A group of high-ranking physicians from the Department of Homeland Security and the Centers for Disease Control have outlined which patients should not be treated in a pandemic. The elderly, trauma victims and those suffering from dementia are all outta luck, according to new guidelines suggested by a team of influential doctors.
These guidelines were suggested to create a uniform response in the event of a scarcity of resources during a catastrophic health crisis.
Law experts have already begun questioning the legality of the recommendations, saying they would violate laws against age and disability discrimination.
Of course, if the apocalypse does occur, we'd rather forgo heath care than stick around to be ruled by damn dirty apes.
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Thursday 08 May
By Bear
Anyone ever heard of "Triage"? As a paramedic I am well versed in the concept, as are any health professionals. For you uninitiated and uninformed, triage is the concept of classifying victims into 3 groups based on severity of injury or illness. The first group is those only mildly incapacitated or injured: they can wait. The second group is those needing immediate attention but who have a good chance of surviving if they ARE attended to immediately. The third group are made up of those unfortunate souls who are so critically injured or ill that they either have a very small chance of living at all, or will take up so many valuable resources, (and those include the time a doctor would have to spend with them as well as medicines and plasma or blood, etc.), that they will, by being treated, deprive others, who have a better chance of survival, of needed supplies or attention. These are cold, hard facts that must be faced in an emergency situation. The elderly and the demented would automatically fall into the third group. The elderly because they would succumb more quickly to any trauma or illness due to their compromised immune systems, and the demented because they would be so difficult to treat that they would take up more than their share of personnel and supplies that could better be used on an otherwise healthy, contributing member of society. You don't have to like it, but if push comes to shove, that's how it works. The article didn't mention it, but children are lumped in with the elderly in criterion. Otherwise healthy young adults will be treated preferentially as they can live on and contribute the most. Children will not be productive members of society for years to come, and indeed take up valuable resources to raise them to adulthood. I am a mother of a three year old. I don't have to like this reasoning, but I DO have to realize that it is what will happen. Personally, I will steal what I need to immunize my son and my loved ones, and all other health care workers I know will make the same decision. Fair? No, but that's the way it will be.
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Friday 09 May
By joe
Great information about the triage. Honestly, if any person on this earth thought logically they would realize that that is just how it has to happen if ever faced with that situation; unless you could care less about carrying on mankind. As for those annoying lawyers, do they really think they are would be hitting the law books in the event of a catosrophic pandemic.