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Comment by newsclues | Hacker News Reader

It doesn’t make sense that individuals can do everything to be safe and the the hospital of all places is where they get sick.

Dwell deeply on that. The hospital is incapable of keeping people safe from Covid.

All the masks, social distancing and testing, and you catch Covid at the hospital.

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It's not a new phenomena [1]. I do not think "hospitals are incapable of keeping people safe from Covid" is the best expression. I think "encountering any humans bears increased risk in Covid times", regardless if those humans work in a hospital (although, arguably lower risk) versus a shoe store.

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5414085/

It calls into question the effectiveness of all the Covid countermeasures. A triple vaxxed person, following all masking and distancing requirements, in a highly controlled environment still gets Covid. It makes you feel a bit like... What's the point? Do we realistically have any tools that slow the spread of Omicron?

The standard response is "Just imagine how bad it would be without all the restrictions!". Which is exactly the problem, perhaps. You're using imagination and not a quantitative approach. You can say that about literally anything. "Just imagine how much worse we would have lost that game if I wasn't wearing my lucky socks!"

A) Covid is probably airborne and refusal to admit as such and this upgrade hvac is potentially an ignored reality

B) why aren’t we testing and segregated people in hospitals? If society is expected to segregate unvaccinated people why can’t hospitals test and segregate healthy patients from anyone with Covid?

C) what expression is appropriate for a hospital that was incapable of preventing a patient free of Covid from contracting Covid in the hospital? Unwilling perhaps? Uninterested?

You can't reasonably maintain social-distance at the hospital. Pretty much by definition, you're in contact with several nurses and doctors per day, plus orderlies and various other staff. And that's the baseline. Add guests, other patients, and over-crowding (in some locations).

Of course hospitals are incapable of keeping you safe from an airbourne respiratory virus. Nothing can, short of a respirator.

The follow-up question is - if we can't stop infection in hospital buildings, where the most vulnerable are literally cooped up together for days and weeks at a time, what's the point of the rest of the restrictions? If you follow the logic used to set guidance and law where I live (ie, closures of various categories of business at various times, and ongoing), then logically we should also have shut down the hospitals...

In mid 2020 in the UK, The National Health Service (NHS) began introducing "green" and "ultra-green" pathways, and designating zones or entire hospitals as 'green' (CoVid-19 free) sites. 'Green' and 'ultra-green' refer to CoViD-19 prevention measures in the 14 days preceding non-emergency admissions and the status of zones (or entire sites) at the hospital during and after treatment.

This was to ensure non-emergency admissions could continue without risking infection.

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