Philadelphia Inquirer (July 6)
“Interviews with doctors and nurses in the Philadelphia region revealed a sense of relief over a waning pandemic leavened by fears that the virus could surge again. They use different terms to describe what almost a year and a half of being on the front lines of treating COVID-19 has done. Moral injury. Trauma. Burnout. PTSD.” Even now, these “drained health care workers must still maintain a busy schedule as hospitals face a glut of patients who had put off health care out of fears of contracting the virus.”
Tags: Burnout, Busy, COVID-19, Doctors, Drained, Fears, Front lines, Health care workers, Interviews, Nurses, Pandemic, Philadelphia, PTSD, Relief, Surge, Trauma
Chicago Tribune (December 21)
“Even as the first vaccine shots begin to roll out to health care workers, doctors and nurses say they are struggling to make it through the pandemic’s darkest surge yet, in an atmosphere some describe as bordering on exhaustion.” The staff shortage is now “nationwide, to the point that Illinois’ staffing woes seem merely average by comparison. In California, Wisconsin and Virginia, around 30% of hospitals are reporting critical staffing shortages. It’s closer to 40% in Arizona and Missouri.”
Tags: California, Darkest surge, Doctors, Exhaustion, Health care workers, Hospitals Arizona, Illinois, Nurses, Pandemic, Staff shortage, Struggling, Vaccine
Time (August 23)
It is shocking “that more than 65% of Japanese medical doctors who responded to a survey said reducing the entrance exam scores for women is unavoidable, since the extreme working hours make it impossible for female doctors to work full time while taking care of their children. Japanese society still sees household chores and childcare as the main responsibility of women, whether or not they are in paid employment.”
Tags: Children, Doctors, Employment, Exam, Full-time, Household, Japan, Scores, Survey, Women, Working hours
1843 (August Issue)
“Doctors and parents both tell young people to eat healthily and drink in moderation, and the young finally seem to be listening. Recent shifts in spending” in both the U.S. and the UK “indicate that they are spending more on healthy food and less on boozing.” For example, in the U.S. “households headed by under-25s have increased their spending on fresh fruit by 77% and on fresh vegetables by 47% (in real terms)” while more than halving annual spending on alcohol “from about $560 in 2000 to roughly $270 in 2015.”
Tags: Alcohol, Doctors, Food, Fresh, Fruit, Health, Moderation, Parents, Spending, U.S., UK, Vegetables
Wall Street Journal (August 23)
“Robots are coming. Don’t worry, be happy. It’s the path to growth and higher living standards.” Despite the gloom of some prognosticators, very few jobs can be entirely replaced by robots. Many, however, can be enhanced by robots, freeing humans up for higher level activities. “Workers are augmented, not replaced. Salesmen with Google Maps, realtors with 3-D home views, carpenters with laser tape measures. Doctors doing robot assisted minimally invasive surgery.”
Tags: Carpenters, Doctors, Gloom, Growth, Living standards, Prognosticators, Robots, Salesmen, Workers
The Economist (August 13)
“Senescence, the general dwindling of prowess experienced by all as time takes its toll, is coming under scrutiny from doctors and biologists.” With advances, average lifespans could reach “today’s ceiling of 120 or so. But it may be just the beginning. In the next phase not just average lifespans but maximum lifespans will rise.”
Tags: 120, Aging, Biologists, Doctors, Lifespans, Prowess, Senescence
