Regardless of the posters here berating her for "playing politics", my intent when posting her letter was to give a snapshot of what healthcare workers are experiencing. A couple of days ago I posted that in Italy 5,400 healthcare workers had caught the virus, 1 in 5 of those directly involved in COVID-19 care, and they were running out of everything, masks, gloves, ventilators. A doctor who died said, right before his respiratory system collapsed, that he had to tend to a patient without gloves because they ran out of them and if he didn't the patient would have died. Then, the doctor caught the disease and died.
And still, people here continue to post to minimize the situation, including a post in this very thread (like in post #30, "We are gonna find out that this is not nearly as deadly as once thought."). People don't seem to realize that when you allow the healthcare system to get overwhelmed (like is happening in Italy), two things happen:
1. You run out of means to save people from dying from COVID-19, who could have been saved. That's what Andrew Cuomo was saying as recently as yesterday, when he lamented that he received 400 ventilators from the feds when he needed 30,000.
Cuomo knocks Trump'''s claim about NY and ventilators - ABC News
2. People start dying of other conditions that go untreated because the hospitals run out of beds to assist them and experience shortages of healthcare workers (who go into quarantine themselves as they catch the virus too) or the workers are too exhausted therefore become more error-prone. Where do you suppose victims of car crashes, heart attacks, severe asthma crises, etc., etc., get treated if the entire ER and the entire hospital is clogged up with COVID-19 patients? Here in my state, many hospitals are cancelling elective surgeries already because they are bracing for the onslaught and want to use their surgical ventilators used in anesthesia, to treat COVID-19 patients.
So, no, let's not start underestimating it, and start thinking of going back to normalcy prematurely, because flattening the curve is essential to keeping the healthcare system functioning.
And what is wrong with someone acting in a political capacity? All citizens should be encouraged to exercise political participation.
This kind of comment would never be made in a country like Switzerland where all citizens make most of the important decisions via frequent referendums. Sure, they are small, we are big, we can't implement here their mode of government, but this is just a reminder that yes, the people should be political. There is nothing wrong with being political. The doctor sent a letter to the president. That's no crime.
People saying this doctor should shut up, stop being political, and just treat patients which is her area of expertise... what, then, she shouldn't vote, either?
Because when she votes she is being political, too. Again, there is nothing wrong with a lawful citizen of the United States being political. Gee!