Why not? It's an emergency. It's completely possible to fix this short term in a way that lets us move on without all these socially toxic and corrosive restrictions. Probably would cost an order of magnitude less, even.
Because the front-line people in health care don't have the legislative or fiscal power to change the system they're working in. We need systematic update to healthcare system, not to blame the "people in healthcare" which are the least of all the problems.
Naw. This is an emergency, right? You don't need any of that. You just need people that are trainable enough to handle covid surges. Medical students, nurses, hell maybe even veterinarians... use your creativity.
If hospital capacity was an issue caused by covid surges, we'd have fixed it already.
Letting people not normally licensed to expand their scope and authority to practice on humans is a regulatory and legislative challenge. Healthcare workers badly need cooperation of regulators, legislators, and fiscal stakeholders of the industry to un-fuck the industry. Also capital can be better directed towards results rather than bloated administrators in a less regulatory burdened market.
And lockdowns, forced masking and vaccine passports aren’t a “regulatory and legislative challenge”? Really?
This is supposed to be an emergency, right? Give me a break. Covid specific healthcare capacity can easily be scaled up with the amount of resources we are pouring in this dumpster fire. Figure it out.
Apologies, blame is probably too strong of a word.
I interpreted you were holding them accountable to answer the question of expanding/fixing health care in the short term. Clearly their answers are going to be in the context of their limited power to change the whole system without the cooperation of others. They need the cooperation of both the capital holders / owners of the health care industry as well as regulators and legislators. I think when you answering this question, they are answering it within the context of working within their current constraints, which can be quite tight.
To say they are the one to answer the question, in my opinion, is to shift the onus on them to answer it. In fact we need the feedback of these workers, and they're critical in us solving current problems. They need our cooperation. But I think framing the question as something they're supposed to answer, as you have done, narrows the focus on people not to be blamed for the constraints that hold them back and thus force an otherwise unreasonable answer.
No, just that they definitely would not agree with your view that the current system limitations are "completely possible to fix in the short term". For the simple reason that the most critical resource it depends on (trained people) is finite and highly inelastic. And is already contracting (i.e. they're are already starting to burn out and leave the profession).
Along with the second most critical resource that we expect them to have for us: empathy. Especially for those who won't vax.
This is an emergency. Find a way. It isn’t fair to blame the public and then force them into some dystopian “new normal” for years because a bunch of highly paid people can’t figure out how to fix emergency Covid hospitalization capacity.
If somebody says it isn’t possible, fire them and find somebody who can figure it out. It’s a fucking emergency, remember? It’s completely possible. Saying otherwise is an excuse. Figure it the fuck out.
Zero excuses.
(Or the more simple answer is there actually isn’t a problem with hospital capacity because otherwise we’d have fixed it. You know… because it is something that could be fixed… with money alone)
Why not? It's an emergency. It's completely possible to fix this short term in a way that lets us move on without all these socially toxic and corrosive restrictions. Probably would cost an order of magnitude less, even.