Thanks….No Thanks

This past Thanksgiving was a wonderful occasion as it always is.  Up early to start smoking some bird, laughing at the truly horrible lip-syncing in the Macy’s Day Parade (at one point worse than 2 seconds, when a visual-audio mismatch to that degree in NYC just screams “Godzilla!”), ate waaaayyyy too much by design, football, laughs, extended nap, the whole deal.

So after all the good, sincere gratitude vibes, it was quite the contrast to read “America is strong on Thanksgiving two years after COVID.” After skimming it, I wondered (suspected) who would write such self-serving crap and was in no way surprised to see that it had come from a health administrator, “T. Douglas Lawson, PhD is Chief Executive Officer of St. Luke’s Health in Houston, Texas and Senior Vice President COO at Commonspirit Health.”

“While we hold separate belief systems, political affiliations, and values, there may be no better lens into what makes America than through a health care lens.”  If you mean that the dishonesty and corruption of our health care system which enabled it to be weaponized against individuals, then yes, this industry is a great lens into what makes the U.S.  But there is nothing “American” about it.

“As a health care leader, I’m strengthened daily knowing that our staff, physicians, and volunteers continue to serve a fighting American spirit.”  Typical adminstralian designed to make the author sound virtuous on the backs of others.  Remember this line.

I guess Lawson has been doing this for a while, as his company bio indicates.  So he has the lingo down, and the knack of flowing platitudes that specify nothing and will leave him off the hook.  

“What makes me so optimistic about our country is that there is more that binds us together as human beings and members of a community than what separates us.”  Spoken like someone who hasn’t actually had to treat patients, been constantly targeted by the government & media, and seen his workload increase even as his compensation has continually eroded.  There is precious damn little that binds health care administrators and their serfs together, apart from the latter’s need to pay the mortgage.  

“There were very dark days during the pandemic. There were some days when I’m sure our staff questioned whether or not they could continue. There was physical fatigue, mental fatigue, loneliness, isolation and sadness, yet health care professionals pushed on …”  Of course they did.  And what was your response, PhD Lawson?

“Over the past year, I have spoken with other hospital executives (my emphasis) and almost all of them have generally the same refrain: we came through a pandemic because of the compassion, human kindness and care we showed our fellow women and men.”  Gee that’s great – and how did you treat them?

“Our country banded together in service to each other. We took extra shifts. We made sacrifices for the care and well-being of others. That sacrifice that Americans are willing to make for each other is what makes our country so special.”  Actually, no.  The bureaucracy and a complicit media, using doctors as camp guards, herded an ignorant, cowardly public into loss of civil liberties, lockdowns, delayed childhood development, mass economic destruction and an increase in public debt so large that we will all surely live to see much, much worse, and the loss of bodily autonomy with consequences as yet undefined.  And who is this “we,” Kemosabe, do you have a mouse in your pocket?  While hospitals as late as a year ago weren’t letting family in to the ER lobby (I know from personal experience), it’s pretty dubious that highly priced hospital CEOs were “taking extra shifts.”

Which is not to say that they weren’t busy. 

“HOUSTON, TX (August 12, 2021) – In keeping with St. Luke’s Health’s mission of improving the health of those it serves and especially those who are vulnerable, and our commitment to providing safe care for patients and a safe work environment for clinicians and staff, St. Luke’s Health is requiring all employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by November 1, 2021. This requirement also includes all physicians, Advanced Practice Providers, volunteers, and others caring for patients within our facility.”

What about those who had already gotten and recovered from the virus?

“Requiring vaccination for our teams is critical to maintaining a safe care environment.”  That’s provably false. If a person was vaccinated, and the (ahem) vax worked as advertised, then the unvaccinated status of a health care worker would be irrelevant.  

But, but…variants!!

“Unfortunately, COVID-19 cases are on the rise again due to the threat of variants, and many communities continue to have low vaccination rates. Our decision to require the COVID-19 vaccination for our teams is rooted in a commitment to keeping our community safe…”  Force is justified to keep you safe.

“By requiring the COVID-19 vaccination as a condition of employment, just as we do with the flu (influenza) vaccine…”  Except the flu shot is NOT an experimental technology, and has decades of longitudinal data.  And the flu shot prevents more serious illness, but not infection, nor transmission, so maybe it’s time to question why the flu shot is mandated for any reason other than to keep workers from calling in sick.  

“St. Luke’s Health joins health systems and associations across the country in supporting vaccination for health care workers in an effort to continue protecting our patients, staff, and communities from this dangerous disease.”  Which was a nice way of economically threatening employees to submit to a treatment they might or might not regard as beneficial.

I know every episode of “Mad Men” by heart, and Lawson’s op-ed is marketing, and nothing but.  Do I think he is sincere?  I doubt it, but it doesn’t matter.  PhD Lawson may be a perfectly nice, honorable man in his personal life.  But he oversaw a corporation that used unjustifiable force against its employees, justifying it as a safety measure unsupported then by the (Fauci accent) “scy-unce,” and certainly not supportable now.  I’m sure that the CEO of a major hospital corporation was understandably worried about the bottom line, and about whatever money CMS might bestow or withhold, based on the COVID policies of a given entity.  A lot a tyrannies have had understandable rationales, before the rubber truncheons came out.  And even while employees were threatened with termination, I’m sure the CEO did just fine.

But what galls the most is this health care “leader” serving up a picked over carcass of rough treatment, then covering it with banal platitudes, wrapping it in herd patriotism, taking credit for those who did the work, those he would later target, then patting himself on the back even as he declares his thankfulness.  

Well, no thanks.  One helping of this bullshit was enough.

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