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

Nurses COVID

Published

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.

7 hours ago, angeley1978 said:

Nursing is supposed to be evidence-based. This is the result of the Swedish herd immunity model:

image.thumb.png.00e2aaf5b52f1bc24feb73df64c05236.png

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1102257/cumulative-coronavirus-cases-in-the-nordics/

Not too impressive... And they have almost ten times the number of deaths of other Nordic countries.

https://news.Yahoo.com/sweden-nearly-10-times-number-210442597.html

Sweden is a country of 10 million people. Some suggest the Swedish experiment is paying off. And the ICU in Stockholm is not overwhelmed. The hospital has beds to spare.

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-swedish-experiment-looks-like-it-s-paying-off

Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

Reopening is beyond foolish. The government needs to step up. The people upset that they can't get their hair done need to sit down. I sympathize hugely with those hurting. I am not, however, sympathetic enough to offer up my mother or my husband or my patients in order to make them feel better.

It is not really possible to remove politics from this discussion.

The decisions that were made that got us to this point were political, as will be the decisions as we move on. Discussions of governmental policy are the very definition of political discussion.

Some on this thread have stated that we should model after one country or another. That was a great idea a couple of months ago when we were on a similar trajectory to other countries. Our global leadership has never been more apparent than right now. We are the undisputed world leader in spreading Corona. While it might be possible for a struggling nation to take the crown, there will me no first world country emulating us, trying to take the lead on this one.

The only way we could follow any other countries example would have been to have done so from the start.

Specializes in Psych.
18 minutes ago, Nurse SMS said:

Reopening is beyond foolish. The government needs to step up. The people upset that they can't get their hair done need to sit down. I sympathize hugely with those hurting. I am not, however, sympathetic enough to offer up my mother or my husband or my patients in order to make them feel better.

Right, because 22 million unemployed, food lines that last for literally miles at food banks, the oil/natgas market collapsing, and an impending economic depression is just like "can't get their hair done".

Specializes in Community health.

I don’t know what the answer is. I understand that we don’t want to swamp the hospitals. I am very, very concerned about having an actual second Great Depression. My husband is a lawyer and so far is still employed (he’s our breadwinner) but many middle-class people we know have been laid off. They have savings but not a year’s worth of savings. They can not stay home and do nothing for the next six (18?) months. The oil market has collapsed. The economic catastrophe is very real, and it is not “people who want to get their hair done.” The lines of people who need FOOD are enormous. Nobody sits in an hours-long line to get food just for fun.

Should nurses, who already lack basic PPE to protect themselves and already have double patient loads, encourage an exponential growth in COVID-19 patients? No. Once our frontline staff have the means necessary to protect themselves and care for others and use single use PPE a single time, and once your average Joe can find and purchase hand soap and home cleaning supplies with ease to help prevent illness, and once the general public can access masks that aren't sewn from 100% cotton and keeping permeable moisturized cloth up against their noses, then I will be open to other ideas for slow, cautious re-opening of society. Let's get these basic safety and prevention things in place first. It seems a little silly to me that people are saying let the elderly and at risk stay home while everyone else returns to normal life... The elderly and at risk have family members who live with them, but more importantly, this virus is having severe negative impacts on young healthy adults as well. 1 in 5 confirmed cases need hospitalization - 20% - and that's not just elderly sick people.

Specializes in Psych.

Let me lay it to you straight: Without an economy that functions, nurses (whether they take care of Coronavirus patients or not) will not get paid.

We do not live in some epidemiologist's case study example where a virus's spread is the only thing we have to concern ourselves with. We have bills to pay, friends and family who are in dire financial straits and anxious about the futures, and now we are on the cusp of other physical and mental problems exploding in the general populace over endless quarantine.

Enough is enough. What is silly is assuming that the rest of Planet Earth can continue to quarantine forever because everyone can live destitute and eventually go hungry to fight some virus.

45 minutes ago, hherrn said:

It is not really possible to remove politics from this discussion.

The decisions that were made that got us to this point were political, as will be the decisions as we move on. Discussions of governmental policy are the very definition of political discussion.

Some on this thread have stated that we should model after one country or another. That was a great idea a couple of months ago when we were on a similar trajectory to other countries. Our global leadership has never been more apparent than right now. We are the undisputed world leader in spreading Corona. While it might be possible for a struggling nation to take the crown, there will me no first world country emulating us, trying to take the lead on this one.

The only way we could follow any other countries example would have been to have done so from the start.

Silverdragon102,BSN who is a moderator posted this in another thread.

"Okay guys enough is enough. The thread is not political but about people stealing equipment from a hospital for what is obviously personal gain. Any more political posts after this warning will be removed. As mentioned in a previous post there is a political forum in the breakroom please feel free to post political discussions there and not here"

This implies that political discussions are to be held ONLY in the lounge.

Specializes in ER.

I'm in favor of reopening and letting nature take its course. The vast majority of people who succumb to this virus are medically fragile, either because they are over 80 years old, or because of multiple comorbidities.

I personally believe that medicine has already gone too far with life extension. When you are putting an 80 year old on a ventilator instead of allowing a natural death, I think that you have lost perspective on the reality of life and death.

If we continue this on any further we will have an economic collapse. You will be allowing our worship of Hi-Tech medicine to destroy the country.

I'm no Trump supporter, and I didn't like the way he came across and his briefings. He is not a likeable man. I wish we had a president who could control his tongue and his Twitter finger. But I think he has it right that we need to reopen the economy.

15 hours ago, 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 would respectfully submit that Dr. Anthony Fauci was {in}famous a long time ago, for his handling of very different virus. He's not in it for 15 minutes of fame or infamy at this late date, at least in my humble opinion.

2 hours ago, Nurse SMS said:

The people upset that they can't get their hair done need to sit down.

Oh come on, you know darn good and well it goes way beyond grey roots. How nice of you to minimize what other people are going through while you still draw a paycheck.

4 minutes ago, moriahcat said:

I would respectfully submit that Dr. Anthony Fauci was {in}famous a long time ago, for his handling of very different virus. He's not in it for 15 minutes of fame or infamy at this late date, at least in my humble opinion.

An expert in the field might disagree with Fauci, though it seems like he is representing expert consensus. While there might be room for disagreement in his conclusions, questioning his integrity or motivations may tell more about the questioner than the man in question.

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