Should nurses be getting involved in the Reopen America protests nationwide?

Nurses COVID

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Check this out:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8235127/Defiant-healthcare-workers-clash-anti-lockdown-protesters-Colorado.html

I'm actually broadly sympathetic to the protesters. When you have 22 million Americans unemployed, massive lines at food banks, and even more projected layoffs, even a Second Great Depression, people are going to have had it. Even nurses and other hospital workers cannot get paid if the economy tanks and there's no money cycling through the U.S. system.

I think the quarantines have gone on way too long. We should have gone the Sweden herd immunity model in the first place. If people are still that scared of this Coronavirus they ought to quarantine themselves. The rest of the country shouldn't have to keep catering to the susceptible minority much longer. I'm grateful that I live in Texas and my governor seems committed to reopening our state in early May, whether hell or high water.

12 minutes ago, HeartlandRN said:

Repugs have had both houses of Congress for all but six years since 1994. Maybe you want to familiarize yourself with the Statistical Abstract of the USA and look at what happened with revenue outlays and intake over that time (aka deficits see are the difference between federal receipts - federal outlays and therefore when they are incurred it can be from revenue reductions as well as "spending").

Similarly you don't GET to blame Trumps annual 2 trillion dollars on the Democrats when Repubs control the Whitehouse and Moscow Mitch is the Senate Majority Leader. Even with a Democratic House Majority as of 2019, that is only ONE of THREE signatures on the federal budget.

You might consider turning off A.M radio and investing in a civic education.

Since some of the OPs content could be considered political, it is not what this thread is about. All this bickering has pulled this thread way off topic. I will bring in the moderator if we continue this discourse. All political threads must be in the lounge. To further ,inflammatory, trolling remarks are not allowed.

5 hours ago, A Hit With The Ladies said:

Reopen America, let the vulnerable people (elderly & immunocompromised) stay home with continued stimulus for those at high-risk, and let the vast majority return to work. We should have taken the Sweden herd immunity route from the get-go.

It didn't work in Sweden anymore than it did in the UK when they tried it. The virus doesn't stay out of vulnerable communities so long as anyone else goes in there and the death rate in Sweden is spiking.

https://www.MSN.com/en-au/news/coronavirus/anger-in-sweden-as-elderly-pay-price-for-coronavirus-strategy/ar-BB12Tq1z?li=BB11SkK1

https://www.foxnews.com/world/sweden-coronavirus-deaths-rise-guidelines

15 minutes ago, juniper222 said:

Since some of the OPs content could be considered political, it is not what this thread is about. All this bickering has pulled this thread way off topic. I will bring in the moderator if we continue this discourse. All political threads must be in the lounge. To further ,inflammatory, trolling remarks are not allowed.

I'm sure it could and I don't want to discuss it more than anyone else but felt compelled to respond when factually incorrect blame games are spouted.

4 hours ago, A Hit With The Ladies said:

I already have a job. And I've been working without any government freebies (excepting the $1200 stimulus we all got). We have to reopen America. Corona or no Corona, it's time to move on.

Congratulations. That's pretty much the same as everyone else here and everyone else in general.

it's great to have strong opinions and even better to apply a nurses critical thinking to this and talk to the experts and look at who had success and who didn't (hint: New Zealand and South Korea, not Sweden). What did they do? They did mass testing and tracing. You test everyone. And when you have a positive you trace every contact they've had. THAT's what the experts are recommending and it's the ONLY way to end this without even more pain and economic upset.

"Herd immunity" did not work in the UK nor in Sweden. It did NOT protect Sweden's vulnerable nor even the general population.

If what you really mean is damned the torpedo's and the virus kills who it kills, effectively an entire generation of senior citizens and middle-aged folks with HTN and asthma, then just SAY directly that you're willing to sacrifice them.

I

Specializes in Pediatrics.
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I already have a job... Again. And people who are non-nurses and were working pre-quarantine are not obligated to helping out. People are fed up with the Coronavirus crisis. They can only make sacrifices up to a limit. Be pragmatic here. No point in having the entire US economy melt down with indefinite quarantine. It's time to realize there is a world outside the public health obsession with this virus. 

This is a virus--it does not care what you like or want. It will spread and kill the way it has shown it does in other countries.

Everybody wants to get back to normal (or whatever our new normal will be). We can only do that with a comprehensive plan that includes actual testing. When that happens we will all follow it, but so far we have zilch.

Your complaint is like being in a boat knowing there were sharks swimming around and then saying 'I am tired of not being able to swim--I want to swim again' and asking others to jump in first. No. YOU go first.

You cannot lead from the back--go to the front and show by example if you want to lead otherwise no one will listen to you.

Specializes in Psych.
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"Herd immunity" did not work in the UK nor in Sweden. It did NOT protect Sweden's vulnerable nor even the general population.

The Swedes beg to differ...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-19/sweden-says-controversial-covid-19-strategy-is-proving-effective

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THAT's what the experts are recommending and it's the ONLY way to end this without even more pain and economic upset.

The genie is out of the bottle. The so-called experts are only experts in their specific public health domain. They don't understand macroeconomics or can't see that the rest of the planet collapsing in order to save people from Coronavirus is going to trigger new, different crises among the populace.

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If what you really mean is damned the torpedo's and the virus kills who it kills, effectively an entire generation of senior citizens and middle-aged folks with HTN and asthma, then just SAY directly that you're willing to sacrifice them.

I already said much earlier on to only quarantine the high-risk groups while letting the rest of the populace return to normal life...

Specializes in Psych.
2 minutes ago, Rogue1 said:

You cannot lead from the back--go to the front and show by example if you want to lead otherwise no one will listen to you. 

But my state (Texas) is leading by reopening the economy in early May. We're heard enough of this Fauci guy harping day in and day out on TV. His fifteen minutes of fame are long past up. Time to get back to normal life.

11 minutes ago, A Hit With The Ladies said:

The Swedes beg to differ...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-19/sweden-says-controversial-covid-19-strategy-is-proving-effective

The genie is out of the bottle. The so-called experts are only experts in their specific public health domain. They don't understand macroeconomics or can't see that the rest of the planet collapsing in order to save people from Coronavirus is going to trigger new, different crises among the populace.

I already said much earlier on to only quarantine the high-risk groups while letting the rest of the populace return to normal life...

Of course the GOVERNMENT of Sweden is saying that; they have to defend listening to a non-medical govt official instead of the medical experts.

I've already posted TWO articles from this very day showing the alarming spread in Sweden's vulnerable communities and the rising death toll. Did you miss them?

I understand your frustration. NOBODY likes this and everyone is scared. They'll be even MORE scared and MORE economic damage if we "open everything" and it starts spreading exponentially again -which it will if you can't mass test and trace. Yes, the genie is out of the bottle but it's not uncontainable or irreversible. China contained it when it was more widespread than here. And they did it by doing EXACTLY what the expert epidemiologists are saying: TTIN - mass test and trace. New Zealand shut EVERYTHING down at once did the testing/tracing and haven't had a death since. So did Finland and Iceland. So did South Korea. And that's how China got back up and operating.

If you ignore this and just re-open everything without testing and tracing infrastructure intact, you will create a bigger hellscape than we've already seen and it will negate everything we just suffered through making it for nothing.

I'm out now, Have a field day.

Specializes in Psych.

People are no longer scared. People are flat-out burnt out. At this point, with about six weeks of 90%+ of Americans under stay-at-home quarantine, if you haven't died from Corona nor are sick from it, then you've almost certainly either not gotten it or were asymptomatic and recovered on your own from it.

There's nothing else left to be done.

You need to realize that there is a life outside of healthcare, a world outside of healthcare, and people with practical concerns beyond Coronavirus.

For the 22 million+ Americans who are unemployed right now, people subsisting off of food banks, they may well empathize with nurses fighting Coronavirus and seeing them do valiant deeds on TV, but they are probably more than a little miffed that their sacrifices have gone unaddressed, too.

On 4/20/2020 at 12:01 PM, lifelearningrn said:

I find your Darwinian attitude towards the general public to be selfish and unbecoming someone who makes their living taking care of the sick. I pray you're never my nurse.

Which begs the question are we sure they ARE nurses? I've yet to see "him" nor any of his sparring partners post anything clinically relevant anywhere.

On 4/20/2020 at 4:16 PM, A Hit With The Ladies said:

But my state (Texas) is leading by reopening the economy in early May. We're heard enough of this Fauci guy harping day in and day out on TV. His fifteen minutes of fame are long past up. Time to get back to normal life.

I bet you know more than all the generals too. ?

Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.
3 hours ago, juniper222 said:

You don't think the situation should allow for adjustment as needed? It's always nice to look at Trump's decisions with hindsight and criticize solely for political bias. How has any other U.S. president handled Coronavirus? Oh wait, there are no others. It is reasonable to allow for change as the situation changes. You would never say the things you're saying if it was Obama.

Which part of Michigan do you think meets ANY of Trump's criteria for opening the economy.

You need to review the history of pandemic response by president. Obama established a pandemic team for the NSC that Trump disbanded but that was a nice deflection. Maybe Trump's team should have paid attention during the pandemic briefing provided them during the presidential transition. Oh wait, most of those people haven't worked for Trump for a couple years now and the others slept or blew it off.

Ps...Bush handled a coronavirus outbreak.

5 minutes ago, toomuchbaloney said:

Which part of Michigan do you think meets ANY of Trump's criteria for opening the economy.

You need to review the history of pandemic response by president. Obama established a pandemic team for the NSC that Trump disbanded but that was a nice deflection. Maybe Trump's team should have paid attention during the pandemic briefing provided them during the presidential transition. Oh wait, most of those people haven't worked for Trump for a couple years now and the others slept or blew it off.

Ps...Bush handled a coronavirus outbreak.

I'm going to refrain from any further political comments and so should everyone except in the lounge. It's too easy to get sucked into a political debate.

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