Recipe for disaster or opportunity for improvement?

The coming epidemic is going to highlight the societal flaws and failures of our country. Hopefully the worst case scenario does not happen. I hope I’m not being overly pessimistic, but as an RN my mind is full of these kind of thoughts:

1. There are too many people in this country who are not insured or are underinsured. They are unlikely to get prompt medical care due to cost. And how many of these people can absorb the costs of a hospital stay, or even worse, an ICU stay? The potential for life-long devastating financial ruin for both those who become severely ill and their families is very real. Will the government pay for all the individual healthcare costs of those who are affected?

2. Many workers, especially those with low paying jobs, do not get paid days off or paid sick days. The decision to work or not means that they either get a day’s pay or lose a day’s pay. So many people go to work sick because they can’t afford to take even one day off. And they could infect their coworkers and customers and the epidemic churns on. Will some sort of special arrangement be made to support victims financially and insure that they don’t lose their job for being ill and absent?

3. The government has not prepared for an epidemic or pandemic, including stockpiling medication, supplies and equipment. Funding for the NIH, CDC and other agencies has been cut. Supplies are limited. Many people who get a severe case of Coronavirus need ventilator support to breathe. We do not have an infinite number of ventilators in the US. How will this be handled? In the past years, we’ve had episodes of shortages of IV supplies and certain medications under normal circumstances. How will we be able to meet the needs in an epidemic? The response to this potential epidemic is slow and disorganized and anything but proactive.

4. We do not live in a walled off island in the middle of the world, despite what some people think. We have a President whose arrogance and superiority make him less likely to cooperate with other countries in developing a world-wide plan to combat Coronavirus if one is needed.

Thanks for listening!