Readers and Tweeters Defend Entrance-Line Nurses and Blind Us With Science

Letters to the Editor is a periodic function. We welcome all feedback and can publish a variety. We edit for size and readability and require full names.

The demand for expert nurses in the course of the pandemic is thru the roof! Journey nurses command a hefty wage and they’re value each penny… #COVID19 #pandemic #RN https://t.co/gYQpkHqaoX

— Talmage Egan, MD (@UofU_Anes_Chair) November 26, 2020

— Dr. Talmage Egan, Salt Lake Metropolis

Nurses Should Be Paid Handsomely

I learn your article “Want a COVID-19 Nurse? That’ll Be $8,000 a Week” (Nov. 24) within the Springfield Journal-Register. It was an fascinating article as I’ve a daughter who’s a nurse. Nurses have been underpaid and unappreciated for years. It made me indignant that the article characterised the wages some hospitals are prepared to pay for nurses as exorbitant. Hogwash for those who suppose somebody ought to danger their life each hour of the day to look after COVID sufferers with out correct compensation. What number of docs make over one million a 12 months? You don’t cite that as uncommon. I really feel that nurses ought to go for the gold as they’ve been taken benefit of for years and, too dangerous, however good for them. Select your phrases extra fastidiously sooner or later. Nurses ROCK!!!!

— Mike Booher, Lincoln, Illinois

Hospitals exit of their approach to keep away from competing for nursing labor by elevating wages. Now hospital executives and public well being advocates act prefer it's a travesty that COVID nurses are lastly getting paid market charges to tackle dangerous jobs. https://t.co/6z0idToVn6

— Devon M. Herrick (@DevonHerrick) November 24, 2020

— Devon M. Herrick, Dallas

Lacking within the Mixture of Vaccine Protection

I have to word two essential omissions within the article “Time to Talk about Doubtlessly Disagreeable Aspect Results of COVID Photographs? Scientists Say Sure” (Nov. 12). First, though these have been interim trial outcomes, the placebo arm also needs to have been reported out. What was the placebo an infection fee? Reporting 90% effectiveness is irrelevant with out reporting the placebo fee concurrently. And one must align the an infection fee in trial topics with the incidence of illness within the U.S. inhabitants. They need to be related, but when not, any discrepancy have to be defined (similar to, no aged individuals or youngsters taking part within the trial). Secondly, and maybe extra essential: What different mitigating measures have been volunteers on this trial required/suggested to take? For instance, bodily distancing, masks, and so forth. I may discover no point out of this, positively or negatively, when studying the protocol on clinicaltrials.gov. Any vaccine alone couldn’t present 94.5% efficacy. To find out the relative contributions of different measures, you’d want, say, a four-arm examine — placebo with masks, placebo with out masks, vaccine with masks, vaccine with out masks. Statistically and clinically, one should account for different variables which will confound an obvious consequence.

It is a essential level because the lay public is pondering that, by getting the vaccine, masks would possibly now not be essential they usually’ll have a 95% probability of not being contaminated. That is garbage. The media and the general public “consultants” want to handle this as they’re setting themselves up for an immense PR failure and nonetheless larger skepticism. Folks might must put on masks for a lot of extra months, possibly years, even with an efficient vaccine.

— Stephen Zaruby, Truckee, California

I'm already confused ? https://t.co/UlJPh2EEvK

— hameen tariq (@hameentariq) November 23, 2020

— Hameen Tariq, Wilmington, Delaware

Exploring Most cancers Drug’s Results on COVID

Your story “Clots, Strokes and Rashes: Is COVID a Illness of the Blood Vessels?” (Nov. 13) was reprinted in my native newspaper. My brother, James L. Kinsella Ph.D., led the unique work on the Nationwide Institutes of Well being researching how the chemotherapy drug Taxol may scale back irritation in coronary articles following the position of coronary stents. This led to the very efficient use of drug-eluting coronary stents. My unprofessional musing causes me to marvel if this anti-inflammatory response to Taxol may need some software as an early therapeutic intervention to scale back the inflammatory response of COVID-19 being studied by Dr. William Li. I can’t ask my brother; he handed away.

— Rick Kinsella, Oneida, New York

He wouldn’t be lifeless with out covid. We’ve discovered that issues that aren’t life threatening are made life threatening by this illness. It assaults your blood vessels so it may well exacerbate something wherever in your physique that makes use of blood vessels. Keep protected certainly https://t.co/BFsqrKSFmH

— James McPicnic (@WhiteRatbit) December 3, 2020

— James “J.P.” McPicnic, Los Angeles

Girls’s Well being Ought to Not Be Up for Debate

Contraception medicine is a lot greater than a pawn in politics (“Coming Abortion Combat May Threaten Delivery Management, Too,” Nov. 5). It adjustments the lives of so many ladies for the higher. Contraception entry has been confirmed to result in increased charges of training for girls, decrease ranges of kid poverty, decrease Medicaid prices for girls’s well being and better productiveness of society as a complete. It additionally treats a lot of medical circumstances related to girls’s well being. It successfully treats extreme menstrual migraines, hormonal zits, endometriosis, extreme menstrual ache, uterine abnormalities, anemia and heavy menstrual bleeding, amongst different well being circumstances. This medicine is concerned in treating so many ladies’s well being issues, improves toddler and youngster well being outcomes, and reduces youngster poverty, and but nearly 20 million girls within the U.S. presently haven’t any entry to contraception medicine. American politicians want to contemplate, if nothing else, the spillover prices to society when contraception entry is lowered.

Girls’s reproductive well being shouldn’t be up for debate and but it’s on the middle of so many political agendas. As a 24-year-old lady pursuing twin grasp’s levels in public well being and doctor assistant research, my focus must be on studying to develop into an distinctive well being care supplier, not whether or not my well being will probably be up for debate in court docket. If politicians actually have the perfect pursuits of People at coronary heart, they need to be seeking to develop contraception entry, not prohibit it.  Proof must be integrated into political agendas, and the proof exhibits that when girls succeed, society succeeds. Girls’s training, well being and reproductive rights must be on the forefront of each dialogue on what constitutes a thriving inhabitants — the proof has confirmed that ladies’s autonomy holds the reply and entry to contraception is an important piece of that.

— Gabby Henshue, Madison, Wisconsin

Scary instances for girls’s our bodies.

“States may successfully ban contraception by arguing that some contraceptives act as abortifacients.” Risk is actual. I’ve labored in states the place this argument has been made.https://t.co/LmdWFRUNOZ

— Elizabeth M. Baskett (@EMBaskett) November 11, 2020

— Elizabeth M. Baskett, Denver

Injustice in Excessive Gear

I used to be appalled on the costs on the medical invoice from the Carson Metropolis emergency division for that youngster who fell off his bike (“Invoice of the Month: After Child’s Minor Bike Accident, Main Invoice Units Authorized Wheels in Movement,” Nov. 25) — $18,000 for an examination and stitches? What would it not take to kind out such issues in our well being system? Decrease costs from suppliers may solely end in decrease insurance coverage premiums.

— Karen Johnson, San Rafael, California

Tried subrogation, man, I inform yah https://t.co/spxcMlSiCk

— Annie M. Davidson (@attyannie) November 25, 2020

— Annie M. Davidson, St. Paul, Minnesota

KHN Morning Briefing: A Wealth of Info in One Spot!

I simply wished to say it’s superior to have parts of articles from many main information retailers as a result of by no means does one inform the entire story. Working example: I used to be attempting to analysis what precisely President Donald Trump had accomplished that “allowed docs to discriminate in opposition to LGBT individuals,” and it was very useful having a wide selection of media sources on a single web page to assist get the larger image and attempt to weed via the bias of all of them (“Trump Administration’s Expanded Conscience Rule Will Permit Medical Professionals To Refuse To Present Well being Care Providers,” Might 3). Simply sending my compliments. Sustain the good work.

— Nolan Steeley, Greensburg, Pennsylvania

?Racism in #healthcare undermines #high quality of care and affected person security. There’s exhausting work to be accomplished to weed it out of all elements of society, particularly medical care. https://t.co/TbK0yIuraB

— Natalie S. Burke (@natalie4health) November 28, 2020

— Natalie S. Burke, Washington, D.C.

Schooling and Protection Gaps Result in Avoidable Amputations 

Coming to phrases with systemic racism in well being care is lengthy overdue (“What Medical doctors Aren’t At all times Taught: Spot Racism in Well being Care,” Nov. 16). The way in which drugs is taught and the fee insurance policies that form the system have created persistent disparities in affected person outcomes throughout racial and ethnic teams.

Because of this, Black People are 80% extra probably than whites to be identified with diabetes and are twice as more likely to die from the illness. Moreover, Black American sufferers are as much as 4 instances extra more likely to expertise an amputation than their white counterparts as a consequence of superior peripheral artery illness (PAD), a typical complication for individuals with diabetes and different persistent circumstances. Equally, Latinos are as much as 75% extra more likely to expertise an amputation than whites, whereas Native People are twice as more likely to lose a limb.

As many as 85% of the nation’s 200,000 non-traumatic amputations could possibly be prevented with entry to screening and early detection. By screening for PAD via non-invasive arterial testing, the probability of a person needing a PAD-related amputation will be lowered by as much as 90%. Sadly, too few People — significantly racial and ethnic minorities — are even supplied routine screening for PAD as a consequence of a widespread lack of expertise concerning the illness, in addition to structural protection boundaries to easy, painless exams. Because of this, many don’t even know they’ve the illness till it’s too late to avoid wasting their limbs.

Communities of colour deserve higher. Members of the Congressional PAD Caucus — led by Rep. Donald Payne Jr. (D-N.J.) — just lately launched the Amputation Discount and Compassion (ARC) Act to ascertain an training program concerning the illness — significantly for high-risk populations — and replace reimbursement coverage to disallow fee for non-emergent amputations until arterial testing has been accomplished within the three months earlier than amputation. These easy options have the facility to forestall hundreds of avoidable amputations, and start to appropriate well being disparities in minority communities.

Whereas we nonetheless have an extended approach to go as our nation continues to grapple with systemic racism in well being care, the ARC Act represents an essential step towards ending disparities in PAD care.

— Dr. Foluso Fakorede, CEO of Cardiovascular Options of Central Mississippi, Cleveland, Mississippi

Racism in Well being Care? One other instance of injecting Politics. Inarguably, racism exists all over the place, however to make this an enormous situation is a disservice. Diff DX requires inclusion of Race/Ethnicity, to wit: Sickle Cell in Blacks,Alpha & Beta Thalassemia in Asians https://t.co/xyP54dPjH8

— Alexander R. Lim, MD (@AlexanderLim13) November 25, 2020

— Dr. Alexander R. Lim, Corpus Christi, Texas

‘Obamacare’ Unfairly Politicizes Well being Legislation

I discovered this text fascinating (“Biden Plan to Decrease Medicare Eligibility Age to 60 Faces Hostility From Hospitals,” Nov. 11) however was shocked that the Inexpensive Care Act was known as “Obamacare.” Please don’t politicize the ACA — we actually want it to proceed permitting individuals to entry well being care. Many individuals don’t have well being care via their office and are unable to afford personal insurance coverage premiums. I used to be as soon as a type of individuals earlier than I used to be employed at our native library. It was actually robust. Thanks on your reporting.

— Pamela Elicker, Port Townsend, Washington

Placing Folks First on the Podcast

Once you have been speaking about drug coverage and the poll in a latest podcast (“KHN’s ‘What the Well being?’: Change Is within the Air,” Nov. 6), you used phrases which can be thought-about incorrect or stigmatizing. For instance, saying “opioid epidemic” when it’s actually a disaster and referring to substance use as “abuse.” The Related Press and NPR, amongst others, have pledged to make use of people-first language, as additionally supported by the American Psychological Affiliation.

— Deirdre Dingman, Philadelphia

This cartoon is used with the permission of Jack Ohman and Creators Syndicate. Extra of his work could also be seen on the Cartoonist Group.

Not Tickling My Humorous Bone

You ought to search out some cartoonists who are usually not so flagrantly left-leaning — persevering with to supply left-sided commentary isn’t proper. It’s like the entire information stations pushing for socialism.

— Harry Gousha, Upland, California

Editor’s word: It’s the custom and mission amongst editorial cartoonists to satirize these in energy. As with the nation’s management, the targets of political cartoons toggle from proper to left. Steadiness isn’t these artists’ objective, however over time their commentary balances out. Persist with us, and we hope to amuse you sooner or later.