The Covid 19
I read a clinical sharing by an ER Doc in New Orleans. His article goes step by step into the progress of the Covid 19 pandemic. From the moment the patient enters the emergency department, this doctor has noted that the disease follows a predictable timeline and the treatment modalities are effectively the same. Once the patient has the need for intubation and use of a ventilator, there is reduced availability of meds to keep the patient comfortable. The hospital has run out of simple medications like Versed which would comfortably induce a patient into an appropriate sedative state.
As I read this post, I found myself feeling more and more for the people who are providing the care required to cure the illness. It is through their efforts that cures will become available in the near future and stop the pandemic from continuing and affecting more of our population.
This brings me to the reason that I’m writing this paper. There are hundreds of thousands of 1st Responders. This, of course, includes paramedics and firemen and women, police officers, doctors and nurses, pharmacists and support staffs, lab workers and those that have to transfer people to the morgues. It also includes people training to become 1st responders, interns and residence. Think about the hospital orderlies, janitors, administrative staffs that keep the hospital going and the truck drivers that bring needed supplies to the hospitals and clinics that are on the front line.
I think we need to sit back and understand that each of these people listed, and many more, have families that rely on the folks that are taking care of us.
What happens if the Carona Virus infects the folks that are taking care of us? What’s going to happen to the individuals themselves, let alone their families. What happens should one of these folks dies. What will come of their family? Who will provide them with the funds they need for a place to live, pay for their rent or mortgage and food? What happens if one of these people die, who is going to take care of their burial costs and their families after their demise?
The infusion of $2,200,000,000,000 into the economy provides a start to helping people across the country. I believe that the funds, as they are now distributed is of some value. They have surely taken care of big business. However, as one entity, the people who are holding up our health care systems shouldn’t be considered for the normal distribution of the funds. The president has said this a war and most of the folks on the front line should be getting hazard pay. They should receive assurances that their families will not be forgotten should they no longer be around to support them.
So, what do we do? That’s the question that I believe we are currently presented with. The answers are not simple and they not just about the present day. The answer lies somewhere way into the future. The virus will be brought under control. However, the future is what’s in question here. How will we celebrate the work of those that are saving our lives? I think, public needs to answer that question. What are we going to do?
I believe people around the country are showing up with food for hospitals, masks and other forms of Personal Protective Equipment. However, I believe that everyone of us needs to do better. The only way that we can do better is to sacrifice something that we have. I know that there are folks around the country that have enormous amounts of assets as well as those of us who are of moderate means. We can’t go out and help at the hospitals, but we can sure make their lives easier right now and in the future.
I propose that we establish a funding account, as a nonprofit, to provide for the folks that need monetary assistance. It would be established as an app that would be open to public view.
Mark Weiss