Gotta say, I'm not looking forward to this. There's a lot of paperwork and proving of bona fides involved and there will be even more at the test site -- all contactless until the last step, which is the part that I am told isn't fun.
The telephone screener/intake person was interesting. Obviously working from home and struggling a little bit with the software, she apologized for being a slow typist. "I'm not very quick at this. Normally I do research," she said. "I'm a scientist."
My screener was a Ph.D.
There's a whole knot of biomedical research, manufacturing, support and hospitals downtown, in a broad arc that sweeps from the granddaddy of them all, the vast Eli Lilly* complex, and curves northwest to the hospitals and related establishments on and around the IUPUI campus and then swings northeast to the collection of huge buildings that comprise Methodist hospital. The hospitals are busy and crowded; Lilly's got one division working on COVI-19 treatments and their insulin section is obviously essential. But everybody else, if their work wasn't essential, got sent home and their PPE was given to be used by people working with the infected and possibly infected.
That leaves a huge pool of talent trying to work from home; if the bulk of your work is in a lab somewhere, there's a finite amount of paperwork to do, and after that-- Well, after that, it seems, there's still work to be done, even if it's not in one's usual line. I wouldn't be surprised to learn a lot of the people collecting and collating data for the Indiana State Department of Health are drawn from that same group.
Meanwhile, several local distillers and a hairspray manufacturer are turning out home-grown hand sanitizer for first responders; that leaves more of the usual commercial product available for you and me, and keeps the people in the police department, the fire department, paramedics and others a little safer. Their exposure is higher than just about anyone's (except that nice person running the cash register at your local grocer's or big-box five-and-dime, don't forget him or her) and they need that alcohol-laden goo.
This is how a city functions when things go sideways; this is how all our cities are functioning, as best as they can.
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* Lilly, it should be noted, is to the patent protection of medicines what Disney is to copyright. And that's something to ponder.
BUILDING A 1:1 BALUN
4 years ago
3 comments:
Crossing my fingers the news isn't terrible.
My wife and daughter, age 23, both had internet teleconferences this week. It really is an amazing thing what technology has done now days. And it now begs the question, "Since we are able to do medical teleconferences now,while under quarantines, what is stopping us from doing it much more later, in order to both save costs,and to allow Doctors to avoid other illnesses as well."
I think that it is something that the CDC and the NIH should really consider making this a permanent option for some kinds of office visits. When I was young growing up, my parents never went to the doctor, and the only time that I did, was when I got hurt, or a follow up to the many concussions from football that I got. Now, I see my family doctor every 2-3 months, just to check on my recent bloodwork, which I get all the time.
It would save time and such, and I would still have an office visit once or twice a year, to check on my weight and BP, etc. I truly believe that the reason that we see the age in the obituaries continuing to go up, with the age of 90 and above a very normal thing, is the continual closer relationship with our physician, and some of the conditions that they have the ability to both monitor and control,like the blood pressure and blood sugar, etc. And possibly more attention paid to better nutrition, exercise, and other external factors that we know can control our health.
I wish you good luck, and good health,and also hope you are able to feel better soon, also. I know, that not feeling good,can wear you down, not only physically, but emotionally.
What Antibubba said.
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