70.. blah blah let the young uns sort this out.. or the politicians.. or the backroom plotters or evangelists marching for jeezuz..
But a mere brisk 5 minute stroll away is Michael Carron Hospital.. one of many hospitals I shot in during SARS.. and there the desperate battle rages 24/7 .. Crazy as it may seem.. its just going to intensify. January, February, March are going to suck.. bigtime.. Our feet are encased in concrete blocks.. the waters are rising and its now at nose level. Tipping point ? We're past that.. and wallowing in conequence. The 'thin red line' is our Healthcare Professionals
Many thanks to our 'elected Public servants'.. who ran for cover or Hawaii
or even St Bart's.. or Italy, Florida, or private islands or mega yachts
I hope they're 'proud'.. whatever that means anymore.. 'proud' !!
Maybe that's why we pay them handsomely & will Gold Plated Pension them
Your outrage is well grounded, Sal. Imagine these bastards, who cloyingly plead for our votes when they must face election, then considering themselves entitled to flaut the laws and the precautions they mandate for everyone else. Temporarily losing a cabinet gig is not enough. Toss them out of caucus, permanently. Challenge them to resign their seat and face their own constituents' judgment.
DeleteFord fires his finance minister and then it emerges he knew from the get go that this guy was heading for warmer climes. How many others? That question is circulating through Alberta. Many think Kenney can't punish the errant because he knows that there were several others who also split. That guy fucks up everything he touches.
When you look at the state of Canada's elected representatives it's pretty dispiriting. Their priority today is not the country. It's not the Canadian people. It is about getting power and retaining power. It's about the result they want to obtain when the writ next drops.
I would love a headcount of our elected officials and others in high places during the holiday season.
ReplyDeleteIn todays Guardian there is an article that is relevant.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/02/follow-covid-restrictions-break-rules-compliance.
On day two of the new year the battle with Covid has Covid ahead and increasing it's lead.
TB
The deniers can choose liberty or death. But they have no right to force that choice on others.
ReplyDeleteSomething must be done. You either support your community or you don't and there must be consequences attendant on that choice. If, in the name of freedom, you place others at risk then you must remove yourself from them or be removed.
ReplyDeleteJust as doctors can quite properly exclude them from their waiting rooms for the safety of their other patients, these holdouts should exercise their freedoms in a suitably remote place, perhaps even joining with the like-minded to form settlements. It's not an effort to punish them or to thwart their vaunted rights. It's a question of risk management and public safety. They are not needed where others gather such as in our schools, our hospitals or other public facilities.
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Thank you all for reading,
God bless"