Data obtained through Freedom of Information show that SARS-CoV-2 was directly responsible for a tiny fraction of hospital stays in Nova Scotia, so why did it threaten to overwhelm the system?
Excellent work Linda! We are so lucky to have at least one journalist here not afraid to ask important questions and honestly seek the truth. Unfortunately the fourth estate is now owned, controlled and used by the destructive forces of neoliberalism. Hopefully other journalists and editors will be inspired and emboldened by your work!
Excellent and fascinating article Linda. Covid 19 has been a very convenient scapegoat for the depredations of neoliberalism and government/corporate malfeasance, and like every crisis, has been exploited to accelerate the process, further shift resources and power upwards, and further attenuate our fragile democracies. The gutting of regulatory agencies has been a critical element of this process so that the institutions most involved in pandemic response, like the pharmaceutical industry, is a major funder of these agencies and is virtually self-regulating. What that means for the safety and efficacy of its vaccines is just starting to trickle out now thanks to a federal judge in the US ordering the release of Pfizer’s suppressed trial data, and the picture is not pretty. The systematic suppression of effective, potentially life-saving treatments is another part of this sordid story with a death toll that will never be calculated. Meanwhile private ownership and perfunctory monitoring of already sub-human standards of care at LTC facilities transformed many of these institutions into pandemic torture chambers where society’s most vulnerable were subjected to unspeakable suffering and indignity at the end of their lives. And how many of the metal health hospital admissions and diseases of addiction are a result of people trying to cope with the psychological stresses of poverty and isolation which are predictable results of neoliberal policies, stresses massively exacerbated by pandemic restrictions. In all these instances a biological virus is being used to hide the epic injustice and criminality of an ideological/economic virus that is overwhelming the immune system of our democracies and destroying the planet’s own life systems. Unless we develop resistance to *that* disease, which you have accurately identified and of which our over-capacity hospitals are one symptom of many, it will make Covid 19 look like a walk in the park.
Good questions. I had not had much to do with the NS health care system until my elderly neighbours were in very tough shape. I spent much of my time that spring caring for them while they waited for home care, or to be admitted to some kind of care facility. They were something like 80th on a list then moved to 60th. They couldn't get into a care facility together -- he could get into one for veterans at some distance - I think at Truro - but she couldn't live there (she was severely disabled. This went on for many weeks. EMTs had to come out a couple of times. I was pretty frazzled by the time he passed away and she was finally admitted to a hospital. At the time, I was told that the hospitals had a lot of very elderly patients who should be in long term care facilities (the kind with advanced medical care), but there aren't adequate spaces and that causes a lot of the issues. Anyhow, that was my introduction to how stressed out the system in here in NS. The next summer, my mother had to be hospitalized in Ontario. She had a really rare and deadly autoimmune disease -- something they only see at the Ottawa General a few times a year. I don't want to compare apples to oranges, but the care was so advanced that it's probably too advanced. They throw everything they've got to fight any illness when perhaps they shouldn't. That said, it's like a finely tuned machine -- but they are bursting at the seams as well. Personally, after being primary caregiver for my husband, dad and mom through terminal illnesses, where things are really not working well is in handling palliative care. There don't seem to be enough palliative care facilities around and so terminal patients keep ending up transported to hospitals by ambulance, are in the ERs and ICUs for days, then in beds being cared for in ways that could probably be done at a palliative care facility if there was skilled nursing and also more doctors on call in those facilities. Also, palliative care could be done in home if the nursing was better and doctors could make house calls. I just know that a lot of the times when all of the people I cared for were hospitalized, they could just as well have been in a less high-tech facility, or at home, had we had more access to a different type of system. I think hospitals are a really poor place to provide palliative care, but unfortunately, a lot of people are spending their final days or weeks in them and it's not good for them and not good for their families. If I were King, I would change everything!!! :)
So many journalist have not come forward during Covid, this concerns me as an RN who came out of retirement to work the covid response in March 2020 and got dumped 20 months later-no jab , no job, even applied for religious exemption- now almost 3 years latter still not permitted to work, did anyone get an exemption? Anyway thank you for your work
Thanks Linda! Seems to me that there's too great a focus on the health of the Health Care System, and not enough on the people who pay for it to be there when they need it. I remember my BS meter going off in March 2020 with the "2 weeks to flatten the curve" messaging being introduced. The whole point, we all learned, was to protect the (mismanaged to the point of collapse) system from becoming overwhelmed! That's what the system is there for! To protect the people who pay for it when they need it.
Excellent work Linda! We are so lucky to have at least one journalist here not afraid to ask important questions and honestly seek the truth. Unfortunately the fourth estate is now owned, controlled and used by the destructive forces of neoliberalism. Hopefully other journalists and editors will be inspired and emboldened by your work!
Excellent and fascinating article Linda. Covid 19 has been a very convenient scapegoat for the depredations of neoliberalism and government/corporate malfeasance, and like every crisis, has been exploited to accelerate the process, further shift resources and power upwards, and further attenuate our fragile democracies. The gutting of regulatory agencies has been a critical element of this process so that the institutions most involved in pandemic response, like the pharmaceutical industry, is a major funder of these agencies and is virtually self-regulating. What that means for the safety and efficacy of its vaccines is just starting to trickle out now thanks to a federal judge in the US ordering the release of Pfizer’s suppressed trial data, and the picture is not pretty. The systematic suppression of effective, potentially life-saving treatments is another part of this sordid story with a death toll that will never be calculated. Meanwhile private ownership and perfunctory monitoring of already sub-human standards of care at LTC facilities transformed many of these institutions into pandemic torture chambers where society’s most vulnerable were subjected to unspeakable suffering and indignity at the end of their lives. And how many of the metal health hospital admissions and diseases of addiction are a result of people trying to cope with the psychological stresses of poverty and isolation which are predictable results of neoliberal policies, stresses massively exacerbated by pandemic restrictions. In all these instances a biological virus is being used to hide the epic injustice and criminality of an ideological/economic virus that is overwhelming the immune system of our democracies and destroying the planet’s own life systems. Unless we develop resistance to *that* disease, which you have accurately identified and of which our over-capacity hospitals are one symptom of many, it will make Covid 19 look like a walk in the park.
Good questions. I had not had much to do with the NS health care system until my elderly neighbours were in very tough shape. I spent much of my time that spring caring for them while they waited for home care, or to be admitted to some kind of care facility. They were something like 80th on a list then moved to 60th. They couldn't get into a care facility together -- he could get into one for veterans at some distance - I think at Truro - but she couldn't live there (she was severely disabled. This went on for many weeks. EMTs had to come out a couple of times. I was pretty frazzled by the time he passed away and she was finally admitted to a hospital. At the time, I was told that the hospitals had a lot of very elderly patients who should be in long term care facilities (the kind with advanced medical care), but there aren't adequate spaces and that causes a lot of the issues. Anyhow, that was my introduction to how stressed out the system in here in NS. The next summer, my mother had to be hospitalized in Ontario. She had a really rare and deadly autoimmune disease -- something they only see at the Ottawa General a few times a year. I don't want to compare apples to oranges, but the care was so advanced that it's probably too advanced. They throw everything they've got to fight any illness when perhaps they shouldn't. That said, it's like a finely tuned machine -- but they are bursting at the seams as well. Personally, after being primary caregiver for my husband, dad and mom through terminal illnesses, where things are really not working well is in handling palliative care. There don't seem to be enough palliative care facilities around and so terminal patients keep ending up transported to hospitals by ambulance, are in the ERs and ICUs for days, then in beds being cared for in ways that could probably be done at a palliative care facility if there was skilled nursing and also more doctors on call in those facilities. Also, palliative care could be done in home if the nursing was better and doctors could make house calls. I just know that a lot of the times when all of the people I cared for were hospitalized, they could just as well have been in a less high-tech facility, or at home, had we had more access to a different type of system. I think hospitals are a really poor place to provide palliative care, but unfortunately, a lot of people are spending their final days or weeks in them and it's not good for them and not good for their families. If I were King, I would change everything!!! :)
So many journalist have not come forward during Covid, this concerns me as an RN who came out of retirement to work the covid response in March 2020 and got dumped 20 months later-no jab , no job, even applied for religious exemption- now almost 3 years latter still not permitted to work, did anyone get an exemption? Anyway thank you for your work
Thank you, Linda. Invaluable journalism!
This was a very thoughtful and interesting read. I wonder if the stats you have provided are similar across Canada...
Thanks Linda! Seems to me that there's too great a focus on the health of the Health Care System, and not enough on the people who pay for it to be there when they need it. I remember my BS meter going off in March 2020 with the "2 weeks to flatten the curve" messaging being introduced. The whole point, we all learned, was to protect the (mismanaged to the point of collapse) system from becoming overwhelmed! That's what the system is there for! To protect the people who pay for it when they need it.