Norbert Goldfield MD:
‘Ask Nurses & Doctors’
This Covid outbreak is on the decline but Long Covid is here with documented impact on children. We have failed our older people: “In the last week of 2023 and the first two weeks of 2024 alone, 4,810 people 65 and older lost their lives to covid. Consider that this number of persons would fill more than 10 large airliners. But the alarm that would attend 10 large plane crashes is notably absent. During the same period, the flu killed 1,201 seniors, and RSV killed 126. Note: we have trouble getting Paxlovid for Covid patients. “As Leanna Wen quotes: “Why can’t you take a covid test at the pharmacy and have the pharmacist confirm the diagnosis and dispense Paxlovid?” We need to plan now for the next pandemic and not pretend all is fine. We need to enact better global approaches to vaccine access instead of protecting big pharma.
Consider:
- Florida Surgeon General Ladapo is contending with a measles outbreak. He is not encouraging vaccination.
- Even the CDC head has pleaded with the AMA for assistance to fight Covid misinformation.
- Other than issuing statements, health professional trade associations do not use their lobbying muscle (see below for what lobbying muscle means for tobacco company Juul). Until that happens, especially Republicans will chip away at public health measures.
- For example Ft Myers/ Collier County, Florida ended fluoridation, a proven public health measure to decrease tooth decay: Commission Chairman Chris Hall said the issue is “all about health freedom” and “We don’t trust the white coats anymore.”
- Washington Post: Two health professional organizations pushing Covid misinformation, Front Line Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance and America’s Frontline Doctors, went from receiving $1 million in donations when they were formed in 2020 to $21 million in 2022. Organized medicine spends almost nothing to fight against this tragedy.
- With the IVF Alabama decision, abortion continues to be the health electoral issue. Republican states are trying to pre-empt ballot initiatives in favor of abortion rights.
- On drug abuse programs this drug abuse treatment program is a real positive, Despite this great program, the fundamental problem is that mental health and substance professional reimbursement is lacking.
- Lobbying to push smoking continues. STAT’s Nicholas Florko “dove deep into a new trove of internal emails and other documents to see how Juul, the tobacco company, advances its cause, from orchestrating untraceable political donations to paying think tanks for favorable research… in an effort to prevent both Congress and the FDA from taking action”.
- Washington Post: “What if we had medications that cost 5,000 times less than Ozempic (used for weight loss) and are better at preventing heart attacks and strokes? And what if only 1 in 5 people who need these medications get them? That’s the situation with drugs to treat high blood pressure”. We need a national push including health professional organizations.
- We need many more graduates from overseas to cover our depleted health professional ranks. But that only robs health professionals from desperately poor countries as recently reported: “Entry level nurses in the U.K.’s National Health Service (NHS) start with a £28,407 ($35,660) annual salary. A well-paying nursing job in Nigeria may offer 150,000 naira ($100) monthly but even that is typically a scarce job.” Typical nursing wages: $20/ month.
- According to Rachel Kleinfeld: “A widely-circulated analysis documented that the ideological gap between men and women is growing. Over the past fifteen years, men across the globe have voted for radical right-wing parties at much higher rates. More than one in ten men in their prime aren’t working at all. Nearly three in every four deaths of despair—largely from opioids and suicide—are male. These deaths became so common that they were causing a decline in life expectancy for American men even prior to COVID-19.”
According to The Hill, At least 8 in 10 voters said it was “very important” for the 2024 presidential candidates to talk about inflation and the affordability of health care. Adults also said they care more about affording unexpected medical bills than routine expenses such as gas, utilities, food and housing costs. Christian nationalism, abortion, drug price control, and preservation of Medicaid that increasingly includes help with food are all at stake this November.
In response, AND (Ask Nurses and Doctors) is continuing to expand its network in swing states. We are focused on 3 equally important initiatives. Our next monthly call of “seasoned” and young activists in dialogue will be March 4, 8-9pm – with Bill Fletcher and Nadi Kaonga. . Please sign up below. Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMpf-GrrzwuHNKIsKWBv8unXgWIdXM0gE9D
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. April 5 will feature Don Berwick and medical student activist Austin Vaughn. On May 6, Dave Fleischer and Andrew Goldstein will focus on Deep Canvassing. All from 8-9 pm.
For health professionals, 5 minutes is all it will take to record a message of support for Biden on the issue of abortion (see 1st attachment for details on how/where to send). Please copy me when you send in the recording to the Biden campaign.
We will soon start posting on the Ask Nurses and Doctors website brief policy documents with actionable steps for any activist anywhere in the country. See 2nd attachment describing the effort. Your involvement is welcome!
Norbert Goldfield, M.D.
Founder, Executive Director Healing Across the Divides
Author of Peace Building Through Women’s Health: Psychoanalytic, Sociopsychological, and Community Perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Routledge, Taylor Francis; 2021);
Founder, Executive Director Ask Nurses and Doctors
Author of Public Health, Public Trust and American Fragility in a Pandemic Era: The Critical Role of Health Care Professionals (Routledge, Taylor Francis; 2024).