Partners of physicians often live with a baseline of anxiety. Over the last week, that anxiety has exploded and become mixed with outrage.
I tell my wife not to be a hero, but if her job requires that she sees COVID patients without proper protective gear, 1/5
I tell my wife not to be a hero, but if her job requires that she sees COVID patients without proper protective gear, 1/5
then heroism is part of the job description.
And then I realize that much of this was preventable. That every physician's act of heroism plugs a hole left by a system that failed them at all levels. 2/5
And then I realize that much of this was preventable. That every physician's act of heroism plugs a hole left by a system that failed them at all levels. 2/5
My wife and her coworkers recognize that literally their lives are at stake. No physician should have to choose between their own life and their patient's. 3/5
If we had had a competent government, not filled with ill-informed, self-righteous narcissists, and if hospitals and states were not set up to compete with each other, no physician would have had to face that choice at this moment. 4/5
As we praise those on the frontlines, let's not forget who could have prevented the worst but failed to do so, and how the worst was facilitated by a hollowed-out, profit-driven healthcare system. 5/5
(and of course, where I wrote physicians, one can substitute many other categories of healthcare workers)
