A young ICU nurse in Tennessee expresses her frustrations, disappointments, and restrained rage about working in a world of Covid denialism. In her first year out of school she has already been thrust into charge nurse status in a medical ICU because of staffing shortages.
Her reply to patients' families who ask "You're not going to give her that vaccine, though, are you?" is particularly poignant.
This nationally-telecast segment is excerpted from a longer (4-minute) interview broadcast on local television in Tennessee. Kudos to her for speaking out and expressing so clearly what so many health care workers feel.
As a Tennessee resident I've become increasingly alarmed at the direction this state is taking. Governor Bill Lee has now nullified local mask mandates in schools, under the guise of making them "optional". This follows ending a state program to remind people when their second COVID-19 shot is due, and the scaling back of programs to encourage teens to get vaccines for the flu and HPV.
ReplyDeleteGovernor Lee was able to find time to attend the Williamson County Fair, unmasked, and encourage people to come on out, but couldn't be bothered to mention that, on the same day, state hospitals announce they were out of ICU beds.
Leaders set an example. Governor Lee is setting a criminally irresponsible example, and I can't emphasize this enough: if you refuse to get vaccinated you're not just endangering yourself. You're putting others, even those of us who have been vaccinated, at risk.
As a retired ICU nurse, I understand her completely!!
ReplyDeleteMy goodness, why does the voiceover guy talk like that? It sounds like he's narrating a bad 90s movie trailer.
ReplyDeleteOT: Poor gal. Mad respect for her work.
Let's be clear: Remaining unvaccinated is very similar to driving drunk. You are very likely to hurt yourself, which is just stupid, but what's unacceptable is that you're also likely to hurt innocent bystanders.
ReplyDeleteYou do not have the freedom to gamble with other people's lives.
I can't wait until some governor has the courage to issue a blank vaccinate mandate.
Let's go Northam. You'll save lives and I'll forgive your blackface.
Also, perhaps we should consider slowing the flow of drunk driving immigrants, oops, I mean unvaccinated immigrants, through our southern border if we are considering mandating vaccines.
DeleteThe US has plenty of vaccines to vaccinate all those immigrants upon arrival. Alabama is throwing expired vaccines away because they can't get their own folks to vaccinate, so it doesn't even have to come at the expense of Americans.
It is weird to see that the racist trope that immigrants bring disease remains very popular among the very people who refuse to get vaccinated themselves. Furthermore, Mexico has higher vaccination numbers than the US, and certainly than the southern states, so most immigrants across the southern border are willing to take yet another risk and get exposed to more unvaccinated people in the southern states.
But who cares about facts?
Apparently the Biden administration is concerned about COVID among immigrants.
ReplyDeleteOf course they are. And they're handling it, as you so generously cite from the article.
However, this is not only a concern with immigrants over the southern border. This is a concern over every border. Canada has smartly chosen to only let vaccinated people in. The US only requires a negative test at the moment. We'll see how that develops.
What remains is that you brought up disease being brought in over the southern border by immigrants.
It's a lot easier to blame the powerless "immigrants" (which we all are unless you're pre-clovis, and even then...) than it is to admit to profound gullibility.
ReplyDeleteI'm vaccinated myself and an anti-anti-vaxxer, but if you want to know why a lot of people don't believe the leftocrats on this issue is that leftocrats lie all the time about everything else so they are just like traffic noise and we'll only believe in mass vaccination when people without an agenda or a history of lying tell us about it.
ReplyDeleteIt's not our fault that leftocrats lie when they don't have to, lie just to keep in practice, lie because they enjoy it, lie because they consider themselves our betters, lie to cover up other lies, lie to get their hands on our money, lie to keep themselves in power, out of court and out of jail, and lie just for the hell of it. They've cried wolf one too many times and to somebody my own age this is about the dozenth major hysteria they've unleashed on us that was going to destroy civilization, the human race, all animal life, and make the planet a flaming cinder or an airless iceball. When they clean up their act the rest of us might give them a little credence.
I totally disagree with you, but your rant is so well-spoken that I've OK'd it for inclusion in the comments.
DeleteJust to clarify the terminology - "leftocrats" being politicians, or scientists too?