My younger sister is a Doctor in Internal Medicine and she works in the ICU in Sweden. She’s in the Covid -19 war zone. She takes care of Covid-19 patients daily. She told me they are reaching their capacity now as I am writing this. They are also running out of protection gear for doctors and nurses. She told me that during the last few days she has been responsible for three Covid-19 patients. One man born in 1982, with no previous health issues, one man born in 1950, with no previous health issues and one older lady born in 1930, with no previous health issues – all of them have received treatment in the ICU. The man born 1982 and the man born in 1950, died yesterday.. The old lady walked out of the hospital to go home the same day.
The Covid-19 virus is relentless. It does not favour or choose you over me. It does not pick rich over poor or black over white. The virus will get to all of us. Eventually. And yes we know that if you are not in the “chronic illness bucket” (currently 83% Covid-19 cases) you are less likely to get severely sick or die from it. But as my sister said “the other 14% that are not suffering from chronic illness, that still die because of this virus – that’s a huge amount of people”. “We see that every day and we know that the virus is very unpredictable”
A doctor that I work with here in the US told me that they will introduce point system starting this week at the hospitals. Meaning that on a scale used by doctors to determine illness, patients with higher chance of survival will be prioritised. Your score will determine if you get a ventilator or not. They don’t have enough ventilators for everyone.
The total collapse of our healthcare system all over the world is a brutal but oh so real slap in the face. The fact that healthcare is financially driven to the point that we cannot care for our people and protect our doctors during a pandemic where we need it the most, reveals how fragile and shitty the system is.
We NEED UNIVERSAL HEALTCARE that is NOT financially driven. We need our research programs and healthcare programs to stand independent of politics and other big pharmaceutical companies. We need universal healthcare for everyone. Everywhere. We need communities that take care of each other.
I have spent two, almost three weeks trying to take care of a virus infection that we have dealt with, including my children – we are now on the mend. We know it’s not Covid-19 as we got tested for it and it was negative. But before I knew we had a “good” old bacterial infection and not Covid-19, I was panicked and dealt with massive anxiety daily. I wouldn’t have been as worried if I knew we had a health care system that I could trust. If we know we are safe, supported and with a care system that is ready when we need it – I know my anxiety would have been much less.
Stay well people. And support our hospitals. Skip the “hero appraisals ” and do something about it and donate what you can to make a change.
Char
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