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.
Call me old fashioned, but when a former investigator for the U.S. Senate Finance Committee specializing in corruption in science and medicine publishes an expose in a respected medical journal questioning the integrity of some of Pfizer’s pivotal vaccine trials, I consider it BIG news. The expose is even more compelling given that more than a year ago the writer questioned the integrity of the Trump appointee overseeing Operation Warp Speed.
Apologies in advance, but I needed to resort to a couple of Yiddish words to adequately capture the audacity of the American Hospital Association accusing nurse staffing companies of improperly profiting from the pandemic. The nurse staffing business is booming because they pay nurses higher wages and guarantee better working conditions than AHA member hospitals, who long exploited nurses and ignored their patient safety concerns.
Nurse staffing companies overwhelmingly are run by entrepreneurial nurses like LeQuitha Simmons, a former army vet who served in Iraq and understands the law of supply and demand. Simmons isn’t an enemy of U.S. healthcare. The AHA is.
Veteran Michigan journalist Micheline Maynard recently opined American consumers are too spoiled and need to accept and embrace lower standards. That mindset is why Michigan is possibly on an irreversible decline and Christmas this year arrived early in Tennessee.
Given my interest in healthcare corruption and wrongdoing I’ve developed a certain immunity to the filth the engulfs me reading a daily parade of stories underscoring why the U.S. has the most expensive, inefficient, and inhumane healthcare system of any developed country. But after reading a story about the intimate relationship between the major organization representing emergency room doctors and private equity, I needed a long, hot shower.
U.S. hospitals are looking to the Philippines, Canada, and elsewhere to poach nurses to replace a critical shortage of U.S. care givers. Contrary to what the corporate media reports, the shortage is the result of bad and abusive managements, not the pandemic.
My argument as to why U.S. healthcare would be vastly better off if the country imported foreign hospital CEOs and nurtured our homegrown nursing talent.
Corporate media journalists delude themselves into believing that those who distrust and despise them the most are ignorant Trump supporters who can’t handle the truth about their leader. In fact, thanks to biased and dishonest pandemic reporting, a swath of new corporate media haters has emerged, and they are among the smartest and most educated people in the U.S. and around the world.
Delivery apps are harmful because they place a barrier between restaurants and their customers. Here’s how a top-notch sushi chain keeps customers happy and connected when orders aren’t quite up to standards.
Veteran football coach Jon Gruden promptly resigned last night after the New York Times revealed he’d previously sent emails deemed racist, sexist, and homophobic. Gruden should have grown a pair and taken some lessons from comedian Dave Chappelle on how best to deal with unforgiving woke corporate media and the Taliban-like antics of the cancel crowd.
Truth no longer matters at NBC News or is demanded of its anchors and guests. Indeed, a federal judge recently tossed a defamation suit filed against MSNBC and anchor Rachel Maddow after ruling that any intelligent person knows that she is a purveyor of opinions not necessarily grounded in fact.