Lori Falce: How to triage pandemic problems

The doctors stood at the foot of my father-in-law’s bed, explaining to my husband and me what was happening and why.

The cardiologist talked about heart rhythms and lost muscle and the crippling heart attack that had brought my father-in-law to the hospital in the first place. It was critical, he said, to continue the blood thinners that were preventing clots from forming.

The gastroenterologist explained the bleeding in the stomach was lowering the blood volume and making it harder for the heart to do its job. The bleeding was exacerbated by the blood thinners. They should be stopped, he said, before they made a bad situation worse.

The information overwhelmed my husband, who just wanted to do what was best for his dad. He wasn’t prepared to be the judge as the two experts argued about whose specialty was more important.

I think about that day in the intensive care unit at UPMC Shadyside a lot these days as people who know a lot more than I do state emphatically what needs to be done to end the pandemic, correct the problems it has caused and get a capitalist nation back on sure economic footing.

Because everyone is triaging the patient based on their own specialty.

Ask an epidemiologist and they talk about community disease spread and herd immunity. Ask a pharmacist or other vaccine distributor and they tell you they need more little glass vials and a better system to get shots in arms.

Ask a teacher and they will tell you they just need a way to safely and sanely connect with their students — whether online or in person. Ask a school administrator and you might hear that they want clear guidance on what to do rather than vague recommendations.

Employers want to be able to bring people to work. Business owners want to know that they can buy supplies for the week without having the rules change two days later, radically affecting what’s needed or what will be wasted.

The stock market is running on a treadmill, desperate for a chance to lurch forward without sliding backward. The people would just like it all to have never happened.

And as they all stand at the foot of the nation’s bed, talking at once about what is most important and what can wait and why one specialty’s treatment is going to be worse for another’s progress, the government seems to stand there frozen, not sure how to prioritize the recommendations.

What we need is less competition between different parties or different branches, different departments and different industries and more cooperation. For the last year, every successful step that has been made in the pandemic has been about working together — not fighting to be more important.