Smoke gets in your eyes. Climate change is real. And the end of personal care doctors.
I just got back from a trip to LA for a visit with old friends.
The irony is that for most of the time I was there I was in isolation because of a case of Covid.
It was my second time. This time it hit me harder but was cut short by a prescription for Paxlovid, prescribed by a doctor online.
While there is some continuing of official Covid data regarding deaths and hospitalizations, there is very little else.
My own empirical sense is that there might be an uptick in those coming down with Covid along with the usual colds and flu.
There is an interesting article at Kaiser Health News on the transformation of healthcare resulting from the shortage of family doctors and the buying up of doctor practices by private equity.
Some doctors now in practice also say they are burned out, facing cumbersome electronic health record systems and limits on appointment times, making it harder to get to know a patient and establish a relationship.
Others are retiring or selling their practices. Hospitals, insurers like Aetna-CVS Health, and other corporate entities like Amazon are on a buying spree, snapping up primary care practices, furthering a move away from the “Marcus Welby, M.D.”-style neighborhood doctor. About 48% of primary care physicians currently work in practices they do not own. Two-thirds of those doctors don’t work for other physicians but are employed by private equity investors or other corporate entities, according to data in the “Primary Care Chartbook,” which is collected and published by the Graham Center.
I’m now ten days since my first covid symptoms, followed by a bad cough.
The cough has now been made even worse by the cloud of smoke from the Canadian wildfires that has settled on Chicago for the last two days.
It is ironic that this has happened right after our trip out west.
Smoke from wildfires are way more common in California, Washington and Oregon.
We are more expert on cold and snow.
Did I bring the western fire smoke with me?
But, to use a phrase we hear a lot these days, smoke filled unhealthy air may be the new normal for us on the east coast and midwest too.
Of course, even on a normal day, parts of the south side and north west Indiana face some of the worst air in the country from industrial pollution.
The rest of us are just not use to seeing the Willis Tower hidden in gray/orange dirty air.
City officials have responded by telling us to stay inside with the windows closed and summer programs for kids have been rescheduled to indoor activities.
Illinois’ Governor JB Pritzker has limited his response to wishing this smoke cloud doesn’t stay too long.
But the Governor knows that climate change is real and while the wildfire smoke may last a just a few more days, in the long term it is going to be way worse than that.
Recent wildfire seasons are burning wider and hotter.
From 1982-1992, the national wildfire ten-year average was 2.5 million acres each year.
The more recent 10-year average: 7.7 million acres, roughly the size of Maryland.
And for the many workers who must leave home for work or work outside, limiting the official response to “air quality alerts” and to warnings to stay indoors, is a cruel joke.