Illness and isolation

“If you and I die here, will someone know?”
The increasing commercialization of American medicine has forced doctors to be ever more “efficient”—which means they can afford to spend less and less time with each patient as a human being, instead having to concentrate on patients as bodies. The covid pandemic has accelerated this trend, leaving medical professionals burned out and patients frightened and alone. Palliative care specialist Diane Meier observes that the only counterweight to all this trauma is human connection. 

“Covid Has Traumatized America. A Doctor Explains What We Need to Heal,” by David Marchese, New York Times, March 24, 2021