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In response to Iris’s comment: “we are still operating on a largely “treatment-based” system instead of a “preventative care” approach”
I definitely agree that there needs to be a transition to preventative care nationwide. I feel like there is almost an ethical duty of public health to do so because knowing that there are factors that contributes/ results in adverse health conditions and not doing something to help prevent it before it starts sounds cruel. It shows the unwillingness to change our ways. A preventative strategy would also effect the business oriented mindset of the health care industry. You make money by having patients who are sick, need medication, or going for check ups.Dr. Tweedy grew up with relatively poor dietary habits that continued into his young adult life. He was able to change his behavior, habits, and attitudes towards exercising and eating right that ultimately led to his healthier lifestyle that reduced his potential of getting high blood pressure related issues. He was very privileged that he was able to control his health in such a way because for many Americans this is a challenge that they may not overcome. The odds are stacked against them even more so if they are uninsured and poor.
“I stood before them face-to-face with my family’s past and perhaps my own future”
This quote from page 73, really highlighted how much of people’s health outcomes are not completely determined by individual choices but are very influenced by income, occupation (and whether it offered health care), race, and gender. Everyone is a product of their choices, but we do not determine the choices that are given to us. How is he able to trace a history of high blood pressure and hypertension? There are structural inequities in place that allow and permit systematic oppression that leads to effects that last generations and will continue to do so unless something changes.
Reading about how a doctor can be just as unhealthy as a non-medical professional is really humbling. Often I think of people with medical degrees would be at peak health but it also sounds like they have no time to obtain health themselves in terms of their diet, sleep, and mental health as they are in medical school and training. There is this irony that those who work to keep us healthy are often burnt out and spread thin according to Dr. Tweedy’s book.“One part that greatly struck me was around the timestamp 29:50, when two men (I believe a congressman and a reporter) brought up wanting to tattoo people with AIDs so people would know to stay away from them. ”
In response to this part: it was really telling of how disconnected and how far removed officials were from this issue. You would think that in times of crisis, people would be more compassionate towards one another and care for one another but we were shown hostility in terms of nurses not willing to do their ~job~ and the lack of funding given. It was like people (esp people in power) were willing to let this disease take the lives of fellow Americans, the very people they were suppose to serve and represent (though the LGBTQ community probably were the opposite of what they personally identified with). I also related that scene with the tattoos with the Holocaust as well as with the branding of cattle. Both instances are dehumanizing.
I think this movie did a great job at presenting the AIDS epidemic as an injustice towards and an excuse to marginalize people that were different. But it is not without faults, similar to what both Professors mentioned in lecture: there are some shots and some individuals who were not helping to drive the story and made me uncomfortable/confused at times. The film doesn’t really capture the pressures on providing care to AIDS patients (structural barriers) but it was showing that there was pressure and backlash on the individuals that had AIDS or the hospital workers. Though it did show two people of color who contracted AIDS, black people were marginalized further with the stigma of having AIDS/HIV. I think the message of the documentary could have been strengthened by showing more background information on more (as well as diverse) patients in order to represents more sides to the epidemic.
The part where one nurse was explaining how she was told to stop thinking that she was there to cure people but to care for people, this showed a turning point in the film. I think our school system is really driving people to the “cure” mindset at a young age. As a child, I related doctors to treating patients, curing cancer, and preforming surgery. It totally lacks the idea that doctors form bonds with their patients, are usually consulting with them, and are meeting them regularly. Professor Thraikill mentioned in lecture, organic chemistry is not teaching us how to interact with patients (can confirm this because I have taken orgo 1 + 2), though it is a required class for medical school. I think many pre-health students are giving precedence to their credentials (grades, research, and extra curricular activities) because that is what gets them into med school. There is a need for “real” training around what will equip them with the emotional capacity to care for people who are in pain is needed just as much as the biological knowledge, maybe this is available in shadowing but I think maybe real life simulations of conversations and of dialogue is needed to train future health care providers.
I think it is very interesting that there is an almost automatic and immediate response of blame and a simplification of disease in times of crisis.
As Prof. Rivkin-Fish spoke about today in class, AIDS was reduced to a disease almost synonymously related to gay men and their behavior. There were stories of how to further stigmatize and relate people with certain intentions that are dangerous to the rest of the community.
And today with COVID-19, I find that many people just refer to it as corona virus, but corona viruses are a type of virus among many others. It is also playing a part in racism against Chinese, Chinese-Americans, and other Asian identities. My mom told me a conspiracy theory that someone else told her : corona virus was manufactured as a bioweapon against the US.
