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I wrote this on my instagram, but I’ll put it here too
From the desk of William P. Ryan:
As a person with a terminal illness and multiple family members in the medical field, no one has more respect for people in said field than myself. It’s something I admittedly could never do.
With that being said, I am tired of the onslaught of “shenanigans” (I’m being nice) that I have gone through these last few months and that people like myself have always gone through. The thing that’s incredibly frustrating is that, these factors of my frustration are systemic. They’re ableist and classist. They border on eugenics.
From my own personal experience, I’m already tired of insulin costing an arm and a leg. I’m tired of doctors “forgetting” to put in prescriptions or preauthorizations into pharmacies because I don’t kiss the ground they walk on enough. I shouldn’t have to pester you multiple times a day, when I’m working, for insulin. People with terminal illnesses already have anxiety working, knowing companies will attempt to look for any loophole to let that person go. Most people with terminal illnesses are already paid low to poverty wages and will have to shell out most of their money towards life saving medicine just to live, because pharmaceutical companies like to price gouge. I’m very lucky that I have a great job and great insurance, but still have to pay an outrageous price for insulin. I’m tired of doctors pushing out products, because they’ll receive a kickback. You’re not fooling anyone. You’re not the tinder swindler. You have the charm of paint chips.
Something that hasn’t left my mind is when the CDC Director said that they were “encouraged” that more than 75% of vaccinated patients who died from Covid-19 had four or more pre-existing conditions. It’s disgusting, worrisome, but not surprising that someone in her position said that. I expect their tone deafness. Which is my point. All of this is systemic. Insurances and pharmacies put pressure on hospitals, hospitals overwork nurses and other staff members. Doctors are caught in between being overworked and trying to make extra money by pushing a product with whatever snake oil salesman company grabs their collar. So much so that they forget about their own work. So much so that their egos, once again, let them believe that they are anointed by a deity that they are a miracle worker and if you don’t address them as such, you are a peasant.
I’ve been through this ringer for 29 years as a CF patient and I’ve voiced a lot of these frustrations privately amongst family and friends, but I’ve reached this point where I want to express my feelings and frustrations publicly. I encourage others to do the same and maybe we can change the narrative that the most vulnerable in our society have to fight against the dollar in order to live.
You can follow me on insta @william.ryan03
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2 Replies
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William, not only do I understand a lot of your frustrations shared here, I also really appreciate your reference to the Tinder Swindler. Hah! Specifically regarding the CDC director’s comments, I was also incredibly upset. I had several conversations with friends and family about this, and how her comments were a reflection of the deep and inherent ableism that runs rampant in our society. Especially when someone is in a position of leadership, language matters! Unsurprisingly, the only people who seemed to understand why I was so frustrated were other chronically ill people.
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WoW!
Very good of you to voice this frustration William! I completely agree with you.
I didn’t know of this statement of the CDC’s director, but it is utterly disgraceful and arrogant. I think if the director of the Dutch RIVM had said a thing like that, he would be out on his bare feet. (I hope). But this sentiment is all over the place currently in society. Who cares about the extra vulnerable, let’s open up nightlife again and drop all the common sense restrictions as well. I talked about this with a dear friend recently who is well educated and also had a career in hospital work. And he said without blinking an eye that the price for solidarity with the extra vulnerable was too high, and that he understood this. Unbelievable and sad.
We are insured well and almost all of our medical expenses are covered, but this also means paying as much on health insurance as we do on food every month. Wealth is increasingly unjustly distributed in the world of today. It has never been so bad as currently. Politics have sold the little power they had long ago to the big companies, and there is a lively exchange between jobs in politics and in high executives in the business. This ensures the big money that continually laws are passed to make it impossible to end this situation of inequality and other laws are passed to increase it. Taxing these money streams has become almost impossible, so that most money the government needs to pay for health and education is being paid by the common folk, and they are taxed out of their 2nd hand pants for that.
Situations like these in the history of mankind have led to the big revolutions we know of, but in the end, the new rulers made the same mistakes all over again and even worse.
The only hope we have is the silent revolution of mankind turning inwards, reflecting about the real nature of their being. This will cure the real culprit of all the vicious circling of need and greed, of fear and control, of despair and ecstasy. In the end, the meek shall inherit the earth (or what’s left of it). But we don’t need to wait for that, we can start with this today. Then we will find ways of getting out of these vicious circles, make other choices, and create a little world of our own.
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