via Reddit:
As a surgical resident at a major city hospital, I suspect the CDC knows everyone is going to get omicron in the next 2-4 weeks.
The CDC reduced the recommended quarantine for asymptomatic Covid positive healthcare worker to 5 days REGARDLESS OF A NEW POSITIVE COVID TEST without citing sufficient evidence justifying the move. The CDC and the AHA just said that doctors should not delay CPR to put on PPE on known COVID patients. Every doctor I know is completely confused why they’d do this. F*ck the healthcare workers I guess
But if everyone is going to get Covid anyways on the next few weeks, risking additional exposure doesn’t matter.
If the whole country gets Covid in a 2-3 week span, we are F*CKED. What if there are no essential workers? What if hospitals lose what little staff we have already?
They want people back at work as soon as possible to minimize what will be the greatest acute labor crisis in history. A busy Walmart nearby closed a whole week for “cleaning”, but it’s likely because too many employees are out with Covid. Groceries, pharmacies, business, critical infrastructure , healthcare, everything is going to get hit HARD and FAST.
Hospitals are f*cking dying right now and the worst is yet to come.. My hospital has been diverting patient to other hospitals, which are also literally all on divert, therefore no one is on divert. We have the physical rooms but not the staff to cover the rooms. If we lose any more staff, dermatologists will start intubating and managing vents (but kind of actually). People will f*cking die from lack of medical care.
Do whatever you need to do to protect your assets or make a lot of 🌈🐻 money in this market. Don’t ask me what to do, my portfolio bleeds almost as much as my patients.
TLDR: We are going to face the biggest and fastest labor shortage in history in the next 3-4 weeks
Side note: please don’t go to the hospital if you’re positive unless you’re in a high risk group or are short of breath (edit: or have concerning symptoms). There’s nothing the hospital will do for you healthy young adults except stick you with a $3,000 bill unless you need oxygen. Call your doctor instead, though they’ll probably get Covid as well.
*reposted to correct title
Edit: typo, but also to clarify, it doesn’t matter if it’s more mild if people are still out of work for that period. Omicron has a third of the hospitalization rate, but I cannot emphasize enough how infectious this thing is. Look at these carts
Edit 2: most controversial post on Reddit in the last hour! I want to emphasize that omicron is more mild, but if people are still quarantining with mild symptoms at the same time, there will be a major labor crisis. This argument, along with the CDC’s decision to reduce quarantine to 5 days, technically supports re opening (with reasonable precautions).
Disclaimer: This is a guest post and it doesn’t necessarily represent the views of IWB.