yes, things are getting better – but that’s not universal, as some states/regions are still dealing with the Omicron tsunami.

First, idiot alert…

An Oklahoma hospital was forced to lock down its ICU due to what can only be described as rampant idiocy.  From Medpage Today:

In a recent press release, [a] church group [that has been protesting outside the facility and making threats against its staff online], known as Ekklesia Oklahoma, called Mercy Hospital an “evil Marxist controlled death camp.” [emphasis added]

Court documents stated that the founder of the group called one of the hospital’s doctors a “murderer,” noting that members even posted the doctor’s home address online, according to KFOR.

It’s not just Oklahoma…in Boston, a neo-Nazi group protesting outside the hospital called Brigham and Women’s Hospital “anti-white.” The stupidity of the protestors is stunning, as is their twisting of facts.

As I’v noted multiple times, we have family members in emergency medicine/critical care.  These types of attacks happen every day, everywhere. Patients yell, scream, hit, spit on staff. Some patients’ family members call and make demands, cursing at staff who refuse to dispense ivermectin. They abuse them mercilessly.

And nurses and staff are supposed to stand there and take it.

Would you tolerate that in your job?

What does this mean for you?

These idiots and their enablers are destroying our healthcare system. Call them out. 

Facts

COVID infections are associated with much higher use of medications to address behavioral health conditions. That’s from a study published in the British Medical Journal. The study was conducted by the Veteran’s Administration and analyzed data on over 150,000 patients with a previous acute COVID diagnosis.

From the BMJ:

people with covid-19 show an increased risk of incident mental health disorders, including anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, stress and adjustment disorders, opioid use disorder, other (non-opioid) substance use disorders, neurocognitive decline, and sleep disorders. The risks were evident even among those who were not admitted to hospital during the acute phase of covid-19—this group represents most people with covid-19 [emphasis added]

Vaccinations are good

A UK meta-analysis focused on long-COVID found that individuals previously infected with COVID benefited from vaccinations, and those with COVID that got a vaccination did better than those without a vaccination.

This is the fourth attempt to warn you about the impending disaster facing all of us. 

Our incredibly dysfunctional healthcare system is collapsing, falling apart as thousands of highly-experienced and very well-trained critical staff leave care provider roles.

Two national nursing experts:

• nurses who are inexperienced are replacing those who retired or were enticed by financial incentives to become travel nurses.
• So many older nurses have quit, and younger nurses are at the bedside.

Hospitals are turning to traveling staff, costing facilities 4 to 5 times more than full-time workers. In response, and in a classic “treat the symptom while ignoring the problem” move some well-intentioned but pretty clueless elected officials are trying to pass a bill that would restrict traveling staff agencies’ pricing.

That is both pointless and pathetic. It reflects those officials’ paying attention to healthcare executives while ignoring what’s happening to care workers on front lines.

Instead our Representatives should be:

• confronting those who are lying about COVID and vaccines,
• using every tool and lever they have to support health care workers,
• implementing financial penalties for illegitimate vaccine refusers in the form of higher premiums, copays, and deductibles.

It’s even worse at long-term care and rehab facilities…and it has undoubtedly gotten worse since those data were collected back in June 2021. And it’s happening in Florida, California, and Indiana – and in your state too.

Here’s why. And no, it’s not vaccine mandates.

From a great piece in The Baltimore Sun:

The great “financialization” of the health care industry has finally trickled down. Capitalism and the unfettered and unfiltered drive for the dollar has degraded the nursing profession in many regards. The historic exploitation of nurses to increase productivity and reduce costs, worsened by the pandemic, has led to a historic nursing shortage being faced today. [emphasis added]

This is the macro, structural driver – the unbound drive for profits..

COVID – and more specifically disinformation and vaccine resistance – has greatly accelerated and deepened the crisis. 

The multiple waves of COVID and the relentless flood of disinformation and lies have crushed the life out of nurses and healthcare workers, each successive wave burying healthcare workers ever deeper until many can see no escape.  Nurses are at much higher risk for suicide than most other workers.

Experienced, trained, passionate and skilled nurses and healthcare workers are leaving patient care.

What does this mean for you?

Sooner or later you will bring a family member to a hospital.

The staff will be less experienced, less skilled, less knowledgeable and less able to provide care.

Lies and disinformation have consequences.