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

[A Hit With The Ladies]

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.

[allnurses Admin Team]

1 hour ago, juniper222 said:

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.

Thank you, @juniper222,

Often, political discussions creep into a topic where it has no place, thus a redirect by Staff as you pointed out.

This topic, however, would be hollow w/o bringing up politics.

We hope this helps explain.

[guest1146168]

2 hours ago, A Hit With The Ladies said:

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".

1. Nobody has to shut anything down for "years" to contain this and

2. the oil collapse has everything to do with your Soviet pals and Saudi's overproducing , the former quite intentionally to take down the US shale oil and deep gulf extraction industries, not Corona.

I don't see you here to do anything but push an extreme political agenda and spout uncited hysteria. There are better avenues for that than a professional nursing forum. You might consider employing them because this has gotten really tiresome.

[CampyCamp, RN]

New Zealand has a much better approach. (Obviously their geography helps) People are healthy and happy. Paid and fed. There are many articles about it. I have friends there and their experiences are night and day to ours.

[SummerGarden, BSN, MSN, RN]

43 minutes ago, Wuzzie said:

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.

No, it does not. Those are the businesses being reopened first along with gyms no one is likely to use, barber shops no one can safely use, message parlors, tattoo parlors, and movie theaters ripe to spread COVID-19 like wild fire. People wanting to re-open the economy without following science and think that more people dying is OK are not thinking clearly.

There is no evidence that reopening the economy now will stimulate the economy to be back to normal soon. It takes longer than that... In fact, many jobs that were lost are lost forever. So people who are hurting economically now will still be hurting economically long after this and will have the additional burden of being exposed to and spreading COVID-19.

The real solution is to provide regular people with stimulus checks (in addition to their monthly unemployment checks) and small business with grants (not loans) to remain solvent as they stay home. Yes, we have the money. This administration gives it to big businesses and his rich cronies often, which the middle class and working class are made to pay. And now this inept administration is asking us to pay for the rich receiving a stimulus package as well as to pay with our lives by ending shelter-in-place.

Thus, we nurses need to continue to protest the protesters. We have rights too. 36% of the country should not be dictating what over 60% of the country wants, which is to remain sheltered-in-place!

[A Hit With The Ladies, BSN, RN]

America is all about minority rights. You are free to quarantine yourself for the rest of your life if you so choose. Many of us will gladly partake in unused gyms (at least for the first two weeks, given how badly I kept my New Year's Resolution) and eagerly pay handsomely to get a haircut. YOU might not. But there will be countless millions of others who are eager to put this Coronavirus crisis behind us. People psychologically can put up with only so much alarm and fear before they simply stop caring.

[Sour Lemon]

33 minutes ago, CampyCamp said:

New Zealand has a much better approach. (Obviously their geography helps) People are healthy and happy. Paid and fed. There are many articles about it. I have friends there and their experiences are night and day to ours.

That's a rather rosy point of view, but I suspect that you've only heard part of the story from a select group of people. Interestingly enough, I can find no New Zealand news site that allows readers to comment. I do see plenty of articles that suggest things are not "jolly happy sunshine".

[toomuchbaloney]

14 minutes ago, A Hit With The Ladies said:

America is all about minority rights. You are free to quarantine yourself for the rest of your life if you so choose. Many of us will gladly partake in unused gyms (at least for the first two weeks, given how badly I kept my New Year's Resolution) and eagerly pay handsomely to get a haircut. YOU might not. But there will be countless millions of others who are eager to put this Coronavirus crisis behind us. People psychologically can put up with only so much alarm and fear before they simply stop caring.

Sure.

Eagerness to put a virus behind you is simply eagerness. You are providing an excellent example of people reaching a psychological breaking point, acting out of alarm and fear and then not caring about the consequences of those actions.

Economic panic is a real thing for people struggling in an economy increasingly designed for the wealthy.

[A Hit With The Ladies, BSN, RN]

I know I've repeated this several times before, but when you end up with unemployment spiraling to 50%, systemic shocks from people unable to pay their rents or mortgages, a banking meltdown and a second Great Depression... all of the sudden, you have lost your financial means and ability to fight any Coronavirus.

When states and institutions go bankrupt, nurses get paid zilch. Zip. Nada. Nothing. Nurses have families to feed and bills to pay. They are not going to fight Coronavirus or do anything else for charity's sake.

The cure cannot be worse than the problem. It is better to be honest and say that Coronavirus cannot be eradicated without wrecking the entire U.S. (and thus the global) economy and causing us to go to a Third World economic status, than to put our heads in the sand and assume that endless quarantine is somehow magically sustainable until Coronavirus finally goes away.

[angeley1978, MSN]

5 hours ago, cartwrk said:

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

The Spectator is a conservative tabloid. "Some suggest"? Seriously. The figures speak for themselves. This Swedish herd immunity nonsense is being amplified by right wing conservative news outlets. They are much worse off than other countries in their region and their economy is no better off. Here is another point of view.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/15/sweden-coronavirus-death-toll-reaches-1000

[guest1146168]

9 minutes ago, A Hit With The Ladies said:

I know I've repeated this several times before, but when you end up with unemployment spiraling to 50%, systemic shocks from people unable to pay their rents or mortgages, a banking meltdown and a second Great Depression... all of the sudden, you have lost your financial means and ability to fight any Coronavirus.

When states and institutions go bankrupt, nurses get paid zilch. Zip. Nada. Nothing. Nurses have families to feed and bills to pay. They are not going to fight Coronavirus or do anything else for charity's sake.

The cure cannot be worse than the problem. It is better to be honest and say that Coronavirus cannot be eradicated without wrecking the entire U.S. (and thus the global) economy and causing us to go to a Third World economic status, than to put our heads in the sand and assume that endless quarantine is somehow magically sustainable until Coronavirus finally goes away.

Your continued asserting, spamming and spouting numbers and doomsday scenarios pulled out of your... er….hat, is just silliness.

[toomuchbaloney]

10 minutes ago, A Hit With The Ladies said:

I know I've repeated this several times before, but when you end up with unemployment spiraling to 50%, systemic shocks from people unable to pay their rents or mortgages, a banking meltdown and a second Great Depression... all of the sudden, you have lost your financial means and ability to fight any Coronavirus.

When states and institutions go bankrupt, nurses get paid zilch. Zip. Nada. Nothing. Nurses have families to feed and bills to pay. They are not going to fight Coronavirus or do anything else for charity's sake.

The cure cannot be worse than the problem. It is better to be honest and say that Coronavirus cannot be eradicated without wrecking the entire U.S. (and thus the global) economy and causing us to go to a Third World economic status, than to put our heads in the sand and assume that endless quarantine is somehow magically sustainable until Coronavirus finally goes away.

Do you understand that the economies of every country are in a free fall? Do you understand that the economic woes are essentially a huge and obvious symptom of a global pandemic? Is there something about the the health of the people directly correlating with the health of the economy that is mysterious? Do you understand that if you treat a symptom without addressing the disease that the disease will simply progress unchecked until the patient succumbs or recovers?

Panic over the economy will simply deepen the health crisis. Health professionals ought to be capable of comprehending these basic principles.

[A Hit With The Ladies, BSN, RN]

Do you understand that nurses are not going to work for free if the economy completely collapses and state and healthcare system revenues are unable to pay nurses for their work?

The economic might of the U.S. is the reason we can afford all the vents and PPE that we need, while the Third World unfortunately cannot. Without the economy there is no effort against any pandemic or any health issue at all.