Calling Doctor House
Frontline's latest on PBS was "A Tale of Two Washingtons" that contrasted the State of Washington and Washington D.C.'response to the Coronavirus Pandemic.
"Public Health Science is the art of preventing disease, increasing longevity of life and promoting health through efforts and choices made by society, public and private organizations, the community and by individuals. Public Health Science deals with dangers to the public health of a population, whether small or large (i.e. populations of a continent) to improve the quality of health and the quality of life in through detecting and preventing disease and other physical and mental health conditions, promoting health behaviors, tracking cases and health indicators. Public Health Science uses a multi-disciplinary method incorporating epidemiology, biostatistics and health services."
And in life things are not always black or white, everything is happening everywhere. And there are lots of people on this planet—more than 7 billion, in fact. According to the Law of Truly Large Numbers, “with a large enough sample, any outrageous thing is likely to happen.
Before retirement, I almost never missed work. My Career Opportunity Center Office was busy and packed with folks applying for UI, food stamps, refugee programs and job retraining. Most of the time folks were waiting outside for the doors to open and get a number not unlike the deli counter at Publix back in the good old days. I did triage to make sure folks had documents, what language they spoke, and if they had been to the office before and had a file. My lead workers helped in this process and we as a team were able to see a lot of folks and shuffle a lot of paper. (Our programs ran out of money way before we ran out of customers)..
Now long retired I wince when I think the way I did things back then. I took the calls to hear how sick folks were. After two days out I reminded folks to bring in a doctor's slip so we could pay them. As a result there were few problems with malingering and everybody knew who they were. Our customers didn't care if my staff was sick or if they were sick. If they needed to be certified for food stamps, UI, or Medicaid in and out the door with a referral muy pronto was the order.
I understand "staying at home". A friend early in March, had a laser thermometer pointed at her forehead before she was able to work and it was ditto for the customers. Restaurants, bars, churches, hair salons and most stores are now closed for good reason. Reopening them will be tricky at best and self interest may trump the finer points of public health science.
"Public Health Science is the art of preventing disease, increasing longevity of life and promoting health through efforts and choices made by society, public and private organizations, the community and by individuals. Public Health Science deals with dangers to the public health of a population, whether small or large (i.e. populations of a continent) to improve the quality of health and the quality of life in through detecting and preventing disease and other physical and mental health conditions, promoting health behaviors, tracking cases and health indicators. Public Health Science uses a multi-disciplinary method incorporating epidemiology, biostatistics and health services."
And in life things are not always black or white, everything is happening everywhere. And there are lots of people on this planet—more than 7 billion, in fact. According to the Law of Truly Large Numbers, “with a large enough sample, any outrageous thing is likely to happen.
Before retirement, I almost never missed work. My Career Opportunity Center Office was busy and packed with folks applying for UI, food stamps, refugee programs and job retraining. Most of the time folks were waiting outside for the doors to open and get a number not unlike the deli counter at Publix back in the good old days. I did triage to make sure folks had documents, what language they spoke, and if they had been to the office before and had a file. My lead workers helped in this process and we as a team were able to see a lot of folks and shuffle a lot of paper. (Our programs ran out of money way before we ran out of customers)..
Now long retired I wince when I think the way I did things back then. I took the calls to hear how sick folks were. After two days out I reminded folks to bring in a doctor's slip so we could pay them. As a result there were few problems with malingering and everybody knew who they were. Our customers didn't care if my staff was sick or if they were sick. If they needed to be certified for food stamps, UI, or Medicaid in and out the door with a referral muy pronto was the order.
I understand "staying at home". A friend early in March, had a laser thermometer pointed at her forehead before she was able to work and it was ditto for the customers. Restaurants, bars, churches, hair salons and most stores are now closed for good reason. Reopening them will be tricky at best and self interest may trump the finer points of public health science.
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