As I write this post in the early morning hours of Wednesday, known COVID-19 cases in the U.S. have reached 19,745,674 and known COVID-19 deaths have reached 341,801. Yesterday, we lost more people due to COVID-19 than we did during the 9/11 terror attacks. Yet, there are those who still think the disease is a hoax.
And even worse, people in rural areas are harassing and threatening to kill healthcare workers for trying to do their jobs.
Back in 2010, Newsweek talked about the rural brain-drain, how small town America was losing their best and brightest. What the reporter and the two writers she interviewed failed to address is how some people are driven from their home towns.
If a person excels in the arts or find an interest in anything outside of what is considering the norm, they are treated as a problem to be solved. The person is shamed or coerced into activities they may not find as fascinating as their relatives do. If they continue pursuing their own interests, they are isolated. Ostracized. Until they dream of "escaping" their home town.
And yet, these are towns that need healthcare and education professionals. Professionals the towns are already having a hard time attracting. Professionals that these town have spent thousands of dollars to recruit.
With the pandemic, things have grown exponentially worse. Now, healthcare professional are actively being driven from their posts. Death threats against the former head of the Ohio Department of Health Dr. Amy Acton and her children forced her to resign from her post. The person Governor DeWine picked to replace Doctor Acton refused the job, citing the threats Dr. Acton experienced in the post.
When this pandemic subsides, many of these small towns are going to find themselves without knowledgeable professionals, especially in the healthcare industry. So what's going to happen when you have a heart attack? Or a stroke?
Urgent care centers are great for basic first aid, but their personnel can't perform some of the lifesaving procedures you might need. More people will die from accidents and illnesses because they are too far away from qualified professionals.
Why are we letting fear, anger, and resentment turn a large swath of our country into a third world nation?
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