Jesse Jackson flew into Dallas a few days ago, and I know this because he Tweeted about his arrival and shared photos of himself praying with family. The self-styled “reverend” took to Huffington Post today, shortly before Thomas Eric Duncan's death was announced, and lamented white privilege as the reason why Duncan wasn't receiving the same experimental drugs as the previous two ebola patients, Kennethy Brantley and Nancy Writebol.
But there are also questions of giving the drug only to those whose cases will bring media attention—like the two white missionaries. Use in such high-profile cases could increase the number of investors and the amount of government money for further research into the drug cocktail.
The use of ZMapp raises the question of privilege. Is it only those with better connections to positions of power who will get a fighting chance to receive this experimental drug?
[…]
Duncan has a foreign accent, black skin, and no health insurance. From a theological perspective, Thomas Eric Duncan is one of our brothers described by Jesus as the “least of these.” What role did his lack of privilege play in the treatment he received? He is being treated as a criminal rather than as a patient.
It wasn't “privilege” that provided ZMapp to Brantley and Writebol, it was Franklin Graham, who paid for the missionaries's flights back to the US and for the drugs to treat their condition. Graham provided these drugs to Brantley and Writebol, why didn't Jackson do the same for Duncan? It isn't as though Jackson lacks the financial ability to do so. What “privilege” prevented Jackson from assisting Duncan? Why didn't he?
Jackson questions why Duncan was initially turned away from the hospital when he arrived and informed the staff that he was from Liberia (Duncan lied on his travel form before flying to the US). The CDC called it a “teachable moment” and the hospital's software was blamed. This software?
A Dallas hospital’s bizarre bungle of the first U.S. case of Ebola leaves me wondering:
Is someone covering up for a crony billionaire Obama donor and her controversy-plagued, taxpayer-subsidized electronic medical records company?
Last week, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital revealed in a statement that aprocedural flaw in its online health records system led to potentially deadly miscommunication between nurses and doctors. The facility sent Ebola victim Thomas Duncan home despite showing signs of the disease—only to admit him with worse symptoms three days later.
[…]
Here’s what I can tell you for sure: Texas Health contracts with Epic Systems for its electronic medical records system—and the Dallas hospital isn’t the only client that has complained about its costly information-sharing flaws and interoperability failures.
Epic was founded by billionaire Judy Faulkner, a top Obama donor whose company is the dominant EMR player in the U.S. health care market. As I reported last year, Epic employees donated nearly $1 million to political parties and candidates between 1995 and 2012 — 82 percent of it to Democrats. The company’s Top 10 PAC recipients are all Democratic or leftwing outfits, from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (nearly $230,000) to the DNC Services Corporation (nearly $175,000) and the America’s Families First Action Fund super-PAC ($150,000).
Faulkner, an influential Obama campaign finance bundler, served as an adviserto David Blumenthal. He’s the White House health information technology guru in charge of dispensing the federal electronic medical records subsidies that Faulkner pushed President Obama to adopt. Faulkner also served on the samecommittee Blumenthal chaired.
Cozy arrangement, that.
Indeed.
*UPDATE: Jackson hints at legal action against the hospital:
Speaking to MailOnline on Wednesday, Rev Jackson claimed that the treatment Duncan received contributed to his sad end.
He questioned whether there was really no more ZMapp left and why Duncan has received a drug that had never been tested on Ebola patients before, instead.
'All I do know is that Mr Duncan received late treatment and not the best drug. They say that there is no more ZMapp. It’s hard for me to believe that there’s only enough ZMapp to treat two people in all of America.
‘All of his vital signs were improving yesterday, except for the kidney and the lung area. They tried an experimental drug other than Zmapp which has been used to treat others and it didn’t work.’
Again, why didn't Jackson do what Graham did and push for treatment drugs?
