Five years post-COVID-19 pandemic, nurses and health care workers claim that the health care system remains ill-prepared for future health threats despite ongoing issues such as Long COVID, resurgence of diseases like TB and measles, and an alarming flu season. They argue that public health infrastructure has deteriorated, and the systemic neglect of health needs reflects a troubling indifference within capitalism towards public health. Experts emphasize the urgency of maintaining robust public health measures as various infectious diseases continue to impact public safety.
"It's scary," says Tatiana Mukhtar, a nurse in New Orleans. The exposure during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic "was horrific, for patients and for health care workers" she says, "and having been there and having experienced that, I feel like we have learned nothing because [health care systems] are still not doing what we need to do."
The U.S. also faces a resurgence of both tuberculosis (TB) and measles, the latter of which is one of the most contagious viruses on Earth. Meanwhile, with the threat of a bird flu outbreak among humans also looming on the horizon, the Trump administration is eliminating what Mary Bowman, a nursing assistant professor, refers to as our "already meager public health infrastructure."
In truth, what was laid bare by the beginning of COVID was how disinterested capitalism is in people caring for themselves when they're sick, when they could be sick, when they could get other people sick, when their families are sick, when someone dies," Bowman told Truthout. "There's just no space for humanity in it."
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