Great article about the Covid pandemic that touches on all the things we aren’t supposed to talk about (like the real death toll and the long tail of chronic illness)
There was so much worth quoting - but I chose this stark figure out of Wales since I’m a clinically vulnerable patient who spends alot of time in the hospital.
In Wales - 70% of all people who require hospital treatment for Covid caught Covid IN hospital. 70%.
Once upon a time - hospital acquired infections were considered a massive failure of infection control. The goal was to keep them as close to zero as possible.
But as we rushed “back to normal” and worked to vanish the memory of COVID from our collective brains - we stopped protecting patients.
Hospitals stopped requiring masks. They didn’t clean the air. They discouraged staff from testing and allowed them to work while sick. They stopped testing patients.
The result? Patients being infected with hospital acquired Covid. Which has a 10% fatality rate.
These people didn’t choose to be patients. They didn’t want to be in the hospital. They couldn’t “just stay home”. They were sick and in need of care.
No one should have to choose between care and Covid.
Yet for so many people - that’s the choice they’re currently facing.
Disabled and high risk individuals have sacrificed so much over the last five years. Many of us are still shielding. Isolated from a world that refuses to even acknowledge we are still IN a pandemic.
It’s dreadfully unfair that we should have to give up so much only to be infected in the one place we’re unable to avoid. The place we should have an expectation of safety
Nate’s article looks at the reasons why we aren’t doing more to combat Covid (hint - capitalism) and reminds us of the importance of remembering we live in a society.
“You do you” doesn’t work. We’re all in this together whether we realize it or not. Whether we like it or not. Whether we’re disabled or not.
When we finally admit this to ourselves and start working together - we may actually be able to beat COVID once and for all.
https://www.donotpanic.news/p/five-years-on-a-covid-retrospective