Coronavirus in the US

Parent Cafe
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@dietz199 said
The Cuban physicians in foreign lands do not personally benefit from their appointments. They are working off their debt to their government. Something along the lines of indentured servitude.

@katliamom said
Kinda like many American med school grads who work off their college debts by working for less pay in needy areas…

dietz199 wrote: »
^^^^ Not exactly. One is voluntary - one is governmentally ‘assigned’. One is a choice, the other is …well…add your own term…

@katliamom said:
LOL, if you really think it’s voluntary in the US! It’s a NECESSITY. For most of those who don’t have a mommy and a daddy able to cover their $300,000 med school bill.

But soon this may be a moot point… trump apparently will cancel these socialist programs.

My response to the above is:

Here in the US, we DO have a class of physicians who work off their loans with a form of indentured servitude, who have no choice about where they live and sometimes no choice what specialty they practice (at least for their years of servitude.)

Medical students who accept a Health Professions Scholarship Program (HPSP) offers prospective military physicians, dentists, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, optometrists, psychologists, pharmacists, and veterinarians a paid medical education in exchange for service as a commissioned medical department officer.

These active duty health professionals are the ones who we are talking about when we write about the hospital ships deploying to NY or California. They are the ones who set up and run the mobile CASH tent hospitals. They are the ones who have deployed to war zones.

They are presently working in military treatment facilities all over the country and world. Some have been notified already to have bags packed as they await orders to step in to staff the ships and tents.

As many of you know, my husband is in his 28th year of active duty military service as an Ob/Gyn. He paid back his HPSP service many years ago but remained in the military. He has deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. (Ob/Gyns are surgeons who are experienced in abdominal surgeries, and also we have female troops who deploy). He is presently working long hours in a major military hospital, where staffing is already tight and where preparations are being made to send some personnel out to serve the country’s needs in hotspots, if directed.None of the active duty personnel who will deploy to these ships or CASH units have a choice in the matter.

So the meme about “stay home unless you want to be intubated by an Ob/Gyn” is funny, but also true.

(Our MED student son wisely took a look at all of the above and did NOT take an HPSP scholarship.)

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@eastcoascrazy, thanks so much to your husband (and you!) for his service. That sounds tough.

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My med school lad’s roommate is doing this because he needs the money. My lad is taking loans, but seriously considering places that will help him pay them off. These routes are common for those who aren’t wealthy, yet want to become doctors. It’s the only way they can really attain their dream.

Thank your H for me. Thank you too - for dealing with the deployments, long hours, unknown future, etc. And best wishes to your son.

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That seems a bit of a random snipe. At least China and probably Cuba seem fairly generous, within their budget capabilities, in providing health, education and social services to their own citizens. Why shouldn’t they also help others?

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Gilead to stop providing remdesivir on a compassionate use basis to most covid-19 patients.

“In recent weeks, there has been an exponential increase in compassionate use requests for emergency access to remdesivir, related to the spread of the coronavirus in Europe and the United States. This has flooded an emergency treatment access system that was set up for very limited access to investigational medicines and never intended for use in response to a pandemic…
During this transition period, we are unable to accept new individual compassionate use requests due to an overwhelming demand over the last several days. We are focused now on processing previously approved requests and anticipate the expanded access programs will initiate in a similar expected timeframe that any new requests for compassionate use would have been processed”

Also “Next month, Gilead is expected to produce the first batch of data to show if it works in Covid-19 patients or not.“

https://endpts.com/inundated-by-demand-gilead-freezes-individual-access-to-experimental-covid-19-drug/

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This article by Donald NcNeil, a science and health reporter of the New York Times specializing in plagues and pestilences, is among the most helpful and insightful articles on the coronavirus. Highly recommended. Here’s the link to the original article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/22/health/coronavirus-restrictions-us.html

It’s probably behind a paywall, but everyone gets to read a few free articles a month from the *Times/i.

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I think Fauci is quoting a saying “…countries fight the last war, not the present war”
We have been fighting the War on Terror for 20+ years. This is a different war: a war on a virus. We have to find new methods. Its here in America, not on far away lands.

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Clearing your browser history/cookies will reset the view counter.

Edit: you may have to close the NYT page before you do this for this to work.

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The NYT is offering coronavirus articles for free.
https://www.nytimes.com/news-event/coronavirus

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It not difficult to block the NYT domain in the javascript settings in a browser like Chrome. “[*.nytimes.com]” will defeat the paywall. Just saying.

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New York City hospitals will only get through this week without more supplies, mayor says

New York City hospitals will only be able to get through “this week” before they start getting “to a point where people can’t be saved,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told CNN’s John Berman on “New Day” Monday morning.

“In our public hospitals, our 11 public hospitals right now, this week, I can only guarantee you right now, John, that we can get through this week with the equipment and supplies we have. That’s the blunt reality," de Blasio said.

He added: “If we don’t get some relief quickly, and I can count, John, I literally want to see hundreds of ventilators, I want to see first hundreds of thousands and millions of masks, if that doesn’t come in starting this week, we will get to a point where people can’t be saved who could have been saved.”

CNN

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Or we can accept the reality that all of humanity does not have a shared morality - or all of America, or all of CC. Tradeoffs have to be made on many issues every day, and we won’t all agree on where and how those trades should be made. No reason to expect that to change in the next millenium or so. But we can try to respect the fact that people of goodwill can differ.

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https://www.zeit.de/wissen/gesundheit/2020-03/christian-drosten-coronavirus-pandemic-germany-virologist-charite

Some of you may be interested in this interview with the virologist who is basically writing Germany’s policies right now. He talks about how uncomfortable he is with this, LOL.

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Some promising information buried in the WHO report on the spread of the virus in China. Based on meticulous tracing, it looks like the probability of catching coronavirus from contacts with other people is low.

https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/who-china-joint-mission-on-covid-19-final-report.pdf (see p. 8-9, additional detail provided)

I find that 1-5% range pretty reassuring. I am very unlikely to catch or transmit coronavirus chatting with the checkout lady in the grocery store, if only 1-5% of ** close** contacts result in transmission. Getting coronavirus of course is not a death sentence. For most (probably the overwhelming majority) who catch it, it will be no big deal at all. We should concentrate on protecting the most vulnerable. People of good will can differ as to the best method to do that, given the resource constraints and political and economic considerations.

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Michigan Gov Whitmer to announce stay at home order today at 11.

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Massachusetts just announced a stay at home order starting tomorrow at noon.

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Massachusetts Governor Baker just issued a stay at home order effective tomorrow at noon.

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I really do not get why the federal government has not issued a stay at home order.

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It might be unconstitutional, that is for states and local governments to do.

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Amy Klobuchar’s husband is sick and in the hospital. She wrote a medium post, which I can’t link here.