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Stop Calling Us Frontline – We are your last resort

jennifermilesky.com

24 pointshispanic6 comments

I want to preface this by saying in no way am I minimizing the stress, strain and pain that goes along with treating COVID patients. But I believe articles like this one do not serve a positive purpose beyond spreading FUD. Let me explain.

First, the author goes straight to the ventilator as a fear tactic. The fact remains, most infected do NOT get hospitalized, most hospitalized patients do NOT require ICU level care, many ICU patients do NOT require invasive ventilation. The author makes it seem like there are no steps between getting COVID-19 and being on an invasive ventilator. We now know[1] that this is not even suggested for most patients.

Secondly, they buried the lede a bit, "ICU beds usually run at about 70-80% capacity.". This is a point that is rarely mentioned, so I am glad this author did. But when you hear pearl-clutching news stories about the local hospital being at 80% capacity, remember that is _normal_. And hospitals can manage surges. It is like when the media focuses on case count rather than death rates or % positive rates. It creates a false sense of fear and panic.

Finally, and this is my biggest problem about this article. We all know COVID-19 is dangerous, deadly etc. The market of emotional COVID hit pieces is saturated. It needs to be accepted that each person assess risk differently. And assessing the risk of COVID and deciding to still go to the gym doesn't mean the person hates science or is a dumb person. It means that they are accepting the risk.

You could (convincingly) argue that in a society, we can't assess risk at the personal level as our very existence risks others. This is a deeply philosophical question, and it lands somewhere between the runaway train thought experiment and the butterfly effect. Somewhere between a direct action resulting in death vs. a serious of consequences in which the end result is the death of someone but you were the prime mover. At which point does the "blame" reduce to 0? I am interested in this debate.

Anyway, stop with the emotional pleas. People know. They simply accept it.

[1] https://www.statnews.com/2020/04/21/coronavirus-analysis-rec...

> First, the author goes straight to the ventilator as a fear tactic.

This is brought up in the second last paragraph, well over half way through the article, after they discuss the situation for ICU patients and staff. They go on to provide more information about the other sorts of interventions required for a critically ill Covid patient. I think it is less insidious than your criticism implies.

I don't think this is a FUD style hit piece, it reads to me as a genuine and emphatic article from someone working in health care, expressing their point of view and experience as a health care worker. It is perhaps more genuine than mainstream news media. Of course it's not a peer-reviewed scientific publication, but I don't think it's a sensationalised hit piece either.

Saying that these sort of articles should "stop with the emotional pleas" feels derisive to me, if health care workers can't give an honest, if emotional, discussion about their experience during Covid, are you saying we should simply ignore them or tell them to shut up? I don't think so. Healthcare workers are stressed, working overtime, arguably underpaid for the dangerous work they are doing. Let them express their pleas in their blogs.

As for the risks that people are and are not willing to take, I think there's enough precedent that behaving in a way that endangers others is something we try to avoid for a communal good, we are in a community and society where we should care for and respect one another as a principle, whilst also taking into account civil liberties. We do not have the right to drink and drive because we have accepted that the risks and consequences are not tolerable. Most importantly we should respect what they say at the end:

Staying home (The specifics of which I feel are very much debatable though because it impacts people's lifestyles and civil liberties)

Social distancing

Mask wearing

Hand washing

I think it is really not that imposing or unreasonable during a pandemic!

It may not be imposing or unreasonable but it's still my personal choice and nobody has the right to force me to do anything against my will.

That seems like a bit of a blanket statement. There are plenty of situations where someone may have not just the right, but a responsibility to force to you to do something against your will. I hate to use the police as an example, because there are plenty of cases against them because some of them abuse their rights and fail in their responsibilities, but police have the right and a duty to stop you driving while you're drunk for example, preventing harm or attempted murder, rape, or fraud. They are supposed to be properly trained for this. This is why we all have rights AND responsibilities, you can't just do whatever you want at the expense of others if you're thinking only of your rights. This is the point of encouraging, and in some cases enforcing, stay at home orders, wearing masks, social distancing.

Melbourne in Australia enforced strict stay at home orders for a number of weeks, against the purported rights and will of many, because the state government decided it's the responsibility of citizens to do what's best for their city, or country, or society, to ensure the wellbeing of their fellow citizens and avoid country wide calamity by the pandemic. The people made a sacrifice of personal time and liberty so that the sacrifice wouldn't forced upon others by the personal choices of selfish individuals, in the form needless death and illness for hundreds or thousands of people, it also likely prevented more severe economic ramifications, and I think it was heroic and responsible that they did so.

At least it’s a departure from the overly dramatic ‘war’ metaphor

I sent the message with the same sentiment during the spring to our country's head of covid-19 coordination after he claimed in a news paper article that the hospitals are ready for the battle.

I told to him that if covid hits hospitals then the war is lost because hospitals are the rear where the fallen are treated. The fight must happen before by using prevention tactics.

I am not sure if he ever read it or made any conclusions from it but I felt necessary to send it after the article.

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