Originally posted by leswp1
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OK. Having had more than a few public health maxims drilled into me through 2 Degrees, >36 yrs as a nurse and 28 of those yrs in Family Practice (including our office being consulted re a lot of different public health issues as the town 'doc' for schools) watching the incompetence and irresponsibility makes me unreasonably frustrated. Add to that I have been following the predictions this will happen since they were talking about it somewhere are 2014 including the alarms sounded and the recommendations made.
Too lazy to go back and find all my posts but I can tell you every thing I posted regarding what would happen and in what order if we didn't respond has been spot on. There is no reason for us to be in this position. None. Until a few years ago we had experts running the agencies that are needed in this situation. Now we do not. We have done nothing that follows what science or medicine would recommend in a timely manner.
I am ridiculously frustrated that people will die, the country is in full FUBAR because of incompetence and the willingness of medical professionals (excluding Dr Fauci who should be cannonized) to ignore ethics and public health principles in order to keep the President happy. He is childlike. No one can deny his inability to deal with unpleasantness. His answer is to bluster, bully and be unpredictable to get what he wants. Might work in business but not in medicine. Germs don't give a fvck for this behaviour. They just continue to spread. The few Docs he appointed (the other people are not experts) had a responsibility to speak out. Korea has had a system since SARS to deal with this. We started but then decided it wasn't a priority.
Even if we were behind the 8 ball as far as being prepared to have a response, we could have mitigated this by showing cohesive, clear messaging and listening to those who were expert to slow spread. This has not happened. Messaging until late last week was almost exclusively denial and focused on the economy and Market. ALmost every statement coming from the White Houseabout the actual problem needed correcting by NIH, WHO or CDC.
In all honesty a Public Health student could do a better job than our gov't at this point. This is morally abhorrent. My state's medical system is very robust. We have more medical providers, beds and specialists than most other states. We are in trouble. Just on the news- our governor saying he was told by the Feds we should have bid more for supplies if we wanted them. None of this is OK. Medicine and public health should not be run in this way. Those people who are from states that do not have our resources are going to have really, really bad outcomes. Is this OK? NO.
This should be a time to get your facts right, give a clear message. If you can't understand the facts let the experts speak. This should not be a time to attempt to spin things to look good, give people false information to get them to think things are better, reassure people with false or partially true statements.
Even my friends who have been full on Trumpeters because of the economy are saying they have heard so many versions of the truth coming out of the WH they can't figure out what to believe.
Public Health principles-
1. identify causative factors
2. identify affected individuals or groups of individuals
3. attempt to contain causitive agent / individuals, vectors, fomites.
4. Prevent- educate re causative agent using clear, cohesive message. Provide information re cause, action needed, what will happen if action is taken and what will happen if it is not.
5. Prevent- If information is not known do not postulate without identifying information is not 100% sure
5. Prevent- correct false information, attempt to decrease spread of false information.
6. Provide information regarding potential measures that may be necessary.
7. Identify qualified individuals with expertise to help manage plan
8. if specific supplies/resources are needed these should be identified, cataloged and triage should occur to determine need.
How many of these have been done in a timely manner? Some of it has not been done at all.
Too lazy to go back and find all my posts but I can tell you every thing I posted regarding what would happen and in what order if we didn't respond has been spot on. There is no reason for us to be in this position. None. Until a few years ago we had experts running the agencies that are needed in this situation. Now we do not. We have done nothing that follows what science or medicine would recommend in a timely manner.
I am ridiculously frustrated that people will die, the country is in full FUBAR because of incompetence and the willingness of medical professionals (excluding Dr Fauci who should be cannonized) to ignore ethics and public health principles in order to keep the President happy. He is childlike. No one can deny his inability to deal with unpleasantness. His answer is to bluster, bully and be unpredictable to get what he wants. Might work in business but not in medicine. Germs don't give a fvck for this behaviour. They just continue to spread. The few Docs he appointed (the other people are not experts) had a responsibility to speak out. Korea has had a system since SARS to deal with this. We started but then decided it wasn't a priority.
Even if we were behind the 8 ball as far as being prepared to have a response, we could have mitigated this by showing cohesive, clear messaging and listening to those who were expert to slow spread. This has not happened. Messaging until late last week was almost exclusively denial and focused on the economy and Market. ALmost every statement coming from the White Houseabout the actual problem needed correcting by NIH, WHO or CDC.
In all honesty a Public Health student could do a better job than our gov't at this point. This is morally abhorrent. My state's medical system is very robust. We have more medical providers, beds and specialists than most other states. We are in trouble. Just on the news- our governor saying he was told by the Feds we should have bid more for supplies if we wanted them. None of this is OK. Medicine and public health should not be run in this way. Those people who are from states that do not have our resources are going to have really, really bad outcomes. Is this OK? NO.
This should be a time to get your facts right, give a clear message. If you can't understand the facts let the experts speak. This should not be a time to attempt to spin things to look good, give people false information to get them to think things are better, reassure people with false or partially true statements.
Even my friends who have been full on Trumpeters because of the economy are saying they have heard so many versions of the truth coming out of the WH they can't figure out what to believe.
Public Health principles-
1. identify causative factors
2. identify affected individuals or groups of individuals
3. attempt to contain causitive agent / individuals, vectors, fomites.
4. Prevent- educate re causative agent using clear, cohesive message. Provide information re cause, action needed, what will happen if action is taken and what will happen if it is not.
5. Prevent- If information is not known do not postulate without identifying information is not 100% sure
5. Prevent- correct false information, attempt to decrease spread of false information.
6. Provide information regarding potential measures that may be necessary.
7. Identify qualified individuals with expertise to help manage plan
8. if specific supplies/resources are needed these should be identified, cataloged and triage should occur to determine need.
How many of these have been done in a timely manner? Some of it has not been done at all.
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