The health care system is going to take a huge hit from burnout. It's already started, and it's not going to get better. I read a story by a doctor who treated a COVID-19 patient in the hospital. The family could have visited him, but they refused to wear masks. In the goddamn hospital. They went on the warpath about not using the usual array of quack remedies. He learned that his patient had died while he was in the ER. He saw the family leave, and went out to tell them how sorry he was that their loved one had passed. The wife turned around and punched him. Knocked him down.Jersey Girl wrote: ↑Sun Jan 02, 2022 2:50 amGrocery stores?Res Ipsa wrote: ↑Sun Jan 02, 2022 2:26 amMy personal goal is to stay out of the hospital through the end of January. I don't think our hospital system can avoid becoming a transmission vector of the virus during this Omicron surge. I'm afraid that many parts of the U.S. are going to find out what an uncontrolled "lockdown" due to systems failure is like. The shelves are getting fairly bare at my local supermarket.I haven't been inside the grocery store (Walmart) in probably 3 weeks. We're pretty much stocked up here as we do for any typical winter--a bit more probably. I think we could ride out 4 months if we needed to based on what we have on hand.
I agree with you about systems failures. Look at the airline industry right now.
None of our local pharmacies have at-home Covid test kits right now. They were sold out by C'mas. So...I'm going to call the hospitals again and ask them what we're supposed to do because the protocol was to show up at the ER/ED with a positive Covid test to get the infusion at certain times. I know one of the hospitals in question had a tent set up in the parking lot back in March for tests, I don't know if it's still there. Yes, you need to stay out of the hospital--we all do.
The health care workers? I can NOT even being to imagine how they are mental health wise. There are reports of compassion fatigue I'm seeing--particularly directed at the unvaccinated. I'm surprised they didn't have this last year as one of our family members did. Let's face it, they are being abused by an uncooperative public.
He's getting into another line of work.
Doctors, nurses, and hospital staff are getting sick and dying as a consequence of vaccine refusal. And some of the refusers curse them and spit on them. Nobody can see that much unnecessary suffering and death and be subjected to that kind of abuse and not be traumatized. I'm tempted to suggest to my younger kids that they go to med school or nursing school or seek other jobs in health care, cuz the demand for those positions is going to skyrocket. But then, why would I want my kids to be subjected to those kind of risks and behavior?
I haven't seen as much compassion fatigue as I expected. A doctor or nurse post about how they've been treated by patients or the amount of death they've had to deal with, and inevitably a horde of people will demand that the unvaccinated be put at the back of the line for treatment or consigned to tents instead of ICUs. Almost every health care professional that I've seen respond has said something like "nope, that's not the way we treat people."
It really floors me.
