Policies unintended consequences. Ethical distribution of limited resources.

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Concluding paragraphs from The Washington Post, March 2, 2020:

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The coronavirus could hit the U.S. harder than other wealthy countries

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Our inequities create unique vulnerabilities —

as does our current political climate

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…To reduce exposure, people with the virus must come forward. They must also identify their contacts. Fear that this may result in deportation or harm for loved ones may make this essential step impossible for many. As we learned during the Ebola and Zika responses in New York City, without the active engagement of immigrant communities that have the closest ties to the countries with the highest burden, prevention efforts could falter.

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We don’t mean for this analysis and its grim outlook for what lies ahead to create additional fear or panic in the United States. Indeed, there is much to be reassured by: For many young, healthy Americans, as well as children, the risk of serious illness and death is low, and health departments across the country are accurately assessing risk and implementing prevention measures.

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.Yet at the national level, we need an intentional, human-rights-based response that pays attention to health equity. This will require honest conversations about the potential human rights challenges posed by quarantine and other measures as well as more discussions about the ethical distribution of limited resources. It may also require some self-reflection on how policies can have unintended consequences for public safety and public health.

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The material on this site is for informational purposes only.
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It is not legal for me to provide medical advice without an examination.

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It is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment provided by a qualified health care provider.

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U.S. badly bungled coronavirus testing

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Quoting March 1, 2020, from Science:

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As of Friday, South Korea had tested 65,000 people for the coronavirus; the U.S. had tested only 459, per Science Magazine. China can reportedly conduct up to 1.6 million tests a week. Although the World Health Organization has sent testing kits to 57 other countries, the U.S. decided to make its own.

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.There have also been problems with the tests themselves. On Feb. 12, the FDA announced that health labs across the country were having problems validating the CDC’s diagnostic test, Science reports in an in-depth account of what went wrong with the tests.

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The FDA announced yesterday that public health labs can create their own diagnostic test. Scott Becker, the CEO of the Association of Public Health Laboratories, told Science that he expects that public health labs will be able to do 10,000 tests a day by the end of the week.

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From Common Dreams, February 27, 2020:

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“Mike Pence literally does not believe in science,” tweeted Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat. “It is utterly irresponsible to put him in charge of U.S. coronavirus response as the world sits on the cusp of a pandemic. This decision could cost people their lives. Pence’s past decisions already have.”

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Ocasio-Cortez pointed to Pence’s tenure as Indiana governor, where he she said his “science denial contributed to one of the worst HIV outbreaks in Indiana’s history.”

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“He is not a medical doctor. He is not a health expert,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote. “He is not qualified nor positioned in any way to protect our public health.”

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Gregg Gonsalves—a Yale epidemiologist who co-authored a 2018 paper connecting Pence’s policy decisions as governor to the 2014 HIV outbreak in Scott County, Indiana—denounced the president’s decision to allow Pence to coordinate the administration’s coronavirus response.

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“Over 200 people were infected with HIV in an outbreak, met with ignorance, bumbling, incompetence, and ideological intransigence. Two hundred needlessly infected, now on medication for life at great costs to themselves and the state,” Gonsalves tweeted Thursday morning. “Now Donald Trump has put Mike Pence in charge of coronavirus.”

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“It’s like putting an arsonist in charge of the fire department, a bank robber in charge of the U.S. Mint,” Gonsalves added. “Donald Trump made the choice of putting someone absolutely not up to the task to this crucial position. It endangers us all. This isn’t a Republican or Democratic issue—we have the potential for coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. and we needed to rise above the partisan fray.”

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The material on this site is for informational purposes only.
.
It is not legal for me to provide medical advice without an examination.

.
It is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment provided by a qualified health care provider.

~~~~~

For My Home Page, click here:  

Welcome to my Weblog on Pain Management!

Please ignore the ads below. They are not from me.

..

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The advertising below is not mine.

In exchange, this blog is less expensive.

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