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[Starver]

Only this time?

Not sure where I implied, or invoked by any chain of logic, that new doctors are stupid. And there's no magical freeze-dried doctors in special emergency-rations pouches just awaiting rehydration, et voila..., but there are indeed medical schools with a half dozen or so year-cohorts still working their way from entry-level to ready to take on the world. With some pre-pre-med students perhaps still being inspired by the current needs of the world to aim into medicine (or care, or other related services).

I suppose the thing I might have been most circumlocutive about is the 'threat' that if medical staff don't get vaccinated that they don't have a place being medical staff (it is already a thing for care-worker in the wider care-industry, here in the UK, and it is looming to be a thing for doctors/etc).

I suppose I was saying that if you can't convince a trained doctor that it would be good to take precautions then something is wrong. Maybe with the convincsr, but then again maybe it's with the convincee.


Semidirect experience of this is that someone I know had a follow-up check on an injury (acquired and surgically resolved just before the whole lockdown hit, the 'six month'ish follow-up happened maybe just two or three months back) and as part of general conversation with the consultant concerned, in the presence of his assistant, the question of vaccinations got mentioned, possibly by my acquaintence there as a patient, who had either just had or was about to get their booster. Consultant apparently said he was all up-to-date, assistant just shook his head and said "Nope!", apparently getting a dirty look from his boss. I'm no good at readng such subtle clues, but I trust the interpretations gathered by the erstwhile patient, and they highly suspected it to be a "you might think that, hell even I might think that, but we're not telling people that... you should at least publically pretend to trust in the vaccine".


Call me a trusting gullible fool about my attitudes, if you wish, but I like to think I can make at least a half-educated judgement about whether vaccination has a net benefit to not just me but also others around me. When I see the opposing POV in medical professionals, right now I'm more doubtful of their 'professionality' than my own considered judgement.

There may be nuances, and a middle-ground, but no way to resolve things that seem to be diametrically opposed.

(And obviously these are exceptions, not a majority swing of attitude. But they are notable when encountered.)

[Vector]

See also: exactly how I feel about OBGYNs refusing to perform abortions. You don't like it? Pick a different specialty or become a doula or midwife. I don't trust doctors who don't trust vaccinations, and I don't trust OBGYNs who don't do abortions to have my best interests in mind.

[wierd]

I have some views. Some spicy, some not.

At least in the US, there kinda are some dessicated "just add residency" instant doctors.  The US system, by design, keeps foreign doctors out of the profession. Many in the US were fully qualified, practicing physicians before they moved, and just cant get into a residency program.

https://www.aamc.org/news-insights/non-us-citizen-i-faced-hurdles-applying-us-medical-schools-now-i-ve-made-it-i-want-help-others-me

Killing the AMA monopoly on residency programs would "rehydrate" that artificially dessicated labor pool.

The big crunch is not physicians though. Its bottom rung butt wipers and errand boys, like myself.

The profession requires a dedication to care, a willingness to suffer long hours, and subsistence wages, and now, face permanent health problems from the high risk of illness from tending highly infectious patients with extreme care needs.

The labor pool there is much drier than for doctors.

(I am actually skilled tech labor, doing menial healthcare. If I were willing to work for satan again, i could easily get 3x my current income. I am just unwilling to work for satan.)

This is the great resignation, and the shit wages and poor conditions have depleted the desire to provide care. (More and more, I find my desire to provide care is being eclipsed by the desire to not work for satan. This is negatively impacting the quality of my work, and i dislike that. Other people dont have a strong demotivator when it comes to changing professions, when that change will improve most metrics of life quality. I will likely stick it out through covid, but most wont. )

Throw into that, the toxic jingoism of modern politics?

You got the healthcare crisis in 2021/2022.

[martinuzz]

Meanwhile in Uganda, the longest school lockdown in the world has come to an end.

For a full 20 months, all schools were closed because of corona lockdown. Finally, the children can get education again....

Except.... Most schools no longer exist. Because schools did not get any tuition for 20 months, directors needed to find another way to gain funds. A lot of schools have been rented out as private housing (or turned into a workplace). 20 months was just too long.


EDIT: makes for an difficult ethical conundrum.. Is it ethically justifiable to evict people from their homes so they can be turned back into schools?

[Loud Whispers]

Meanwhile in Uganda, the longest school lockdown in the world has come to an end.

For a full 20 months, all schools were closed because of corona lockdown. Finally, the children can get education again....

Except.... Most schools no longer exist. Because schools did not get any tuition for 20 months, directors needed to find another way to gain funds. A lot of schools have been rented out as private housing (or turned into a workplace). 20 months was just too long.


EDIT: makes for an difficult ethical conundrum.. Is it ethically justifiable to evict people from their homes so they can be turned back into schools?

This world is already postapocalyptic but instead of a collapse we just get a grind

[martinuzz]

The grind can be made audible by the gnashing of teeth

[dragdeler]

a

[martinuzz]

What is slightly hopeful though, is that data seems to keep showing that the omikron variant, while being a lot more contagious, is less virulent.

Over here, the percentage of those tested positive raised by nearly 100%, but the ICU admission rates keep dropping. 'Normal' hospitalization (no need for respiration and medically induced coma) however does rise along with the number of infected.

[JoshuaFH]

Meanwhile in Uganda, the longest school lockdown in the world has come to an end.

For a full 20 months, all schools were closed because of corona lockdown. Finally, the children can get education again....

Except.... Most schools no longer exist. Because schools did not get any tuition for 20 months, directors needed to find another way to gain funds. A lot of schools have been rented out as private housing (or turned into a workplace). 20 months was just too long.


EDIT: makes for an difficult ethical conundrum.. Is it ethically justifiable to evict people from their homes so they can be turned back into schools?

I guess it's more another piece of evidence that forcing schools to fight for their own funding and survival just leads to twisted incentives and poor outcomes. Ideally, institutions which serve the public weal, like schools, should be nationalized and unconditionally supported, and use another metric (not the profit motive) to make sure that a high standard of education is being delivered to the students. I know it's a lot to expect of Uganda, but I'd hope that they'd have had more common sense than the brainless American way of doing things!

[TD1]

Wait what

American schools are private? I can't credit even murrica being that cray cray

[nenjin]

Wait what

American schools are private? I can't credit even murrica being that cray cray

Good, because, the vast majority of American schools are public and provided for by tax payer dollars. Private schools account for 25% of all schools, enrolling 10% of American K-12 students.

Private schools here are either of the religious and/or high society variety. Parents sending their kids to private schools continue to fight for a share of public funds to do so and have succeeded in some cases.

[Iduno]

There are also Charter Schools, which are privately owned and for-profit, but public and run with tax dollars. Although those are mostly to get around anti-segregation laws.

[Vector]

Some Ameripol-flavored tweets on this topic which are pretty funny.

[Ziusudra]

See this is another problem with our healthcare system - everyone thinks that doctors are something special, including the doctors, when they're just apes with notions like all the rest of us.

[hector13]

It’s not exclusive to the medical field; experts think that their expertise translates to other fields, even if they are entirely unrelated.

Also, Vector’s link to someone making fun of quack medicine also suggested Prozac (fluoxetine) as a treatment for Covid? I want to know how increasing serotonin treats any kind of infection, never mind specifically this, but I also really don’t. It’s not really something you want to mess with if you don’t have to.