“Don’t be afraid. You’re going to beat him. “
It is the recommendation of U. S. President Donald Trump to the public if they feared contracting a coronavirus.
He made the comments in a video message posted shortly after his discharge from the hospital on Monday, after receiving the remedy of his own diagnosis.
But, as Guyy has pointed out, he’s a guy with a helicopter, a giant medical team and experimental drugs at his disposal. How is the stage becoming for Americans with Covid-19s who don’t live in the White House?
It is difficult to identify the “average American” in the midst of such a varied country and such a confusing health care system; however, these are some of the spaces in which the president has gained a special remedy and see how it compares to the reports of the general population.
The president has an on-site medical center at the White House, but as the country’s commander-in-chief, he also had to go to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
He moved there temporarily after his diagnosis and spent 3 days in the hospital’s presidential suite, one of six rooms reserved for high-ranking officials and members of the closet, which included a dining room, a work area, and sofas to accommodate the guests. visitors.
“The VIP remedy is a hallmark of American medicine,” reads in a Washington Post article that examines the president’s remedy. “Major hospitals across the country have personal spaces for celebrities, super-children and influencers, patients in need of public protection. and can make a meaningful donation if they are satisfied with their care. “
Compare that to large sets of care across the country, where beds have sold out at various times of the pandemic. Hospitals in Florida, Texas and Arizona have struggled for maximum occupancy in the summer.
Texas Medical Center in Houston, for example, has a Covid “war room” ready, using methods to gain space, such as reassigning staff, combining beds, and using normal beds in an emergency.
Fiana Tulip of Texas lost her mother to the disease in July and told the BBC that her mother was afraid of Dallas’ crowded hospitals at the time.
“My mom, a fitness employee who endangered her life every day, didn’t need to go to the hospital because she was worse off there because she was full, because she wouldn’t get the care she needed, and she knew it because she worked in a hospital,” Tulip said.
Since then, the number of cases has fallen below that level, however, it is feared that they may return to winter.
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The president was also fortunate to have high-tech amenities at Walter Reed Hospital nearby. People living in rural areas of the United States may have to travel wonderful distances for medical treatment.
A University of North Carolina showed that 120 rural hospitals closed over the past decade.
“Rural spaces have far fewer doctors to treat the virus (20 consistent with 10,000 compared to 70 consistent with 10,000 in metropolitan spaces) and smaller hospitals with fewer service personnel and more unins insurance people (14%, compared to 7% in giant subways)”, says David J. Peters, professor of rural sociology at Iowa State University.
The ability to use telemedicine to fill this gap is limited, as nearly 55% of rural families do not have broadband Internet (compared to 35% on the subway). Rural spaces are also vulnerable because they don’t have the interstate system, which makes it difficult and slow to send patients, fitness service providers and supplies. “
The president had no such transportation concerns, went to the hospital in a personal helicopter, Marine One, which took off from the White House lawn and lasted 10 minutes. Even through the car, it would only have taken about an hour.
Ms. Tulip said it’s hard to see the president “get on a helicopter in his front yard” after his mother’s death.
She said her mother tried to convince members of the family circle not to call an ambulance for her because she didn’t need to carry them with insurance problems.
Across the United States, many Americans are afraid to call an ambulance in case their insurance doesn’t cover the costs.
A Kansas farmer told local radio station KCUR-FM that he won an $80,000 bill for an air ambulance when he was seriously ill with coronavirus headaches in April. The bill was resolved and you didn’t have to pay, but only after long discussions. between the provider and your insurer.
Such stressful exchanges, which combine many documents and phone calls, are not unusual after a hospital remains in the United States. The president will not have had the same concerns.
The president entered Walter Reed Hospital less than 24 hours after the effects of his check were announced. Although there have been combined messages about his condition, his doctor said he had “mild” symptoms.
“Patients are only admitted if they are potentially critical,” says Anthony Almojera, a paramedic in New York. “They are told to stop by the house and only go to the hospital if they have shortness of breath. “
“At the height of the pandemic, we left other people at home who didn’t meet certain critical criteria,” he adds. Although he says the tension has subsided since then in the city, as the number of cases has decreased.
However, Dr. John Zurlo, an infectious disease specialist at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, says admission decisions can be an area.
“If you take a hypothetical 74-year-old man with underlying physical disorders and have a fever, a case of hospitalization may be made,” he says. “But insurance companies review all admissions. You can come back and ask, “Why did you want to come for 3 days?”And the hospital will have to justify it. “
“But low blood oxygen levels are a sufficient explanation, even in a younger person,” he adds, and the president’s doctor said his degrees had dropped twice.
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However, Dr. Zurlo warns that he opposes the term “registration” to refer to hospitals.
“In consultation with my doctors, I checked into Morristown Medical Center this afternoon,” tweeted New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a close collaborator of the president who also took the test last week.
Dr. Zurlo says: “These are not hotels. You have to be admitted. An insurer may not pay for unnecessary hospitalization. So, unless you’re very rich, and even Christie is rarely very that type. VIP, so simple mortals I can’t do it. “
One of the mere mortals, Juan Ríos, a medical employee in New York, says he had no trouble getting admitted when his breathing deteriorated and he had pneumonia throughout Covid-19 this year, but felt deported while he recovered. .
“They tried to discharge me with little oxygen and I didn’t feel comfortable going home, so I had to involve my personal doctor to stay in the hospital for a day or two,” she says.
President Trump wouldn’t have been removed from the workplace until he was ready, but what kind of remedy did he get as an inpatient?
According to his doctors, he treated him with several other medications:
Dexamethasone, a life-saving steroid by calming the immune system
Remdesivir, an antiviral drug that was first developed as a remedy for Ebola
Monoclonal antibody therapy, performed through Regeneron
People were especially surprised by the use of the cure with antibodies because it is still classified as experimental. Clinical trials are underway and the president is one of the few people outside of those trials who adheres to the remedy as a component of so-called “compassionate use. “
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Robert Wachter, professor and director of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, told The Washington Post that he was not surprised: “He is the president of the United States. For her to receive the maximum vigorous therapies, even though we have not yet reached the point where there is enough evidence to make it available to everyone in the country, I don’t think she’s wrong. “
But would those same remedies occur to normal patients?
Dexamethasone is “cheap and available,” according to Dr. Zurlo. “We also have a lot of Remdesivir in our hospital. We’ve won a giant, loose source of the company and we still have a lot. I think a lot of hospitals” now you have them too, at least in urban spaces. Array. And if you’re in poor health enough to be hospitalized, you’ll be eligible for all those treatments. “
The exception, he says, is mr. Trump’s specific antibody remedy, which is not yet available to the masses. Instead, you can try another cure, the convalescent plasma remedy, he says.
“We have the medical team. We have the drugs, all recently evolved,” Trump said in his post-license motivational video.
Many of his followers said the speech was inspiring.
Their optimism is based on the fact that medical studies on Covid-19 are much more complex now than they were at the beginning of the pandemic, however, critics continue to say that the comments were deaf and showed no empathy for those who have had a great experience. more complicated time with the disease.
“While it would probably be right to say that America has one of the most productive conditions in the world, it is not available in the same way to all Americans,” says Professor Peters. “Poor, minority, and rural Americans have less access to fitness care and suffer worse fitness problems. “
Mr. Rios, who is now back in painting after his own stay in the hospital, is also critical: “Actually, it is simple for him to say that while receiving the most productive remedy in the world. He had everything at his disposal. I don’t think you’d like to get the fundamental remedy, as many others have and so have I. “