I’ve been kidding about this, but Sen Thom Tillis actually said that Starbucks shouldn’t be requiring employees to wash their hands, because, freedom. From WaPo, 2015.
Once we’re done debating whether children should be vaccinated, we can move on to other pressing public health questions, such as whether eateries can force their employees to wash their hands after they use the bathroom.
At least one freshman U.S. senator thinks, “nah.” Because freedom.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), at the end of an appearance Monday at the Bipartisan Policy Center, volunteered a story about “his bias when it comes to regulatory reform.”
Tillis said he was at a Starbucks in 2010 talking to a woman about regulations and where businesses should be allowed to opt out. His coffee companion challenged him, asking whether employees there should be required to wash their hands.
“As a matter of fact I think this is one where I think I can illustrate the point,” he recalled telling her. “I don’t have any problem with Starbucks if they choose to opt out of this policy as long as they post a sign that says we don’t require our employees to wash their hands after leaving the restroom. The market will take care of that. It’s one example.” (Is requiring a sign not a regulation?)
Tillis, who told the story with his right hand raised for emphasis, concluded that in his example most businesses who posted signs telling customers their food workers didn’t have to wash their hands would likely go out of business. Ah, the free market!
Closing the event, Bipartisan Policy Center President Jason Grumet said, “I’m not sure if I’m going to shake your hand…” (But then he did.)
Just so you know, in describing why handwashing is required, the FDA says, “Proper handwashing reduces the spread of fecal-oral pathogens from the hands of a food employee to foods.”
If Tillis’s career in politics doesn’t work out, may we politely suggest he pursue anything but food service.
An Associated Press reporter caught up with Tillis on Capitol Hill, and the senator did not back down from his belief that businesses should “get to make that decision versus government.”
Unfortunately, the medical establishment already does that. Hearing from people who were drug users/related to drug users trying to get medical attention and being completely rejected because of their drug use (despite it being unrelated to the illness or its treatment) is apparently incredibly common. And that’s hardly the only example of people engaging in “risky” acts or behavior deemed “improper” receiving poor - or no - care.
Well, I am still there. There are still shortages. We’re still using a lot of the “less than optimal” stuff. It sucked, and it still continues to suck.
Yes, we finally got through the dozens of pallets of the really dubious generic gloves, and now we are just having to deal with getting random name brands/types. We still have to ration “normal” gowns for ED, OR, and Covid areas and use the dubious generic yellow ones for most everyone else. I would say that 75% of PPE we stock are subs, and subs of subs. Even wacky stuff, like hair bonnets.
I think the N95 problem is here to stay, though. If we are back to using 3m N95s as disposable before 2023 will be really surprised.
Qualitatively, perhaps not. But quantitatively, in terms of their negative impact on public health and hospital capacity? I think it’s quite different. Drunk drivers have a limited number of people they can kill. Heart disease is not contagious.
Or because they’re not “White.” Lost a friend and co-worker that way. She was in severe pain (right leg) and got blown off by docs because they figured she was just looking for opiates. Nope – turns out it an aggressive pelvic osteosarcoma pressing on a nerve. By the time they actually looked at it they had to remove a large part of her pelvis, the right leg, and it had already metastasticized.
E2A: She was Vietnamese, by the way. Born here, no accent.
That really really sucks. I was under the [evidently mistaken] impression that the new administration would make an effort to remediate those ppe shortages (unlike the previous admin, which made an active effort to prevent hospitals from getting those supplies, at least for blue states an urban areas). What the hell happened?
Then there’s also hospitals that as policy cave to patients that request white practitioners. I know a nurse who recently told a patient making such a request that they’re welcome to find another hospital if they’re so concerned about the skin color of the licensed and trained caregivers.
I think most hospitals saw the writing on the wall and made policies like we did. We can’t rely on daily shipments of everything in lockdown situations. The delivery companies, distribution centers and even the manufacturers can shut down or work at a limited capacity, so we have to stock far more to make sure we are prepared.
To give it perspective, we are a ~1000 bed hospital with satellite locations and clinics. Back before Covid we could rely on a steady stream of goods, and warehoused 3 days worth of material. That’s not a standard for everything, some things we might have a week, or a month’s worth, but our reorder point would have been that three day mark.
Now, everything has to be thirty days. On average we move roughly 46 full pallets, almost two full 53 foot semi truck loads into the warehouse a day. First of the month we have an order restocking the biggest stuff that ends up being about 90 pallets. We’ve rented two additional warehouses to handle this.
So, I imagine most major hospitals have done this, globally. I can’t imagine the manufacturing sector of this industry was really prepared for it. We are stocking about four times what we were. That is a 400% increase for manufacturers to handle.
In time things will adjust, but for the foreseeable future there’s gonna be shortages. If things get worse than last time? I really don’t want to think about it.
That’s not what’s going to happen. What’s actually going to happen is yet more mass shootings, aimed at health care clinics, hospitals, pharmacies - anywhere they are offering vaccinations to people. They might die by suicide by cop, but they will take a shitload of people with them first. They will “own the libs” by KILLING them…
