Idaho doctors and nurses are 'beyond frustrated' by COVID misinformation, as state expands health care rationing

Idaho expanded health care rationing statewide on Thursday amid ballooning COVID-19 hospitalizations, allowing providers to first allocate ICU beds and limited resources to patients most likely to survive, if necessary, per The Associated Press.

Although the news may not have come as a surprise (Idaho is one of the country's least vaccinated states), Carolyn McFarlane, a Boise-based doctor, told the Idaho Capital Sun she felt "defeated" by the announcement.

"I feel like we broke the system. In many ways," she added. "That our community, unfortunately, I think, wasn't hearing the messages of health care providers for weeks and weeks." In a way, McFarlane noted, things have started to feel a lot like a "battlefield with mass casualties."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Alicia Luciani, a Boise nurse, is also "beyond frustrated by the people and ideological groups who spread bogus information about COVID-19," and feels like state leaders aren't delivering a "strong and consistent message" about the virus to their constituents, writes the Idaho Capital Sun.

"A lot of us say all the time, 'I wish I could wear a camera,' just so people could see what I'm seeing on a daily basis," she said. "It's really hard to hold up iPads for family members, massive amounts of family members, to say goodbye to their loved one."

Dr. Wesley Pidcock echoed the dissonance between the outside world and hospital front lines: "It's hard to be here all day long and see this … and then you go to, like, Whole Foods, or you go to the store, and you walk in there, and you're the only one wearing a mask, right?"

"No one really realizes what actually happens here," he added. Read more at the Idaho Capital Sun.