Opinion: Shutdown is Putting Veterans in Harm’s Way…Again

Article by Mike Ford in "RedState":

The Democrats, media and in some cases, their fellow travelers in the administration, keep pushing for a delay in opening America back up. Democrat Governors and Mayors are so adamant, that they have threatened fines and jail time to Americans exercising their God given rights to earn a living and provide for their families. The Governor of Michigan continues to scold her citizens like a petulant schoolmarm who has lost control of her classroom. Dr Fauci, the administration’s medical talking head, also continues to foster this harmful meme.

Of course, the vast majority of folks supporting this unconstitutional travesty, continue to draw paychecks, many of them on the taxpayer dime. Full disclosure, I myself draw a modest pension for serving in the Army. However, I side completely with the folks who aren't as fortunate as me, the folks who have to get out there in actual contact with other Americans, folks who want to get back to work and can ill afford the effects of this shutdown. I side with the folks who are being grievously harmed by this travesty of government overreach.

That overreach doesn’t just affect American workers and small business owners. It’s also affecting American Veterans. One of the sectors that surprisingly, has been hemorrhaging workers, is the health sector. That’s right, the health sector. In order to free up bed space for the Fauci predicted tsunami of Wuhan patients that never happened, hospitals throughout the United States postponed “elective” procedures and cleared their decks for action.

The tsunami never arrived, so many of these had to lay off staff and sone closed their doors, possibly permanently. Some facilities even prohibited non-emergency, family practice/primary care operations. The Veterans Administration did this in preparation for its role as a backup to the civilian sector health care infrastructure. It closed many of its primary care facilities.

One of the things I consider a benefit in my current vocation as a pundit, is that I get to pay extra attention to Veterans issues and provide some modest, moral support. I’ve actually had Veterans contact me about this particular issue. In at least two cases, Wuhan Virus response preparation is preventing Veterans from getting necessary Primary Care services and subsequent specialized referrals. This came close to resulting in fatalities.

From one such patient who had been unable to get such attention…

Talked to Dr. (name redacted) the cardiology guru at the VA hospital in (location redacted). As soon as I explained the weird shortness of breath, sleep disruptions, and weight gain in spite of diet and exercise, he told me to cut my Beta Blocker dosage in half. Turns out, it’s slowing my metabolism down too much.

My fellow DD 214 Alumnus further stated, the implication being that he might have died.

No pandemic shutdown panics and I would have known my prescription meds were killing me MONTHS ago.

He then followed up with

Interestingly, I spoke to several doctors today. All of them are pretty unhappy with the shutdown orders. One said directly to me,
“It’s like they forgot about every aspect of healthcare except for the virus, but heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes are still killing people too.”

The doctors are right. Their succinct commentary has been the story of this entire response. We stopped people from working. We cleared health care facilities, we deferred care for our Veterans, all because we are myopically focused on a threat that is not near as threatening as Dr Fauci and COL/Dr Birx would have us believe. I haven’t found a case yet, where a Veteran who survived combat, died because he was denied Primary Care at a VA facility because of this overreaction…yet.

https://www.redstate.com/darth641/2020/05/13/opinion-shutdown-is-putting-veterans-in-harm%e2%80%99s-way...again/