Medical Privacy and Pandemic Privacy

Given the established one-size fits all medical policies, we have no choice but to allow the general population only to know general counts of cases and outcomes with no additional information such as precise locations and the specific age or other characteristics of that location’s patient.   I ask whether there has ever been a time when anyone in government has seriously defended this approach with a serious consideration that an epidemic could actually happen before the collapse of society.

Consumer appliances for life support for infectious diseases: never allowed to develop?

Based on our current system of government based on democratic processes and product liability lawsuits, we deny ourselves an option to responding to this epidemic: availability of consumer life-support systems.   This option potentially could save more lives or at least provide comfort to more people than what hospitals can dispense.   It is because of our forms of governing that we have made such devices illegal or prohibitively expensive for consumers.

Keeping people out of hospitals during epidemics

In a pandemic, there are primarily just a few conditions that need treatment, where pneumonia is probably the most common.   So, part of preparation for a future pandemic should have focused more attention on preparing for pneumonia treatment instead of counting on processes to prevent the pandemic to spread in the first place.   If we had better treatment for pneumonia and had better stores of equipment to manage the condition, we would have less to fear from pandemics.