The Straws That Break the Camel’s Back
Tim Barrus, the New York Times
Theoretically, someone could have multiple diseases. And public health, as we know it, is the answer.
Malaria. Covid. TB. HIV.
Are you kidding me.
I have been visiting other public health systems versus just the one I am intimately acquainted with where I live in Appalachia. Where public health is appalling.
I take notes. I listen. I have one compelling observation.
Foster families. The throwaways. Kids with no advocates whatsoever.
Emergency placements are becoming emergencies themselves. The American South is bearing the brunt of the nightmare.
I have seen babies in public health clinics having their diapers changed on clinic waiting room floors. I have seen boys who do sex work turn around and leave clinics (often armed cops are at the doors) to return to sex work.
In order to survive. Leave morality out of it. These are kids. Sex work buys food.
Many of these kids are familiar with the foster care system and the placement cycles of disease. We call them the hard to reach. What exactly do they have to reach for.
They will be returning to public school, too. Kids are going to die. Teachers are going to die. Staff is going to die. There is no money.
The boys who do sex work call their customers tricks. These men never face consequences. They become invisible. But not this time. Tricks are going to die.
Kids who have committed no crime are being placed in juvenile detention centers. Where disease is rampant. As disease numbers rise. So do sexually transmitted diseases.
It will haunt us.