Remember those pictures I posted from when I was a stroke patient at Lexington Medical Center, with the empty emergency room and everything so orderly?
Maybe that part still looks that way; I don’t know. They seem to be using only a portion of the hospital for COVID patients. But the surge has them overwhelmed enough for NBC to use my neighborhood hospital to show what it’s like here in the third-worst outbreak in the world.
When I went in on April 11 and asked them for a COVID test, they said no, we’re going to treat you for a stroke, because that’s what you have. Also, they said, if I were tested I’d have to go to the special COVID part of the hospital. Which probably wasn’t so bad back then, compared to now, but I passed on it anyway. I found the stroke floor quite fine, and they did a great job of taking care of me.
So I hate to see them having to deal with all this now…
Things were kind of peaceful when I was there, on April 11.
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This crisis has revealed a broader, deeper pandemic in American political and social life:
the pandemic of excessive individualism.
America has taken a virtue — individual choice — and turned it into a vice.
All the folks ranting about their “rights,” about how masking is “borderline unconstitutional,” how they “don’t want the government telling them what they have to wear” as well as government officials who drag their feet and refuse to take effective measures are the social equivalent of super spreaders.
It is hard to tell people what to wear,esp independent types…
Oddly enough (or not), those “individual types” are usually the same ones taking orders from a lot of folks. Rarely are they in charge of anything in their job or in any organization.
I use to serve on several committees at my church. The committee members that we had the most trouble with were the ones that, by simply serving on a committee, had more power at church than they did with anything in their personal or professional life.
Our state’s epic failure to deal with this virus grows worse by the day. Doctors are now deciding who gets treatment and who doesn’t, and Prisma is setting up an ethics panel to determine which patients need Remdesivir the most. Hospitals don’t have the staff to keep up with the increasing number of patients. This despite our governor’s repeated assurances that our health system could handle any surge in cases.
Here’s a suggestion for our feckless leaders: Stop begging people who lack the civic responsibility and moral compass to step up and do their part. You know what you have to do. Do it.