Here's a way pandemics could be handled a lot better

Pretty obvious, actually, though not noted in corporate "news" media.

State and federal officials have called the expiration and similar moves necessary to keep hospitals staffed amid the Omicron surge, but many RNs are calling this argument a distraction, noting that the for-profit health care system artificially deflates staffing levels to protect hospital employers’ bottom lines. They are renewing calls to end the for-profit health care system altogether and move to a single-payer system. Under a single-payer system, NNU argues, hospitals could, and likely would, have been staffed-up such that facilities could safely weather the temporary loss of employees who were out sick.

Profit-driven hospitals’ continual failure to invest in safe staffing is what’s creating the kind of dangerous working conditions driving nurses away from the profession at a time when they are needed most, unionized RNs say. “Nurses will tell you we are failing because we have let the interests of corporations and our hospital employers dictate our country’s response to this virus. Their goal is profit, not saving lives,” (National Nurses United President Zenei) Triunfo-Cortez said during a press conference last week. - Truthout