(Dobbs) They Trust Doctors To Treat Them... But Not To Protect Them
It's the pandemic's biggest disconnect.
You don’t have to look hard to find stories about health care workers stressed and sad and stretched to the limit, drained physically and mentally both. Since the dawn of the pandemic, being overworked, being endangered, has been part of the job description. But it didn’t have to get this bad.
How bad? This is from a letter written to friends just a week ago by a doctor in Denver, an orthopedic surgeon.
It is a truly frightening time to work in healthcare. Omicron is incredibly infectious. Healthcare workers are quitting or catching Covid or both. We are short on supplies again. My hospital didn’t have my glove size for several weeks, so I had to operate in different gloves. We are also low on test tubes for the most common kind of blood test, so are making decisions about who we really need those test results on and who is lower risk. Elective surgeries are being cancelled again because we have no staff and no beds. We are bending our indications for same day surgeries in uncomfortable ways.
Right now, despite all the warnings and despite all the Americans who are pitching in to beat this disease, it’s only getting worse. Because of the meteoric spread of the omicron strain of Covid, new reported cases are rising dramatically in almost every single state (and because of positive readings from home tests that go unreported, experts say the upsurge is likely even steeper than reported). Florida’s surge is steep enough: in the past two weeks, cases have grown at the alarming rate of almost 1,000%. Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, around 500%. Arkansas, California, Hawaii, Maryland, and Mississippi are not far behind. All told, our official case count coast-to-coast since the pandemic crossed our shores is past 55-million, with total deaths at 826,000 and rising.
So you might understand why another doctor, pulmonary and critical care physician Daniela Lamas of Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, penned this prediction for The New York Times:
“Walking through the intensive care unit on one recent afternoon, I took in a familiar sight— half a dozen patients intubated and sedated and alone, most lying on their stomachs. One of the nurses exited a room. ‘They’re all unvaccinated,’ she said. I wondered whether perhaps one of the greatest risks of whatever surge comes next will be compassion fatigue, the dwindling ability to feel empathy for the unvaccinated.”
To be sure, there are fully vaccinated Americans coming down with Covid too, but with every passing day, statistics reinforce the obvious: if you don’t get vaccinated, you’re more likely to get sick, and sicker, from the virus. By some calculations, twelve times more likely.
But let the Denver doc, whose husband also is a doctor in the hospital’s ER, make the case.
My husband has been called into work early and had to cover shifts for coworkers who are ill. Everyone he is admitting for Covid is unvaccinated. This is not an exaggeration. Imagine, endless lines of people who did not listen to your advice before but now demand your help, and in doing so put you, your family and your colleagues at risk.
And then she asks the question that puzzles those of us who still believe in science:
Why are we trusted to treat people for Covid, but not to prevent them from getting it? It is not sustainable.
Finally, for this healthcare worker on the front lines— on the front lines for almost two years now— it hits home.
I was exposed at work and began having terrible headaches and shortness of breath yesterday. The earliest appointment for a Covid test was three days later and a 40 minute drive away. Luckily I found a place that didn’t require an appointment. I waited in line in my car for 3 hours to get tested. The line of cars canvassed a busy main street before extending down the freeway, causing traffic on the interstate. It is impossible to describe the feeling I had while waiting in this line.
I have colleagues all over the country who are seeing exactly the same thing. I worry that my work has caused me to expose my kids, who are not allowed the vaccine yet. Pediatric ICUs are also full. And it isn’t just RSV and bronchiolitis, it is Covid in kids.
Please know this message is from a healthcare worker who is a mom of two unvaccinated babies, and not a political activist. My only agenda is keeping people I love safe. Please double mask. Please stay home if you can. Get your boosters ASAP. Talk to people you care about. Regardless of your politics, as healthcare workers you would trust with your life in an emergency at 3AM, we can promise you that Covid is not something you want to face unvaccinated.
I know we are all tired, but I am very concerned that we won’t be able to provide care for everyone who needs it.
If that kind of story doesn’t persuade the unvaccinated to reconsider— for the greater good if not their own— this account about Covid by a woman in California named Andrea Arriaga Borges— who had not gotten vaccinated— should change that. She spent a total of four-and-a-half months in the hospital, 65 of those days in a coma.
I couldn't walk. I lost my motor skills and my muscle, dropped about 35 pounds, and came home in a wheelchair; re-learned how to walk again.”
Her thinking on vaccinations now?
“I don't want anyone to go through what I went through. The only thing I can say is just have an extra layer of protection and get vaccinated.”
It’s not just healthcare workers who are drained, both physically and mentally. It is our nation. There’s only one way out… if only those who still won’t get vaccinated will open their eyes to stories like these.
For almost five decades Greg Dobbs has been a correspondent for two television networks including ABC News, a political columnist for The Denver Post and syndicated columnist for Scripps newspapers, a moderator on Rocky Mountain PBS, and author of two books, including one about the life of a foreign correspondent called “Life in the Wrong Lane.” He has covered presidencies and politics at home and international crises around the globe, from Afghanistan to South Africa, from Iran to Egypt, from the Soviet Union to Saudi Arabia, from Nicaragua to Namibia, from Vietnam to Venezuela, from Libya to Liberia, from Panama to Poland. Dobbs has won three Emmys, and the Distinguished Service Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. Some of his writing also appears on a website he co-founded, BoomerCafe.com.
Covid vaccinations aren’t a guarantee against it. I’ve had all 3 shots and made it to New Year’s Eve without incident. Omicron is no joke, and I contracted it despite following all the rules. BUT, because I did everything I could to protect myself and others, I experienced symptoms equal to the common cold, tested at home, and have remained there for over the designated time recommended. Omicron hits 2 days after exposure and spreads like crazy. I cannot comprehend anyone not wanting to try to protect themselves or others. It is the most arrogant form of entitlement and drain on a health system struggling to survive.
Denise Sparacino Evancich
U. S. citizens against Covid vaccinations did not proceed through K-12 public schooling without receiving all the required, nonnegotiable vaccines. Here's the current list for Colorado, pre-K and K-12 combined:
1. Hepatitis B
2. Diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (DTap)
3. Haemophilus influenza type b (Hib)
4. Inactivated poliovirus (IPV)
5. Measles, mumps, rubella (MMR)
6. Varicella (chicken pox)
7. Pneumococcal conjugate (PCV13) or polysaccharide (PPSV23)
8. Tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis (Tdap)