Shot in the Dark

As If By Rote

Just finished my annual physical, which I must take to get my prescription renewed for diabetes medicine. The doctor mentioned I am due for a colonoscopy this year but I said I was thinking about putting it off so I didn’t catch the Covid since medical facilities are one of the most contagious places. He said oh no, it’s bars and restaurants, that’s where all the cases are coming from.

Later, he asked what I was doing for Thanksgiving, I told him my mother had canceled Thanksgiving because Covid, they live near Rochester and there’s a huge staff shortage at the Mayo Clinic. Yes, he agreed, 900 staff people are out because of Covid and everyone should stay home for Thanksgiving.

So those Mayo Clinic doctors are a bunch of drunks? They’ve been hanging out in the bars where everybody catches it?

Ridiculous.  If health care professionals aren’t catching the virus at work, it’d be the first epidemic in history where that’s true.  Here’s the chart from the Minnesota Department of Health website on November 23, 2020.

TravelCongregate LivingCorrectionsHomeless/ShelterHealth CareCommunity: outbreakCommunity: knownCommunity: no knownUnknown050,000100,000150,00

Bars and restaurants aren’t even listed separately, they’re lumped in with all other “community outbreak” which includes weddings, funerals, political rallies, riots, and workplaces that are not residences such as meat packing plants.  Bars and restaurants are nowhere near as contagious as health care facilities and that makes perfect sense – hospitals are full of sick people, of course the virus spreads there.

I’m disappointed in my doctor.  He’s just reciting the party line, no independent thought, no analysis of contradictory statements made moments apart, but I should trust him because he’s a medical professional: he has a white lab coat and everything. 

I’ve met religious fanatics before, and also Liberals, so there’s no point in arguing about it. Just nod my head and make plans to buy medicine from Mexico online. No prescription required. 

Joe Doakes

I’ll cut clinic staff a little slack – between the pandemic and the state’s bizarre gyrations in “managing” the healthcare system, it might be more fun to work in one of those meat packing plants these days.

But I said a little slack. Let’s not get carried away. The doctor that skip “critical thought” on this will do the same when it comes to that “do you have guns in the house” question, when doctors start caring about that again.

Posted

in

,

by

Mitch Berg

Tags:

Comments

5 responses to “As If By Rote”

  1. Maximum Overlord Avatar
    Maximum Overlord

    Thank God for contact-tracing!
    What a frikkin’ joke.

  2. golfdoc50 Avatar
    golfdoc50

    Plenty of Kool Aid drinkers everywhere. Yeah, the doctor should know better. I went in for med refill this summer, felt pity for my doctor, gowned, masked and behind face shield. Appointment had been pushed back 3 months. If I weren’t retired already, I’d pull the plug now.

  3. Night Writer Avatar
    Night Writer

    Always troubling when the people who should know better don’t know better.

    Re the ‘scope – my doc prescribed the ColoGuard test, mailed to my home (and mailed back). It was easy, and is as accurate as a scope. Not everything has to be “digital” these days.

  4. bikebubba Avatar
    bikebubba

    NW, true as far as it goes, but keep in mind that a colonoscopy also removes benign polyps that would eventually likely become cancerous. Definitely room for both procedures, but I’d suggest that if one has a greater than average odds of getting colon cancer (family history, etc..), do at least periodic colonoscopies. Benign polyps often become cancer; benign polyps in a biohazard bag never cause problems.

    Regarding contact tracing, did I get my ‘rona at Thanksgiving, at a park on Thanksgiving morning, while shopping, or elsewhere? I really don’t know. I’ve been reducing my social contacts, but reality is that we are social creatures. We need some of ’em.

  5. justplainangry Avatar
    justplainangry

    If I weren’t retired already, I’d pull the plug now.

    A lot of the Dr’s on the cusp are indeed just doing that. Facing abyssmal patient turnout and flat expenses, that’s a logical choice. And they are being replaced by the mindless cadre of what passes for a Dr. these days. I cannot even fathom the latest batch – educated online and no tests. There are exceptions of course, but good luck finding them!

    JD, oddly enough, that is exactly what I had to do this morning – physical to get my metformin prescription. In my case, Dr did not mention Wuhan Flu once. Maybe that was because he is chinese. JD, a good anesthesiologist is more important than Dr. doing the rooting. Last year, the bastard OD’d me and burned off 1/3 of a lung via aspiration (and no, golfdoc, I religiously followed the prep). And of course you sign your life away before the procedure so all expenses for the following trip to the ER were out of my pocket. Make sure they do NOT put you all the way under. That was my first time – now I know and now so do you.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.