It’s a measure of the sorry state of U.S. media that one of the most devastating ransomware attacks of all time has received virtually no coverage. Millions of workers, including frontline hospital, police, and firefighters, know what I’m talking about.
America’s nurses are suffering. A study released earlier this year revealed that nurses are 18% more likely to commit suicide than the general population. A trade publication this week estimated that one in ten nurses may have a substance abuse order.
Little wonder that an American Nurses Foundation survey in October revealed that 21 percent of U.S. nurses planned to quit the profession within six months and 29 percent were entertaining the thought.
America is already experiencing a severe nursing shortage, and the consequences of losing half the profession is beyond comprehension. America’s political leaders must take up the cause and protect the country from the greed and mismanagement of the American Hospital Association and its members.
Maine is an example of how hospital safety improves when political leaders stand in solidarity with nurses.
When I awoke a week ago this past Saturday, I was among the most rabid supporters of gun control laws, a reflection of my Canadian roots where I grew up believing that only police officers should carry guns and that I could rely on them to protect me. Less than 24 hours later, I planned on buying a gun and supported the rights of Americans to bear arms.
As an emergency room doc working at a rural Michigan hospital, Rob Davidson presumably took the Hippocratic oath promising to do no harm. Blaming Fox News and Republicans for the inability of Michigan hospitals to care for the surge of unvaccinated patients gives a pass to those who bear responsibility: Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Attorney General Dana Nessel, and their fawning anchor friends at CNN and MSNBC.
Researching Dr. Angelique Coetzee, the doctor who diagnosed the first cases of the Omicron variant in South Africa, I came to appreciate that she’s part of a feisty medical establishment that stands up to government interference. Coetzee is chair of the South African Medical Association, which puts the American Medical Association to shame.
Michigan’s Beaumont Health, which has received unusual federal medical assistance at one of its suburban Detroit hospitals, says the hospital system’s covid patients are “almost exclusively unvaccinated.” I’ve obtained Beaumont’s internal system-wide covid stats for Wednesday, Dec. 1.
They tell a slightly different story.
If you are fed up with the cost and quality of U.S. healthcare, here’s why you should support the ousting of Senators Bill Cassidy, (R-La), and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz), Reps. David McKinley (R-W.Va) and Doris Matsui (D-Calif), along with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and AG Dana Nessel.
Among the things I’m grateful for this American Thanksgiving are the brave doctors and other qualified professionals who braved online banishment for daring to speak truth to power. Orwell is proving to be an optimist.
Here’s why you should never provide a hospital or other healthcare provider with your social security number and other personal information they don’t require.
A Kaiser Health News investigation revealed that more than 10,000 patients were diagnosed with Covid last year after being admitted for another condition. Just over 2,000 died between April and September. While the findings are alarming, even more alarming are the tens of thousands of patients who die every year at U.S. hospitals because of hospital acquired infections.
And 2020 was a disturbingly banner year.
I’m a journalist and television pilot writer. I previously was president of a New York City-based PR and crisis communications firm. Earlier, I was a business reporter with major newspapers in the U.S. and Canada. I also worked as an advertising copywriter. Born and raised in Toronto, I’ve lived in London (the one famous for snowsqualls), Montreal, Boston, Detroit, New York, San Francisco, and Marin County. I post regularly on LinkedIn and can be reached at: