In November 2021, Dr. Hagstrom head of the Lehigh Valley Hospital Department of Pediatrics at Reilly Children’s Hospital shared information with the Times News in Lehighton giving reasons why COVID vaccines are safe. Then early January Dr. Burmeister shared more information related to COVID, stating “our hospitals are full, the system is taxed.” If your brain circuitry is working, please process and calculate that information.

Many people do not trust the COVID vaccine because they feel it was rushed. Scientists have been working for decades on messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines long before COVID. Your political affiliation deeply shapes how you understand and interpret the facts on COVID, and that in turn shapes how you respond to it.

Recently there were comments published in various newspapers across the country from nurses who are “overwhelmed” working in hospitals. “I have been bitten, choked and punched in the mouth.” “Children watch their parent through a glass wall or on an iPad to say goodbye as they are intubated.” Hundreds of stories of nurses being emotionally and physically drained. They are saying if we go down, who will staff the hospital? “Too much death.” Many have quit or retired early and many more are thinking of leaving, and it isn’t because of vaccine mandates for hospital workers. Stop the lies.

Hospital staffing cuts have been going on for years. Insurance companies control the medical profession. Diagnostic Related Groups started in the ’80s. Hospitals get paid a fixed amount on that DRG regardless of how much money they spent on treating you. I remember the changes very well. Add to that the revolutionary change in the ’90s to “managed care.”

To make things worse, Republican leaders have fought against worker safety rules (OSHA) for years. The hospital lobby spent $25 million on a “NO” campaign to fight against a nurse-patient ratio in one state. “No” won.

You can thank Democratic Sen. Maria Collett who announced the reintroduction of the Patient Safety Act SB 240 for Pennsylvania in August 2021. It is being considered by the Health and Human Services Committee. Now process and calculate that information.

Debra Becker

Effort