Post by suburbanzookeeper on Aug 27, 2021 16:31:19 GMT -5
My husband is moving out of FF/EMT into a different department within his city. Having a suspected COVID patient spit in his face after pulling off DH’s mask and break his finger last week was the final straw. I’m sad for him, he loves what he does, but the general public pushed him over a breaking point.
If I could cure my obesity with a vaccine I’d take it straight in my eyeball.
ETA In all seriousness, there’s a safe, effective, free and FDA approved method for reducing your risk of covid-19 infection. It’s a million times harder and more expensive to give up smoking, lose (+keep off) significant extra weight, quit drinking, etc etc. I’m totally on board with any premiums for someone who won’t make the correct choice here (barring rare exemptions). Not to mention other health choices typically don’t impact the risk for other people to get sick/require hospitalization/die - that massively drives up costs for insurance companies beyond just the insured person who won’t get the vaccine (who may be young and healthy but pass it onto 7 other people who may not be).
I agree that we’re making a false equivalence when we compare the covid vaccine to other so-called lifestyle choices. Oftentimes, this idea of “choice” is complicated. Whether we’re talking about smoking or alcoholism or obesity, there are usually a confluence of factors at play, including mental health or socioeconomic ones. People don’t choose to get addicted to something, at least not in the way we typically use that word, and once they do, it’s not easy to break the addiction. We’re also just starting to scratch the surface around why it’s so hard to lose weight and, just as importantly, keep it off; continuing to make the comparison to obesity feeds into the narrative that obese individuals are lazy and/or lack willpower, which we know isn’t true.
In contrast, the decision about whether or not to get vaccinated IS a choice, pure and simple. Yes, we still have some issues with access, but for the most part, it’s easy and free to be vaccinated. Plus, we’re talking about a highly contagious and deadly virus, and that supersedes individual “freedom.”
I've been mulling over this discussion on increasing insurance costs for COVID anti-vaxxers. I think we could also make an argument here that choosing not to get vaccinated increases health costs for other people in addition to yourself (by increasing the chance you will get and spread it). This is actually similar to cigarette smoke (2nd hand smoke can cause lung disease in others) but not to obesity. I'm not sure about the actual secondhand medical costs associated with alcohol use - maybe through drunk driving?
Anyway, I can get behind the idea of increased premiums for choices that increase both your own and the broader community's health costs, which might be less of a slippery slope than all possible "lifestyle choices."
This would also be a financial penalty that finally doesn’t disproportionately impact people with very low / no income, disabled people, or seniors with fixed income since they qualify for Medicare or Medicaid
Hawaii is now going to roll out a vaccine passport for bars, gyms, and restaurants. Except they're not mandating it and leaving it up to the business to decide. Seems like a total pain for businesses and employees who already have to monitor mask usage and everything.
My tri-county area has two nationally ranked hospitals and many of the best hospitals in the state. All of the cities that they are in have mask mandates. It makes me furious that the outlying rural areas don't have mask mandates and they are utilizing our local hospitals.
suburbanzookeeper, I am so sorry that your DH was hurt and that he is having to leave something he loves. FF/EMT are amazing services that we all should be thankful for and hope we never have to call them ourselves, so I cannot understand why someone would be such an a-hole to a first responder.
suburbanzookeeper, melmaria, my H is also a FF/EMT. He, too, is beyond frustrated. I was about to say this is been the only year he *hasn't* been assaulted on the clock, but that's not true. Got kicked by a patient just a few weeks ago. Minor in the realm of assaults on a provider so I forgot about it for a moment.
Post by chilerellanos on Aug 28, 2021 14:41:32 GMT -5
You guys, I’m exhausted.
I’m working 70 hours this week. I’m a labor and delivery nurse, and Thursday night I spent the first 6 hours of my shift in the ER taking care of a postpartum patient who definitely should be in the ICU expert…there’s no open ICU beds. No open beds on the floor, and they’re boarding patients in the ER.
So, I ended up having to take this postpartum patient on my floor who was definitely not supposed to be on our floor. She wasn’t covid, but because covid is filling out hospital, I have to run drips and take care of a patient who is much sicker than I’m used to.
I’m working 70 hours this week. I’m a labor and delivery nurse, and Thursday night I spent the first 6 hours of my shift in the ER taking care of a postpartum patient who definitely should be in the ICU expert…there’s no open ICU beds. No open beds on the floor, and they’re boarding patients in the ER.
So, I ended up having to take this postpartum patient on my floor who was definitely not supposed to be on our floor. She wasn’t covid, but because covid is filling out hospital, I have to run drips and take care of a patient who is much sicker than I’m used to.
Hugs to you. Our medical professionals have been goddamn heroes throughout this pandemic and you all deserve a break.
"Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you've got a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies-"God damn it, you've got to be kind.”