AWARENESS IN AMERICA

This time - around my [virtual] oval kitchen table - the topics went everywhere, but the common thread that emerged was awareness...Only when and 'if' we're aware of something can we embrace or change or avoid a specific something.

No less passionate, I nevertheless listened to each contributor for several minutes not willing to either comment or ask a question - cause each of these people were on fire! 

What did it take to get the kitchen-table players so worked up? Well - for starters we've been pretty well confined to our houses for the last two months - with a significantly reduced ration of our usual morning coffee and doughnuts. The doughnuts have been reduced because the morning [fitness] walks have been reduced. The morning fitness walks have been reduced because the last few weeks in Arizona have been hot - around 90F even at 7AM...! Regardless, with less caffeine and sugar to jump start aging brain cells - one of our playhouse contributors wondered: "Had China deliberately over-reacted to their outbreak of Covid19 so that the rest of Planet Earth would follow that [contrived] lead and each country would lock-down their economy too?"

Interesting question. Had that been a type of military strategy? We pretty well debated the theory to a draw until my brother in-law emailed a link of Atul Gawande's feature published in New Yorker Magazine. So from here, I'll let anyone reading this Blog decide.

{https://www.newyorker.com/science/medical-dispatch/amid-the-coronavirus-crisis-a-regimen-for-reentry}

Moving on - but still orbiting the medical sphere - someone else pointed out the grave statistics regarding germs, bacteria and a general low level of cleanliness in American hospitals and clinics over the last 30 years. I looked that up and it's called H.A.I. or Hospital Associated Illness. Naturally then, the renewed focus on hand washing [due to Covid19] was considered overdue. Generally, most people give zero thought to showing up at a hospital emergency room [late after hours or on weekends] for evaluation with a sudden serious medical issue. The public awareness level even during flu season was pretty well numb. Wow, has that changed.

Going forward...Regardless of what virus season might be cycling around in the future be aware that unless you see a medical practitioner actually wash their hands before they put on surgical gloves - speak up and object - calmly, but firmly! Unwashed hands that touch the 'outside' of those gloves actually contaminate the outside of the gloves that touch your incision, your catheter, your oxygen mask, your intravenous lines and connections, etc... 

Also be aware that since 1991 the CDC had already identified the top four H.A.I. [Hospital Associated Illness]. For every 100 patients - Urinary Tract Infections accounted for 32%; [32 of every 100 patients!]  2nd - Surgical Wound Infections are at 22%; [that's 22 people in 100] 3rd - Pneumonia/Lung Infections are 15%;  and 4th - Bloodstream Infections are 14%.

Annually those percentages account for 1.7 to 2 Million additional medical issues that translates to between 90,000 and 99,000 deaths! Slipshod cleanliness practices in our hospitals and clinics prior to Covid19 was a [silent] persistent contagion the CDC wasn't addressing.

Why you ask, is the same H.A.I. as chronic now as it was 30 years ago? Ohhh, let me help you with that...{*a] Trump's  Secretary of Health and Human Services is:  Alex Azar - *b] American Medical Association web address: https://www.ama-assn.org/ or phone: 1-800-262-3211 - and - *c] CDC web address: https://wonder.cdc.gov/controller/datarequest?stage=contactus&action=start   or  phone 1-800-232-4636...}

Gosh, if more people started speaking up in steady numbers - expecting accountability for the taxes they pay - could greater awareness lead to change? Ya think!

Discussions then bounced around like a Ping-Pong ball until someone posed a second theory. "Has the Covid19 virus emerged [metaphorically] as a modern day flood? [As in the Biblical Flood that is.] Will the last two months of confinement cause a social shift in nearly everything not only across America, but across the entire globe?" 

Hmmm, another interesting question. What might that 'shift' in awareness look like?

Will companies discover they need less office space? Will people who lost their minimum wage or service industry jobs decide to return to school? Will parents who were 'busy' rushing their kids to daycare or school or sports or music - rediscover their kids? Will couples rediscover each other or their spouse? Will people who usually charge everything on credit cards for entertainment or bars or clubs or restaurants or shopping discover they 'saved' money by being at home? 

And speaking of saving money; 'not' using credit cards - the topic then headed off in the direction of credit cards - aka our 'plastic' economy. But I actually hijacked the direction of the later discussion to include student loan debt with student credit cards debt, which were two dots the rest of the team hadn't connected. 

Because the team hadn't connected those dots I thought I'd raise their awareness level a wee bit. When we hear [some] students complain about the 'burden' of their college loans what we don't hear is the entire picture of the other obligations recent graduates acquired. The general public is envisioning hundreds of thousands of dollars in individual debt per student, but that level of debt only applies to medical students or the few who go beyond a four year degree to a masters or doctorate program or to law school. 

Most of the general public isn't aware that debt for a typical four year degree from a public college [2019] was $29,900 at 4.29% or about $289 a month over ten years. 

From a private college the average debt load is $37,172 or $382 a month over ten years. Put in perspective - the average new vehicle costs from $33,000 to $37,800. There is no reason why this investment in 'their' career-earning future should be a burden - unless - students also carry high credit card debt too. When the average college graduate accepts their diploma they walk with an additional monthly credit card obligation of $2,350+ but at a much higher interest rate.

As a society - as a culture we're too easily swept up into a [mock] hard-luck story line picked up by our Press [seeking to build drama] that those in elected office come to believe they need to rescue - for present and future votes. 

Creating greater public awareness is even more important now/today because we are constantly bombarded by a stew of new apps, websites and emerging networks each aggressively vying for public attention. Unsuspecting viewers/public may 'think' they tuned into a comedy, action or romantic movie - but the plot was deliberately developed with a religious, political or social message, neither open nor impartial.

What motivates me to write each of the KITCHEN TABLE...IN AMERICA Blogs is to shake up your comfortable-trust and get you to ask questions, do your own research. Regardless of your religious or political direction [registered Democrat or Republican or Independent] do not expect that the politician you voted for: county, civic, state or federal can work without oversight...

Voter oversight/awareness during each election - and - between all elections is the only way political-ethics can begin to be restored...

 

*Sherrie Todd-Beshore was a feature writer and columnist [for a number of magazines and newspapers Memoir From 'There' to 'Here'] who shifted to fiction in 2006 with 16 novels in print. This blog attempts to highlight some of the social issues reaching critical mass in America.

http://www.patchworkpublishing.com/