We watch the news: Job losses. Ventilator shortages. Drive-through testing sites at capacity. New York is running out of hospital beds. This is what why public health officials say we need to flatten the curve — to slow the spread of the coronavirus and allow us to provide healthcare without being overwhelmed, which is likely to lead to shortages and rationing. It’s what we’ve witnessed in Italy, and we would be foolish to assume that it can’t happen here.
But we’re healthy. We’re stocked up, prepared for the most part. This is not the case for all. The Times today reports on what it calls the “most vulnerable,” those in refugee camps who have fled war and famine and are packed into camps that lack even the most basic sanitary conditions. “(I)nternational health experts and aid workers,” the Times reports, “are increasingly worried that the virus could ravage the world’s most vulnerable people: the tens of millions forced from their homes by violent conflict.”
Hank Kalet 