Living in East Tennessee is Like Being in the Loony Bin
[Yet another letter to the editor that was not printed in the Knoxville News Sentinel]
Honestly, living in East Tennessee is like being in the loony bin. First, there is that baffling decision of the Tennessee Department of Health to save the first 975 doses of the Pfizer vaccine “in case a hospital’s supply is damaged”. Say what? Those doses could be used right now to maximize the number of people vaccinated, while if some hospital’s supply goes bad, those staffers are no worse off than they are now. As my husband suggests, the real reason for the withholding could be to create a stash for vaccinating VIPs who want to jump the queue.
Then there is the bonehead decision by Parkwest Hospital to allow visitors into the rooms of COVID patients because “people complained” about not getting to see their relatives. Sure, they are supposed to wear PPE, but the nurses aren’t responsible for helping them. As everybody who has ever taken rad worker training knows, if you don’t don and doff your PPE correctly you are going to get contaminated anyway. This is a stunning departure from visitation policy everywhere else, but Parkwest has caved in.
Finally, there is Judge Scott Green’s decision that Ronnie Lee Kidd, the now former head of the Knox County Sheriff’s Office fleet services, need serve only unsupervised probation for his role in recruiting a thief to steal a Bentley in an insurance fraud scheme. So the penalty for somebody on the public payroll who conspired in a felony is to be less than that of, say, a purse snatcher or a petty thief. Judge Green told him that if he kept his nose clean, “this will be behind you in two years.” There was also the implication that he might get judicial diversion. For a rank betrayal of the public trust!
Are we not in Wonderland??
