A former US surgeon general says he went to the ER for dehydration and ended up with a $5,000 bill. He called the healthcare system 'broken.'

return2ozma@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 930 points –
A former US surgeon general says he went to the ER for dehydration and ended up with a $5,000 bill. He called the healthcare system 'broken.'
businessinsider.com
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Fuck this joker. He’s the IDIOT that said, as the SURGEON GENERAL, “Seriously people - STOP BUYING MASKS! They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus, but if healthcare providers can’t get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk!” (Tweet was then deleted). He should lose his medical license and be imprisoned for the excessive number of deaths his lies caused.

When exactly did he say this? At the beginning of the pandemic when things were still uncertain?

I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with you if he said that at the beginning. To be clear, I know masks were an effective protection against the coronavirus. But at that time there was a lot of uncertainty, first, and second, he was half-right: there was a shortage of masks, and medical professionals needed them at a very critical time. I followed that advice. Then when the CDC said "oops, no actually DO wear masks!" I started wearing them.

So..... I'm not saying he was right. I'm just saying we should judge people in context. Don't pile him up with the true idiot anti-mask bundle.

They were lying in order to get as many masks as possible to healthcare staff. Perhaps they saved more lives doing so

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They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching

That's technically true, but the correct answer is more nuanced then the average adult has the attention span to understand or the character limit of twitter.

Masks are better at stopping the wearer from spreading it to other people, but a lot of people were getting infected through spit going into their eyes. Did this post occur during the mask shortage were even surgeons couldn't get the masks they needed to do their work? The quote you gave said to stop buying masks, not to stop wearing them. Best practice was to use a reusable mask and face shield.

We've already had this discussion ad nauseum since 2020. It's 2024. Just stop with spreading information that can fuel the anti-mask bullshit.

I understand that wearing eye protection can reduce the risk of catching the virus. But to say "masks are not effective" being technically true is irresponsible.

People only accepting simple answers are why so many people died. I never said masks aren't effective. You reduced my comment until it lost it's original meaning.

Yeah, sorry, man. Freaking anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers had me on edge for so long, that it was practically an automatic response.

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