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We're maybe, and I mean MAYBE, five years out from a massive crisis of premature death of people under 40 that will collapse social security, the federal tax base, and the working economy. That isn't even accounting for the collapse of medical employees/ care capacity from PTSD. https://twitter.com/Blackamazon/status/1358044291520724993
We have Gen Z with largely unknown impact, Millennials who are dying, dealing with Long Covid and gods only know what long-term effects all major organs and the vascular/resp/neuro systems, and we have an entire class of medical professionals who have been in the civilian
equivalent of a war zone for almost an entire year with no end in sight where they are unsupported psychologically, materially, and where they are presiding helplessly over a scale of death none of them have ever known. Including the deaths of their own colleagues and families.
Our for-profit healthcare system means that we're maybe 2 years out from a massive bankruptcy crisis due to medical debt and unemployment that's about to burst a housing bubble we didn't know existed. We're also at the brink of an environmental cliff that WILL exacerbate every
possible health impact of COVID infection AND all the economic fault lines and blow them wide open. AND I DO NOT SAY ANY OF THIS SHIT FOR FUN. I say it because if you still think a return to normal is even POSSIBLE, you are going to get people dead from apathy.
Oh, and if you think the white supremacist fascist vultures aren't hovering for when all of these chickens come home to roost and we haven't dealt with ANY OF IT, you are pretending a naivete that is more dangerous than you can possibly know.
Do me a favor, look up the long-term impact of polio that we see TO THIS DAY, because it wasn't eradicated fully until 1979 in the US.
It's estimated there are about 250k people who have post-polio syndrome in the US, the symptoms can present up to 40 years after infection and recovery. We've had almost 30 MILLION cases of COVID to date and no sign of stopping. So: do the math.
*if you're wondering how I'm getting to this catastrophic scenario: read articles on asymptomatic cardiac and lung infiltration, cytokine impacts and organ failure, then start thinking about what it means when people can't work or have permanent disabilities in an economy that
doesn't like to accommodate them. Think about medical costs that run into millions of dollars a day. Think about hemorrhaging medical personnel and what it costs to train and retain them. Think about all of these interconnected things spiraling out of control because we can't be
BOTHERED to solve problems before they do. Which, given how we've responded to literally ANY crisis in the last 50 years, and still seems to be singing the same damn song, doesn't bode well.
Oh, and while I'm doing my Cassandra thing: think about organ donation. Really. Who'll need transplants. How much this shrinks the pool of possible donors. Yes, this is scary and awful, but ignoring scary and awful doesn't make it go away, it keeps us from being able to stop it
or minimize harms. Every time we bury our heads in the sand, we choose our temporary illusion of safety over doing what's necessary to secure the least harmful reality. I hate this.
