ENDEMIC: Impact in local pain

Dave Kuntz may be consoled by talking to the facility postponing his wife’s care about what is being done to increase staff and capacity.

On Oct. 13 The Press entitled a piece, “COVID is here to stay.”

The Chief Clinical Officer at the Saint Alphonsus Health System in Boise, Steven Nemerson, offered, “Sadly, I’m here to tell you that we’ve lost the war and COVID is here to stay.”

Even clearer, Nemerson asserted that “…the situation with COVID-19 has gone from pandemic to endemic.”

This means that the proximate cause of Kuntz’s wife’s pain is the inadequate capacity and staffing of regional health care providers. Ignoring that cause, he focuses on those not having received the vaccine, resulting in his “privilege” in watching his wife suffer with kidney stones.

His wife’s pain and that of similarly disposed others will continue (and worsen) until the health care system accommodates the reality of an endemic. Things might prove even more exciting if all the regional providers mandate vaccination for all employees — a practice Kootenai Health has not embraced.

In practical terms, the notion of COVID-19 as endemic means nearly everyone will be infected with COVID-19 or a variant of same (including the vaccinated with their waning “protection”).

As endemics don’t end, health care providers around the world must adjust accordingly.

Because they haven’t, Dave’s wife suffers.

Perhaps she should consider contracting COVID-19 (as she likely will anyway) as that designation might gain her entry into a treatment facility.

It may also be wise to blame the virus for what the virus does, but that’s probably less satisfying a blame for Kuntz to lay.

E.F. FRAZIER

Worley