02/24/2022
Lynn Murphy Mark
We are coming up on the second anniversary of the frightening news about a mysterious virus that traveled half way around the world to touch both of our shores, and then it roared into the middle of the United States. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have died as a result. Thousands more are still suffering because they are “long haulers” – people whose body systems have been adversely affected over the long term.
Is there anyone left in our country who doesn’t know someone who has been infected? Or, sadly, someone who has lost a life to the ravages of COVID? The virus lands erratically on the most vulnerable people, those who have co-morbidities and whose immune system lacks the ability to fight off the virus. And it hits perfectly healthy people who suddenly develop severe symptoms and require hospitalization to prevent death, if that is at all possible.
The media has exposed us to views inside hospitals where COVID patients are treated as aggressively as possible. This has been going on for so long that health care providers, such as nurses and respiratory therapists, have lost their passion for their work – commonly known as burnout. Burnout is an inadequate term for the deep effects of constant severe stress, lack of needed resources, and the frequent death of people in their care. And they are faced now with people who refuse to be vaccinated or wear masks.
Both of these measures are prevention against the spread of COVID. When a person who has declined such measures is infected with COVID and needs to be hospitalized they join the sheer numbers of people who are interfering with care needed by non-COVID people. People with heart and lung diseases, cancer, joint malfunction are having needed procedures delayed in order to accommodate COVID patients. I am a retired nurse, and I don’t know if I would be able to curb my resentment of people who decline preventive measures and then need hospitalization.
Doctors, nurses, nurse assistants, and respiratory therapists cannot be produced from thin air. Some places have had to advertise for retired health caregivers to come back to work to help with the shortage. An article in “Atlantic” magazine written in November of 2021 states that one in five health care workers has left their job since the pandemic started. That’s a 20% loss of skilled caregivers at a time when hospitals are bursting at the seams with sick people.
COVID patients often require intensive care unit level treatment. ICU workers are specially trained to work with the equipment and medications and treatments that are needed. Not just any nurse can walk on to an ICU and perform the required duties. A nurse is not a nurse is not a nurse. I was a hell of a Hospice nurse, but don’t put me in the OB department without a lot of training unless I’m just there to answer phones and get water for people.
I admit I am one of the people who passes judgement on those who refuse to take the preventive measures to avoid COVID infections. I know too many people who have been laid low because of this virus. I have loved ones who work out in the world and I worry for them. I have young grandsons who are in school and I worry for them as well. My partner has lung issues and would be at great risk if she got infected. I worry for her. I have friends with immune system weakness. I worry for them. So, when someone refuses to even wear a mask I wonder just how self-involved and selfish a person like that can be.
I pray for a softer heart and greater acceptance. I’m just not there yet.