Winter Rant

There is a common quip I have been hearing all too often from friends and family nowadays: “Don’t worry! Kids fall ill all the time!”

I have run out of patience for this nonsense, because here’s the thing: kids do fall ill (or sick) all the time, but not all kids at the same time in a way that chokes your medical infrastructure.

This does not happen normally.

But these are not normal times.

This is precisely what happened with the elderly and adult population in the COVID19 Pandemic, circa 2020.

And when it does happen, like it happened for most adults in 2020 with COVID, we took public health precautions that did inconvenience some folks, but it saves lives.

In this case, it can save the lives of babies.

But there are no such measures being proposed because it would mean things like school closures, or masking.

For duck’s sake!

And when you fail to adopt such inconvenient public health measures, you get to situations like spelled out in this tweet from Nov 20 2022: “A pregnant friend was due to deliver a baby today. Baby is going to require heart surgery at birth. They postponed her induction and sent her home because Sick Kids hospital doesn’t have the capacity to look after the newborn. Our pediatric hospitals are struggling.”

Here was a response to that tweet: “The exact scenario just happened to my daughter and grandson. The delay wasn’t more than a day but because we are in Regina they had them come anyways in case something effects travel. He was born on the 15th and still in ICU. I went to visit and the NICU is absolutely packed.”

How does a society get to a point where you have pediatric hospitals and wards/units and NICU’s … and NOT have space for critical care for unborn and soon-to-be-born babies?

Public health policy has pivoted to making it all a “personal” decision on the part of caregivers to limit the spread of viral illnesses.

Otherwise, where are the mask mandates? Where are the school closures? Where are the vaccine requirements?

When did *public* health, become a matter of *personal* liberty?

“But my rights!”

Duck you!

Without actual *public* health policies that mandate requirements, instead of leaving it up to personal choices, we are going to see more such horror stories that endanger the lives of mothers, and babies.

So, the next time you lecture me or any parent about how kids fall sick all the time, just remember that it comes down to a matter of numbers: if there are too many pediatric cases all at the same time, then I literally do not have the time for your nonsense.

Although, regardless of numbers, you are spewing nonsense.

– vijay, still subscribed to #MedicalTwitter