about this virus. We didn’t even know how it was transmitted. Papers were published and given to the media without peer review. It was like the Wild West because it had to be. This was a brand new disease and it was affecting the entire world. We didn’t have time to do thorough reviews. But everything we did, every mistake we made, was reported and discussed extensively in the media.
To make matters worse, the hospitals are overwhelmed. It is not simply the number of Covid patients that present to the hospital it is the length of time they stay. Any patient admitted with Covid stays in the hospital for a long time. Some for up to two weeks versus the average patient stay of three days. With hospitals at capacity, ER’s back up and patients that are admitted sit in the ER for days. In rural hospitals, it is even worse, critical patients are unable to be transferred for the care they need because there Any patient admitted is no availability. Hence, other healthcare needs, with Covid stays in the like elective surgeries are cancelled.
Political polarization
Transforming Healthcare
In a world that was shut down, the public had nothing else to do but watch the media coverage of the Covid pandemic. It was Team Fauci vs. Team Scott Atlas and the Great Barrington hospital for a long time. We know that widespread vaccination will Declaration. This polarization into factions has take the pressure off our hospital systems. This unfortunately become a daily part of patient is why the CEOs pleaded with the public to get interactions. Patients will frequently start a visit vaccinated. This has, not surprisingly, been a by discussing how stressed they are about “the difficult task. Even before Andrew Wakefield stolen election” or how they are not celebrating published his now debunked study implying vaccines caused autism, the holidays with their family because their Uncle won’t get vaccinated, or vaccines have engendered public fear and resistance. In the UK, an 1885 how people who don’t get vaccinated are “idiots.” It feels like a test. Patients protest against the government’s requirement of the smallpox vaccine want to know if I am with them or against them before they decide if they garnered 100,000 participants. The Covid vaccine arrived in the setting of a can trust me. When a patient is sick, it shouldn’t matter what team they large anti-vaccine movement. The argument for vaccination is made harder side with. It shouldn’t be about politics. It should be about a relationship by the caprice of Covid. Many people don’t get really sick, so why take between a doctor and a patient and in order for healing to take place, there the risk? It is hard for the public to understand that every person who gets has to be trust. Today, politics has made patients question if they can trust physicians. For physicians who consider the field a calling and not a job, this is the heartbreak. From the Trenches to page 164
eapc.net
MINNESOTA PHYSICIAN DECEMBER 2021
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