17 Comments

I find that discussions on the stresses to our healthcare systems and medical professionals seem to focus on a lack of hospital capacity and the necessary human resources to support those facilities. It seems to me this obscures the real problem. Yes, there are many shortages nationwide in ICU capacity and supporting staff, but this is a consequence of the real problem, too many patients. Instead of trying to only focus on how to add ICU capacity, field hospitals, additional emergency staffing, more ventilators, etc. What we need to do is focus on the problem of too many patients. We know how to do that ... vaccinations, masking, following public health measures.

I served as a medic during the Vietnam conflict. I know what it is like to perform triage under battlefield conditions. I understand having to focus on saving those we can and having to watch some die because we cannot save them all. The solution to that was not to build more field hospitals or get more medics and doctors to help. The solution was to end the war.

The solution to the Covid stresses on our healthcare system is not more capacity. That treats the symptom not the disease. The disease is too many patients. We have the knowledge and tools to reduce the number of Covid patients and vaccinations, masks, and public health measures should be a lot easier than ending a war.

Some will argue that this is just a matter of semantics. No, it is often necessary to properly describe a problem in order for the solution to be more apparent. So, please let's stop talking about too few hospital beds and staff to support them and start talking about too many patients and how to address that problem.

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It has been so absolutely depressing to be amongst this widespread ignorance and arrogance for so long that is causing so much harm. (I'm in FL) 😢 it doesn't have to be this way. Covid, the ozone layer deterioration, domestic terrorism, gun sales out of control, wealth gap climb, health care issues, etc... why are we destroying ourselves? Is it the pain that must be felt to birth new life or is it the continuum of toxicity and greed that rejects true love and healing? These are very sad and confusing times.

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'Delta Mist', If not for the covid-19 variant, Delta, could be interpreted as romantic -- a hideaway in the delta mist. This 'Thinking about...' highlights the lack of frequency, order, data, record keeping, systematization and safety that you found in America's testing for the virus. These failures are endemic to our society We also may suffer more by getting infected, hospitalized and dying in larger numbers of covid-19 than people in other Western so-called democracies. To touch on testing a bit more, the ability to be tested varies by location, that, too is not regulated. 'The covid-19 response plan President Biden unveiled on 9/10/21 '... envisions a sweeping expansion of coronavirus testing, aiming to make quick-turnaround test kits cheaper and more accessible than ever ...' (Washington Post). I think that the main thrust of this piece, the mess America is in, was not dimmed by a few factual points. America often makes a difficult situation worse.

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With my daughter and son-in-law having lived in Vienna throughout the pandemic they and therefore we are quite familiar with regular, at home free test kits and regular testing in Austria. It is insanely stupid that the U.S. has been unable or unwilling to replicate this model.

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Professor Snyder, I am sure I'm not the only one eagerly awaiting your announcement for your live talk this month assuming all is well and that is happening! I am hoping you will speak to how the social response to the current pandemic mirrors the loss of humanity as a result of the dehumanization, class war, and economic insecurity exploited by politics that went on during the Holocaust? When people say that someone dying from covid doesn't matter because of preexisting conditions or age, and thus we won't sacrifice our economy to save them, isn't that similar to being okay with putting a chunk of the population away in concentration and labor camps as the ones who make it reap the economic and societal benefits of essentially thinning the herd? When the covid can kill without directly affecting someone, and that person can look away- is that not the same thing as looking away from a smoke stack? How can people not care about almost five million people dying, and pretend it's "politics?" Or, worse, is death by policy (or lack thereof) in fact their politics :( ?

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Same situation in Canada. Such an inexplicable failing.

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This hadn't even crossed my mind as a possibility as someone who has grown up with the understanding that Americans must sacrifice cost-effectiveness and universal accessibility in order to get "the most advanced healthcare in the world" and who got vaccinated asap and is highly concerned about the delta variant even though both in my household are vaccinated. It's wild that a large portion of the country that rationalized overpriced and inaccessible healthcare based on quality now rejects vaccines and scientific consensus in general. I think it's a direct result of the opioid epidemic and neoliberalism in general-- trust is truly the most necessary component of democracy, and we did not treat it as such for the last 40 years. This type of comparison is what we need to remind people what "politics" actually is (governing). Simply pointing out how others are doing it effectively should be very persuasive. Thank you Professor Snyder for showing us how to be free people!

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Testing has been the greatest failure in the US from the beginning of the pandemic. It never became top-of-mind because of scarcity, faulty product, and the resulting confusion over testing guidelines and restrictions. The trump administration told the public to forget about testing (the unwanted "numbers"), inject bleach, and wait for the vaccines. Now we have the vaccines, and the battleground has shifted to that front. Testing was key to ending the pandemic from the start. We need more reminders like this post from Prof. Snyder.

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Do u follow @michaelmina_lab -Harvard immunologist & epidemiologist. He has been making a strong case for antigen testing for over a year with articles in mainstream press and academic journals (with others) - in the strongest of terms (This Will Save Lives) and it just results in lip service from policy makers. The FDA didn’t approve tests approved in Europe. They still drag their feet. The system pushed PCR (and still does), I cannot help but suspect dirty pool given our healthcare system is so broken and so dominated by big money - and so anti-competitive. Untangling the webs that got us here would be hard - Andy Slavitt must know more than he says. Who is making money off PCR? I think myself we need a new political party that is anti-corruption and focuses on healthcare to start - making it a right. Which is drastic I guess but what I see is in healthcare - money gets around fixes - so, government policy-makers agree testing is a good idea but somehow the only one I see anywhere is Abbott’s Biogen for $25.00 assuming in stock. And just gibberish explanations. Sigh. For flying to US from Iceland, I had to have a negative PCR test 3 days before flying - that makes no sense. The better test re contagiousness is antigen and it should be at the airport for free. I don’t think our government’s policy-makers are idiots - they must know all of this but they are constrained by forces out of our sight. I guess they have rationalizations for not doing more - they have sweet gigs - they don’t want to rock the boat too much. This is just my theory. But if I had a nickel for every time Michael Mina tweets something like”Finally -making progress with testing” - I’d have a stack of nickels but still - very little progress. Policy-makers talk and talk a good game regarding the importance of rapid tests (lifting hope) but then they move at the pace of some elderly turtle. When there is a will, there is a way. There is no legitimate explanation for any of it. I can’t ignore that The people dying from Covid - suffering from Covid - just don’t matter to power in our country. Not enough to make testing cheap and available anyway which we know is doable. (This isn’t some moon shot.). And there is No shame for not caring. I don’t know. I keep thinking how u said in one talk I listened to that earnestness is something profiteers or fascist propagandists don’t have; people of good will do. I am trying to think of ways to push back more - I just feel like a little who on horton’s dust speck but - unlike the mayor in the story who quickly gathers up all the who’s’s to scream out, my fellow who’s just don’t believe they have to do something (or they are hypnotized bu their phones maybe - I don’t know. I just know they don’t get that our healthcare system could be better if we demanded transformation. Together,,we’d have power.) More metaphor but the non-elite are not getting the wave they see is a tsunami. This testing nonsense isn’t an aberration in our healthcare “system.” Sigh. On that cheery note, I’ll stop. 😬

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founding

704,861 - the number of fatalities in the US at 6 pm on 24th September... It is truly unfathomable, especially now that there is a debate raging about giving the monoclonal antibodies treatment to unvaccinated people first... Bigotry, racism, economic disparity and an insanely ineffective and costly health care system: are we surprised that Putin is laughing out loud?

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