A physician speaks his mind. And then he gets angry.
"Our hospitals, doctors, and nurses are at the breaking point. Clinicians are angry and frustrated at reckless virus- spreaders who whine about masks.
Will you agree not to get treated if you get COVID?"
Eliot Nierman, M.D.
Dr. Nierman is frustrated. Too many people don't take COVID seriously, and then they fill up the hospitals.
 |
| Eliot Nierman |
Eliot starts off describing a daydream. And then he is descriptive. And then he imagines himself talking directly to the careless, irresponsible, neighbor-killing mask-resisters, and he gets wound up.
Guest Post by Eliot Nierman M.D.
"I have this recurring daydream. I am having one of my encounters with someone who is not wearing a mask. I ask them to wear it and they refuse. They tell me it is uncomfortable, that masks don’t really make a difference, and that it is their right to not wear one. I say: I guess you won’t mind if I take mine off. I find it uncomfortable myself, but since I am a doctor and encounter COVID-positive patients I wear one because I have a risk of having the disease and infecting you. Ok with you?
They turn and run away.
I find other health care workers have similar thoughts of somehow confronting those who don’t wear masks. Alas, beyond asking them sometimes to put on the mask they have around their neck, we don’t confront them.
Clinicians are very angry and frustrated by people who count on us to do everything for their health, despite putting ourselves and our families at risk, while they come up with excuses to refuse to do their part. This starts with the nonsense that COVID is not a big deal, but it is a big deal that they are required to wear a mask so they won't recklessly put others at risk.
It is reprehensible to put others at risk. That is why societies have rules. We don’t let people randomly shoot guns, start fires with fireworks, and refuse to wash their hands when serving us food. You can’t go out on the street and kill others. We regulate who can drive, and we outlaw reckless driving and driving under the influence, yet the number of people who will die from auto accidents this year are only 10-15% of those who died from COVID. By this logic there should be no rules of the road since they restrict your freedom. We are presently at the highest levels of daily deaths-- over 3,100 in the US in a day and increasing! Annualizing at that rate would mean over 1,100,000 a year, twice as many as die from cancer in a year, and 29 times as many who die in automobile accidents!
There are so many issues with the arguments of those who refuse to do anything to help stop the spread of COVID. I understand and accept a discussion of trade-offs between the economic pain of shutting things down versus saving lives, and where to draw the line. Personally, I think the answer is to support those who are harmed economically by shut-downs, but there can be legitimate disagreements as to where to draw the line.
On the other hand, I don’t know where to begin if you are not going to believe in COVID and its seriousness just because it is not shoved in your face. Are we back to where since we can’t see the virus with our naked eye, it must not exist? Do you not believe in COVID since you don’t know someone who has suffered and/or died from it? Does the sun revolve around the earth?
Our hospitals, doctors and nurses are at the breaking point. Would you leave COVID patients at home to die? Will you yourself sign on not to get treated if you get COVID, since you will certainly die sometime from something, so COVID isn't killing you, it's just rushing the timing a little? What about the family and friends you infect with your recklessness? Do they refuse treatment?
If you and those you love agree to refuse health care, there will be no problem with hospital capacity. Think of the savings in "wasteful" medical care costs, and not needing to pay out social security benefits and pensions if enough virus-deniers and the innocent people who come into contact with them die off. Doing nothing is always the cheapest solution. It would save so much not to treat anyone for any disease, so why stop at COVID? Old people are the most vulnerable to COVID, to cancer, to heart disease and other expensive diseases. The elderly are using the most care, while no longer contributing economically. Should we get rid of Medicare and just let the old folks die? What a shot in the arm for the economy!
COVID overwhelms our medical care system. My colleagues burn out from endless hours and days of work and worry. They isolate themselves to protect their families, as I saw my daughter do while caring for COVID patients in the hospital. She spent two weeks without a day off and three weeks not seeing her family, including her kids ages four and seven. Many medical personnel are depressed. A number have caught COVID and died. Other health care workers have committed suicide.
We do this for you, while some people whine that a mask is inconvenient and uncomfortable. Why not do something for someone else for a change?
If we all wore masks, we would have a fraction of the adverse economic and societal impacts. A lot fewer would die too, but of course they don’t appear to count heavily in the thinking of mask-resisters.
For those of you who won’t wear masks and won’t avoid doing risky things, I ask for your cooperation in other ways. Stay away from those who do care about their health and that of others!
And by the way, since you don’t care about dying, I presume you won’t ask me, my daughter and my colleagues as physicians and other healthcare workers, to put ourselves at risk to treat you when you are sick. Right? You'll do that??
11 comments:
Go fuck yourself, you smug little communist asshole.
Masks don't work. Fauci said so.
I have allowed the posting of the comment above.
It is written in the style of Curt Ankerberg's other signed comments to this blog, although I do not know its actual author. I see and delete most comments that Ankerberg--or an Ankerberg imposter--sends in this vein. I include this one because I consider Ankerberg a kind of primary source--evidence and documentation--displaying a certain kind of thinking within Southern Oregon Republican populists.
Curt Ankerberg does not represent the entire southern Oregon Republican Party,, but he represents, both in policy and tone, a certain part of it. In contested elections he wins the votes of about half of it. Local Republicans know full well how angry and vulgar his communication is, but not everyone recoils from it. He represents a Trump-like rebellion against civility and norms. He represents some of the attitude and opinion today's Guest Post responds to.
There are people like the author of the above comment out there, which is a warning to citizens. They are scofflaws. They feel free to spread disease. They are out there and prudence requires people protect themselves from them.
Peter Sage
Why is mask wearing and even the reality of the pandemic politicized and in question?
I've given this some thought and the best answer I can come up with is money. COVID denial is a fundraising no brainer, as is election denial. Millions have been fleeced.
I sympathize and agree with Dr. Nierman, and would add this: it's Republicans who have perpetrated this fraud. We could have faced this crisis as a united country, but the rot in the Republican party, something that has been endemic for decades, has brought us to this tragedy.
Why is mask wearing and the pandemic politicized?
Because everything is politicized.
A note from the front line in fighting the battle of COVID19.
My friend Lloyd and former colleague is in a Corvallis hospital ICU being treated for COVID19. I have texted his wife to learn of his condition daily. She has quarantined herself and recently tested negative for the virus. No family members may visit him.
Here is a short text I received from her when Lloyd was moved to the ICU:
"Lloyd only has one organ that is involved, his lungs, which gives him a significantly better survival rate. The drs have estimated he has at least a 66% chance according to the current charts as long as they are able to control the inflammation and get him over this hump.
The experimental drug can’t be given because it’s effective only before day 5 and he wasn’t needing it then.
He’s on a rotation of 3hrs on his stomach and 1 hr on his back. That will continue until they see improvement. They will try to feed him supplements rather than chewing food while he’s on his back so he won’t have to remove his [sic. oxygen] mask for very long.
He is aware and can communicate and understand.
He is not just being monitored. There is a nurse, resident, or dr working with him at all times. He is tired because that really makes it hard to sleep.
I told the dr he seems depressed and asked what they are doing for that. He said it’s always an issue and they are making sure to talk with him and help him with music and what he wants that is feasible.
The dr said we need to be optimistic because of what they can do for him, but also realistic that this is a nasty disease. If people want to help him they can wear their masks and follow CDC guidelines about travel and gatherings so that they can continue to have enough personnel and resources to give Lloyd the care he needs.
He also recommended Medlineplus.gov as an excellent source because everything published has been scrutinized.
I will be contacted immediately if there is any change."
So the way I help Lloyd is to WEAR A MASK when I'm in public spaces away from my home and social bubble so the hospitals won't be overwhelmed and we can begin to return to the semblance of normal.
Dr.Nierman - A special thanks to you and your colleagues for sacrificially putting yourself in harm's way at least partly because of selfish people who burden society and the healthcare system with their willful ignorance and petulance.
The first sign of selfishness is denial. The quicker and more vociferous the response, the more likely it is true. Our society sadly has many proud, arrogant and ungrateful people today.
A few years ago I sat on a plane next to soldier from the Iraqi war who was on his way to DC to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor. He corrected me when I asked if he "won" it. He said it wasn't a contest that you "win". He was receiving it on behalf of his lost comrades who didn't make it back. The poor leadership that led us into the war that forever changed his life and took his friends' lives does not diminish the meaningfulness of his and his friends' heroism and courage.
I kind of think of it that way with you and your healthcare colleagues across the county. Other people's poor choices have a huge impact on you. Even those who would despise you until they need you. Thank you for your service.
This correspondents paucity of intellect, vocabulary and failure of lifetime experience to create a productive citizen is appalling.
It is not clear to me who "bison" is referring to. I went ahead and accepted the comment anyway, with reservations.. I urge commenters to write fleshed out thoughts in paragraphs. Many publications have stopped comments because there are so many that are angry and vulgar, like the one offered in the style of Mr. Ankerberg at the beginning of the comments, or are anonymous and too cryptic to be understood, like this most recent one.
Peter Sage
Thank you for writing about your concerns. The dumbing down of education has led to rampant ignorance. No books in the home, no practice reading = an illiterate society that can’t write or speak in paragraphs. Education is supposed to be FUN WITH PIZZA PARTIES. Some students learn despite these sappy new methods of teaching. But the general school population drift by with a C or a D- or maybe an A in PE
and graduate from High School reading at a Third grade level of writing and comprehension. Science, what’s that ? An experiment the teacher did that make smoke. Now, it’s my right to be ignorant, to be a fool, to believe in what my friends sent to me via Facebook. My Dad believes all that stuff, Guns, god and glory. No Mask, it’s all a hoax to control our minds. Cough, cough.
Thanks for putting your life on the line.
I thought Bisons response to Dr. Spock was right on point, and at least in my mind, there was no question as to which correspondent he (or she) was referring to.
Thank you for posting this, dear Classmate, and thank Harvard '71 Class Notes for linking to it, albeit faultily, replacing "blogspot" with "bloom" for some reason. I've written to them to correct it, and trust they will.
You should also correct one word in your post - "it's" should be "its" :>)
Otherwise it's quite perfect. That it has elicited some ignorant response(s) is only a measure of what you and we are up against in this country with the long-standing traditions of anti-intellectual Know-Nothingness that blossomed in the administration now thankfully on the way out, hopefully (though alas not likely) forever. - Leonard J. Lehrman
Post a Comment