This is what we're not seeing.
An article, over six months ago (I thought I'd shared it), asked "Where are the photos of people dying of COVID?" It noted how in other countries, everyone knew what the pandemic looked like, but here, for reasons of journalistic ethics, the pandemic was literally invisible to most people. (Her article had to make do with photos from Italy.) No wonder so many didn't take it seriously, and still don't.
A new article discloses that the ravages of the pandemic in the US have been not only invisible but hidden. A political appointee in HHS made restrictions on journalists in hospitals even more onerous, even as other rules were being relaxed in the face of unprecedented circumstances. He might have thought patient privacy protections especially important at this time - although existing rules already require signed consent from anyone depicted; the patient in the rare photo above, taken in Houston a month ago, gave consent. I fear the Trump appointee was more likely motivated by ideas coming from his boss in the White House that paint media as the "enemies of the people" and reporting on COVID-19 as politically skewed. I wonder if he ever had to witness what has been going as a third of a million of his fellow citizens have lost their lives shut off from everyone they know.
But the fault is not his alone, the article points out. A psychiatry resident who's remarked on the total disjunct between the experiences of those in hospitals and those outside observes: "Hospitals, as businesses, as profit-driven entities, do not want to be
associated with death and suffering — it is very off-brand for them," I
think. Perhaps with a president who's not afraid to face pain and grief, a party which recognizes the humanity of all citizens, we'll do better. Still, how many lives might have been saved had we been confronted with the reality of what COVID does to people? Look again at that picture. Don't look away.
