I am responding from self-imposed quarantine, as my adult daughter's boyfriend's father has tested positive. Although it is good that the father is not THAT sick, he was also 60 and not boosted by choice. My daughter's boyfriend, for reasons of his own, had chosen not to be boosted yet....he had an appointment next week, b/c previous appts he'd made conflicted with other things he needed or wanted to do. He, the boyfriend, spent hours at our house 2 days before his father's PCR test turned positive; Boyfriend and we sat and watched movies together, except for the moments he excused himself b/c his GI tract was upset, as was his father's, at home. Even as a physician, I was not thinking Omicron, nor was I aware at that point, that he and his parents (mom is a pharmacist) had not been boosted.
Having cared for patients dying in the ICU whose families could not be with them b/c of the threats of COVID in the hospital, having so many of my own patients experience their own deaths alone, having distraught family members begging to come into exam rooms from which they were barred--only patients themselves could come--I am reeling at the cavilierness of institutions that are opening as if we weren't in the midst of a tsunami of COVID. So many people are now admitted either directly b/c of COVID, or because of the interaction of COVID with their preexisting comorbidities; we, as a nation, have tens of millions of people living with chronic diseases. For the young, student-aged population, these often involve "only" morbid obesity, which significantly increases one's risk of contracting and dying of COVID; diabetes, early onset lung disease from smoking and basic physical deconditioning also contribute, even before you get to the list of more hard-edged chronic problems, like ongoing immunosuppression due to HIV or treatments used to avoid transplant rejections, or even chronic steroids for asthma. The number of older staff, from faculty to maintenance crews, with diseases rendering them at high risk, is astronomically higher than among the students.
What could possibly justify bringing these people together in person at this point, other than greed? Has there been some kind of administrative calculation that if there are not more than 5 or 10 unnecessary deaths during that time, the amount of money made will be worth it?
From my own land-locked position, I cannot possibly go see my own health care providers tomorrow, after recent major surgery, and risk a domino-cascade of infection among others less healthy than I am; my daughter cannot see the patients she has scheduled tomorrow, who are all over 75, until we at least know that the vector in this case--her boyfriend-- is negative by PCR. The fact that none of us would likely get ill enough to require hospitalization doesn't mean than none of the people with whom we interact might not be. Likewise, NCSU reporting in a month or two that there were few or no student deaths in no way measures the ripple effect of a concentration of COVID infections on campus; how many shop owners, grandparents, faculty and staff or their families will have fallen ill or died?
We have sufficient data to understand that the current wave should pass over us within a month; hospitals will be better able to handle individual cases; fewer people will die if we once again flatten the curve. NCSU needs to act responsibly to its students, its faculty and staff and to the greater community--the state at large--and NOT be part of the problem. Education can happen on line for an additional three weeks or so to prevent predictable and unnecessary deaths. We cannot reverse decisions after the fact to bring people back to life.
Thank you so much for this detailed and heartbreaking comment, Becky--and I'm so sorry for the stress and awfulness, especially considering how much you and your family have seen and experienced and sacrificed. (I know you don't consider it sacrifice, and I know you're speaking out of sorrow for these patients.) I am so angry. It's not just the big decisions, like whether to reopen--which yes, MUST be based on the calculation that some lives/quality of life (see long Covid) can be expendable. It's the little but important mitigating ones too. Like, where are the freaking KN95 masks? Why wasn't someone ordering those in December when this insanity was clearly on its way? I was talking to Cat the other night about the fact that I also have fighting-with-the-bosses fatigue. I need to buck up and get back to it.
I often think of you when I'm considering safety decisions about my own kids--your comment about bike riding on the streets kept me from riding there! That's why Bea and I are trail riders! Thank you for being ethical and stalwart. Love to you and your family.
I am responding from self-imposed quarantine, as my adult daughter's boyfriend's father has tested positive. Although it is good that the father is not THAT sick, he was also 60 and not boosted by choice. My daughter's boyfriend, for reasons of his own, had chosen not to be boosted yet....he had an appointment next week, b/c previous appts he'd made conflicted with other things he needed or wanted to do. He, the boyfriend, spent hours at our house 2 days before his father's PCR test turned positive; Boyfriend and we sat and watched movies together, except for the moments he excused himself b/c his GI tract was upset, as was his father's, at home. Even as a physician, I was not thinking Omicron, nor was I aware at that point, that he and his parents (mom is a pharmacist) had not been boosted.
Having cared for patients dying in the ICU whose families could not be with them b/c of the threats of COVID in the hospital, having so many of my own patients experience their own deaths alone, having distraught family members begging to come into exam rooms from which they were barred--only patients themselves could come--I am reeling at the cavilierness of institutions that are opening as if we weren't in the midst of a tsunami of COVID. So many people are now admitted either directly b/c of COVID, or because of the interaction of COVID with their preexisting comorbidities; we, as a nation, have tens of millions of people living with chronic diseases. For the young, student-aged population, these often involve "only" morbid obesity, which significantly increases one's risk of contracting and dying of COVID; diabetes, early onset lung disease from smoking and basic physical deconditioning also contribute, even before you get to the list of more hard-edged chronic problems, like ongoing immunosuppression due to HIV or treatments used to avoid transplant rejections, or even chronic steroids for asthma. The number of older staff, from faculty to maintenance crews, with diseases rendering them at high risk, is astronomically higher than among the students.
What could possibly justify bringing these people together in person at this point, other than greed? Has there been some kind of administrative calculation that if there are not more than 5 or 10 unnecessary deaths during that time, the amount of money made will be worth it?
From my own land-locked position, I cannot possibly go see my own health care providers tomorrow, after recent major surgery, and risk a domino-cascade of infection among others less healthy than I am; my daughter cannot see the patients she has scheduled tomorrow, who are all over 75, until we at least know that the vector in this case--her boyfriend-- is negative by PCR. The fact that none of us would likely get ill enough to require hospitalization doesn't mean than none of the people with whom we interact might not be. Likewise, NCSU reporting in a month or two that there were few or no student deaths in no way measures the ripple effect of a concentration of COVID infections on campus; how many shop owners, grandparents, faculty and staff or their families will have fallen ill or died?
We have sufficient data to understand that the current wave should pass over us within a month; hospitals will be better able to handle individual cases; fewer people will die if we once again flatten the curve. NCSU needs to act responsibly to its students, its faculty and staff and to the greater community--the state at large--and NOT be part of the problem. Education can happen on line for an additional three weeks or so to prevent predictable and unnecessary deaths. We cannot reverse decisions after the fact to bring people back to life.
.
Thank you so much for this detailed and heartbreaking comment, Becky--and I'm so sorry for the stress and awfulness, especially considering how much you and your family have seen and experienced and sacrificed. (I know you don't consider it sacrifice, and I know you're speaking out of sorrow for these patients.) I am so angry. It's not just the big decisions, like whether to reopen--which yes, MUST be based on the calculation that some lives/quality of life (see long Covid) can be expendable. It's the little but important mitigating ones too. Like, where are the freaking KN95 masks? Why wasn't someone ordering those in December when this insanity was clearly on its way? I was talking to Cat the other night about the fact that I also have fighting-with-the-bosses fatigue. I need to buck up and get back to it.
I often think of you when I'm considering safety decisions about my own kids--your comment about bike riding on the streets kept me from riding there! That's why Bea and I are trail riders! Thank you for being ethical and stalwart. Love to you and your family.