Quote:
Originally Posted by terraaus
What are your true thoughts on this? I am a 68 year old senior in fairly good health, I personally feel I have a lot of life left in me. I was sad and hurt to read this, but I guess hard decisions have to be made at some point. I wonder if it will come to this in the US?
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It helps immensely to understood why things are the way they are.
As of now, there are 17,480 deaths.
Reported deaths:
China: 3,277
Spain: 2,800
Italy: 6,077
Iran: 1,934
France: 860
Let's analyze.
Those 5 States have 83.7% of all deaths.
China has a population of 1.5+ Billion so that's 0.0002% which is neither epidemic nor pandemic.
What the other 4 States have in common is that they are unitary States (and they have significantly large elderly populations).
When you create a State, there are three routes you can go: unitary State, confederation or federation.
A unitary State was never considered for the US, because from its inception, the US was way too culturally diverse and the only thing that would happen is lots of civil wars in the form of revolutionary wars and nationalistic wars and such. A confederacy was tried but apparently failed, so the only option left was a federation. That's why we're a federal republic.
An historical problem with unitary States that still exists today is the fact that they tend to spend a disproportionate amount of tax money in the capital city, which is usually also that State's show-place and main tourist attraction.
For every $100 the French sent to their government in taxes, the French government would spend $99 in Paris and give $1 back to the Department.
In the 1970s, the French people got tired of getting screwed and rioted in typical French fashion burning cars in the streets and such.
The French government's response was the creation of 5 economic regions to at least give the appearance that tax dollars were being spent fairly, and it looks good on paper, but in reality, a disproportionate amount of tax dollars are still spent on Paris.
In a federation, tax dollars are typically redistributed by population (the fairest way) or equally among the political subdivisions (also fair but not nearly as fair as per capita distributions).
Spain, Italy and Iran all spend money disproportionately in Madrid, Rome and Tehran, their capital cities.
What is the implication for a universal healthcare system?
Well, first, Spain and Italy are not 1st World States.
They are 2nd World States, just like Iran and Romania and Poland and Serbia and Russia.
Spain and Italy merely have the veneer of 1st World. Scratch the surface and you can plainly see they are not.
If you go to the Amazon jungles where some tribes still practice cannibalism and you give them a cell-phone and an SUV, does that transform them from Stone Age to 1st World Status?
No, not hardly, the point being Spain and Italy and Iran are not even on a par with the US or Canada or Britain or Australia or Japan.
Spain and Iran have a British-style NHS government run universal healthcare system, while Italy has a private universal system that is government funded.
Rome has the best most-modern well-equipped medical facilities staffed at 100%, 100% of the time.
You go away from Rome to Vicenza, and you have a 1950s hospital with 1970s equipment and lucky to be staffed 60% to 80%.
From where are these news reports coming? Not Rome. They're coming from out in the country where the Italian government spends little on healthcare and little on infrastructure or public works or anything else, because all the money is spent in Rome.
Same with Spain. All the money is spent in Madrid. Yeah, they pumped money into Barcelona, but that was only for the Olympics. Otherwise Barcelona would be the dump it always was.
You live in Galicia or Basque country or Catalan and you don't get jack squat for healthcare dollars or infrastructure or anything else.
Iran doesn't spend any money in Kurdish territory or Baloch territory or on the Turks or Uzbeks. The Iranians only spend money on the Arabs because they have to.
I'm sure if you're one of the chosen few, you get the best care at hospitals in Tehran, but if not, sucks to be you.
So, to answer your question, no.
First, you have a private system.
Second, and this is a cultural thing, US medical personnel go to extraordinary lengths to prolong life. In other States, death is seen as normal and no overt action is taken to prolong life.
Also a cultural thing is quality of life. If you dumped the body of a person whose arms and legs were amputated by a chain-saw and their eyes gouged out and ear-drums pierced, European doctors would not intervene.
On the other hand, US doctors would work heroically for as long as it takes and regardless of cost to save that patient's life.
It's not that Europeans value life less, it's just that they value it differently.
US medical facilities are well-equipped with the latest medical devices, medical equipment, drugs, treatments and surgical procedures.
US facilities are more capable of handling emergencies, and 9-11 made them even better, but if you don't have the medical equipment and drugs you need, there's nothing to be done.
Not so for other States where the approval time can take forever and budgetary restraints create bars.
There was a British MP that had macular degeneration. The US had a drug on the market for several years, but the NHS wouldn't approve it because of cost and because they didn't think it was necessary.
After she lost the sight in one of her eyes, she came to the US for successful treatment to save the sight in her other eye.
US medical facilities can buy medical equipment whenever they feel like it.
Medical facilities in other States can only buy equipment if the budget the government gives them allows for it. If not, they have to wait until they have enough money in the budget.
And, testing is a Red Herring.
Testing for COVID-19 is a big waste of time, money, lab space, resources and effort.
What does testing actually do? Nothing.
The treatment for COVID-19 is the same as HKU1 (Hong Kong), which is the same as the treatment for MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome), which is the same as NL63 (the Netherlands), which is the same as HCOV-NH (United States), which is the same as NL (the Netherlands), which is the same as COVID-2 (or SARS from China).
Those are all corona virus mutations in the last 20 years.
And the treatment is the same for the corona virus and influenza and parainfluenza and adenovirus and RSV and viral pneumonia.
Those are all Upper Respiratory Infections (URIs) and there is no cure and no vaccine.
All you can do is give the patient drugs to alleviate symptoms and help them breathe, and use medical devices to help the breathe.
The rest is up to the patient. Either their immune system will win the battle or it won't.
Only uneducated uninformed people think there will be a vaccine.
You still don't have vaccines for any of the corona virus mutations in the last 20 years, or in the 35 years prior to year 2000 (corona was discovered in 1965 in the UK) for the same reason you don't have vaccines for influenza and parainfluenza and adenovirus and RSV and viral pneumonia.
In case you were wondering the vaccine for pneumonia does work, but it only protects against the 13 different bacteria that cause bacterial pneumonia and not against the several different virus that can cause pneumonia.
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