chocolatpi
chocolatpi's JournalDispatches from a Pandemic (MDs and Nurses from Wuhan)
Along with gratitude for everyone supporting our medical communities, I wanted to share this piece of excellent journalism (imo). It was an emotional journey, from start to finish.
“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/what-the-doctors-and-nurses-who-beat-back-the-coronavirus-in-wuhan-want-you-to-know-about-their-months-in-hell-2020-04-08?mod=newsviewer_click
Dispatches from a Pandemic
Opinion: What the doctors and nurses who beat back the coronavirus in Wuhan want you to know about their months in hell
Published: April 8, 2020 at 12:24 p.m. ET
By Tracy Wen Liu
…snip(MD)
The scene stayed with him. He couldn’t get it out of his head when he was awake. When he managed to sleep, he had nightmares. He was overcome by a sense of helplessness. While the state media were portraying health-care workers as heroes, he was devoting his time and energy to treating patients who would not recover. “We’re hardly heroic,” he says.
Li has continued to message and call me about once a week since our first long conversation. “I’ve been slowly improving,” he told me on March 11. Still, he continues to suffer from insomnia, and he is reluctant to tell friends and family in China how he’s really feeling.
The situation at work has taken another demoralizing turn. When the outbreak was raging, he explained, some of the hospital’s administrators cowered in their offices, too afraid to venture out into the wards. But now that commendations are being handed out, the bosses have been the first in line for bonuses.
“It’s much more profitable to work in the financial industry,” he laments. “Do you think I might still have an opportunity to work in that profession?”
…snip (Nurse)
While serving on the front lines, Wang saw many of her colleagues break down and cry in the hospital’s lounge. She sent me a video of a nurse curled up in a corner weeping and proclaiming hysterically that she wanted to quit. I asked Wang what had happened to that nurse, but she told me that such episodes were common. As soon as a patient rang a call button, the nurses would pick themselves up and hurry back to the ward.
On Jan. 27, Wang was diagnosed with a coronavirus infection. That judgment was based solely on her CT scan, even though the standard for confirming a coronavirus case at the time was to use a test kit. Within two weeks, China would formally loosen its criteria for counting cases, allowing for more diagnoses based on characteristic symptoms.
…snip
In any case, she told me that she was not interested in that kind of compensation. What she really wants is a post-mortem investigation into “the government and hospital officials who covered up the outbreak.”.
…snip
Arizona releases less COVID-19 data than many other states. That could be changing soon
Thank you Arizona Republic and staff for all that you do.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/arizona-releases-less-covid-19-data-than-many-other-states-that-could-be-changing-soon/ar-BB12iknp?ocid=hplocalnews
Arizona releases less COVID-19 data than many other states. That could be changing soon
Rachel Leingang and Alison Steinbach, Arizona Republic 7 hrs ago
…..snip
That should improve in the coming week, because Gov. Doug Ducey issued an executive order Tuesday that requires more data reporting to the state related to COVID-19. The move came after The Arizona Republic reported on growing frustration and confusion about the limited information.
Hospitals now must report daily to the state several new statistics related to positive or suspected COVID-19 patients.
Those include the:
Number of inpatients.
Number of ventilators in use.
Number of intensive care beds in use.
Number discharged from the facility per day.
Number seen in the emergency department per day.
Number of intubations performed per day for respiratory distress.
Estimated number of N95 masks, surgical masks, face shields and surgical gowns used per day.
Publicly reported data inform people’s understanding of the virus, how it is playing out and how they can make the best decisions for themselves, their families and their communities.
…snip
(related article)
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/to-protect-trump-white-house-among-first-to-use-rapid-coronavirus-tests-sought-by-communities/ar-BB12i1MR
The Washington Post
To protect Trump, White House among first to use rapid coronavirus tests sought by communities
David Nakamura, Josh Dawsey 13 hrs ago
Arizona releases less COVID-19 data than many other states. That could be changing soon
Thank you Arizona Republic and staff for all that you do.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/arizona-releases-less-covid-19-data-than-many-other-states-that-could-be-changing-soon/ar-BB12iknp?ocid=hplocalnews
Arizona releases less COVID-19 data than many other states. That could be changing soon
Rachel Leingang and Alison Steinbach, Arizona Republic 7 hrs ago
…..snip
That should improve in the coming week, because Gov. Doug Ducey issued an executive order Tuesday that requires more data reporting to the state related to COVID-19. The move came after The Arizona Republic reported on growing frustration and confusion about the limited information.
Hospitals now must report daily to the state several new statistics related to positive or suspected COVID-19 patients.
Those include the:
Number of inpatients.
Number of ventilators in use.
Number of intensive care beds in use.
Number discharged from the facility per day.
Number seen in the emergency department per day.
Number of intubations performed per day for respiratory distress.
Estimated number of N95 masks, surgical masks, face shields and surgical gowns used per day.
Publicly reported data inform people’s understanding of the virus, how it is playing out and how they can make the best decisions for themselves, their families and their communities.
…snip
(related article below)
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/to-protect-trump-white-house-among-first-to-use-rapid-coronavirus-tests-sought-by-communities/ar-BB12i1MR
The Washington Post
To protect Trump, White House among first to use rapid coronavirus tests sought by communities
David Nakamura, Josh Dawsey 13 hrs ago
This is not normal!
Scoff, if you will, the canary in the coal mine. That cretin, installed by his pal the Czar of Russia, is a monte bank, a fool, a charlatan, a thief and a grifter.
There are no words to express my disdain with those who will follow into the ovens of death and destruction. The reality is, they want affirmation by demanding we follow their doomsday, Jim Jones, cool-aid thinking.
It's not normal. Stop the happy PR that denies the truth, get real, tell it like it is. I am an optimist. I will survive.
Playing for Change, Stand By Me
I just wanted to thank everyone on DU for sharing. It's been a daily inspiration during my third week of going out only for food, medicine and an occasional visit with my daughter and SIL.
My daughter received her Coronovirus test results, nearly 3 weeks after an emergency room visit, she is negative. I ask again, the Gov. of Arizona Ducey, where are the tests and results?
https://playingforchange.com/
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Love and Happiness: an Obama Celebration, 2016
In November let's remove the pretender, the bearer of plagues and pestilence. "Change Gonna Come".
This video requires 1 hr. 21 min. of viewing. The video begins with the entrance of First Lady Michele and President Barack Obama, the opening remarks displaying his wit, verbal skills and charm, what a handsome couple and role models.
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"music, sweet music"
Change is coming, I hope to be here to celebrate.
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The Politics of the Coronavirus
https://fpif.org/the-politics-of-the-coronavirus/The Politics of the Coronavirus
For the far right, the pandemic is a chance to enact border controls and erode the rule of law. It could also expose their utter incompetence.
By John Feffer
March 25, 2020.
…snip
As the Trump administration finally switched into its own incompetent version of engagement, some sections of the far right zoomed well past the denial phase. Those of a survivalist and apocalyptic bent are already halfway to their bunkers, with Alex Jones of Infowars infamy trying to profit off the panic by raising the prices on his prepper products. It’s part of a more general wave of profiteering that encompasses Amazon price-gougers and traffickers of inside information like Richard Burr (R-NC) in the Senate.
Neo-Nazis and sovereignists, meanwhile, are rejoicing at the failures of the federal state to handle the crisis. They are anticipating the realization of their cherished dream: the collapse of the liberal order. Still other extremists in the QAnon camp believe that Trump will use the virus as a pretext to arrest members of a global liberal pedophile ring (like Trump, they simply double down when their assertions are proven wrong, as in the Comet Pizza debacle).
Then there’s the blame game. Jerry Falwell Jr. fingered North Korea as the culprit behind the coronavirus. California Republican Joanne Wright, like many of her tribe, has asserted that China manufactured the disease but added the twist that Bill Gates financed the plot. And it wouldn’t be a wacky right-wing conspiracy if George Soros somehow weren’t implicated as well.
…snip
The overwhelming obsession of the far right in Europe has been to reduce or eliminate immigration from points east and south. Some political parties, like Germany’s Alternative fur Deutschland, even support “remigration”: namely, forcing established immigrants to leave the country.
...snip...much more at link above
Don't use coronavirus to bail out oil and gas companies
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/dont-use-coronavirus-to-bail-out-oil-and-gas-companies-2020-03-23?&mod=home-pageDon’t use coronavirus to bail out oil and gas companies
March 23, 2020 at 10:26 a.m. ET
By Basav Sen
The fossil-fuel industry’s problems were self-inflicted, and it’s barreling us toward the next crisis
In 2008, the U.S. economy went into its deepest recession since the Great Depression, brought low by reckless financial institutions, deregulation, and lax regulatory enforcement. The recession led to millions losing their homes to foreclosure.
The federal government could have stepped in and rescued struggling homeowners. That would have kept families in their homes, and preserved the tax base and social fabric of communities.
Instead, they handed out $700 billion in public money to the very banks responsible for the crisis (not counting more than $3 trillion in zero or very low interest rate loans), allegedly because that was the only way to avert a deeper recession. But the recession worsened, and the “too big to fail” banks became even bigger.
This scenario is replaying itself today, with even higher stakes. We’re facing down not just a pandemic and a global economic meltdown, but an unraveling of our planet’s entire life support systems.
..snip
So let’s not blame a virus, or Russia, or Saudi Arabia. If U.S. oil and gas producers are in trouble, they are the ones at fault, and it takes nerve on their part to ask the government for a handout. While oil and gas workers facing layoffs deserve assistance, their undeserving bosses do not.
Then, consider what science tells us about this industry. A healthy future for oil and gas inevitably means a bleak future for most humans and for ecosystems. At precisely the time that scientists say we should be phasing out oil and gas production, a bailout to this destructive industry is a giant step backwards.
A much smarter use for stimulus funds would be major investments in renewables and energy efficiency, industries that employ far more Americans than fossil fuels without harming the planet. If fossil-fuel workers are being displaced, they can be fast tracked into jobs growing these industries that are vital for our future.
Let’s not repeat the mistakes of 2008. Emergency funds should be freed up for direct assistance to those workers and communities who need it most. In the longer term, stimulus funds should be used to build just and effective solutions for the other looming crisis humanity faces: the climate crisis.
Basav Sen directs the Climate Policy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies.
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