Factual Dispatch #30: EMT PTSD

(Editor’s Note: Thanks so much to my dear friend Erez Bittan for bringing this story to my attention, it’s a deeply important topic adjacent to the mass shootings we seem to have become totally inured to.) 

One of the things that has never made sense to me was the idea of underpaid EMTs & volunteer firefighters. The two groups of people you hope are well paid, well trained, and splendidly good at their jobs, somehow never seem to get the respect or the financial security they deserve. It blows my mind that people are ok with under-resourced, exhausted, or shaky first responders, but that’s where we are as a nation I suppose.

Thankfully, that might be changing. Back in May, the Connecticut state legislature managed to strike a deal with firefighters & cops to provide catastrophic PTSD coverage. This would give those who are first on the scene to some of the most gruesome & gnarly shit, are covered to process, take time and deal with it. Not only would workman’s comp benefits be extended for PTSD, but they’d be able to take up to 52 weeks. Which is an amazing thing that we should all be sad we didn’t ask for sooner. Except, they didn’t include EMTs or Paramedics.

It might be easy to believe this happened through malice or greed, but it’s more likely that the police & firefighter unions were able to advocate for their workers more effectively than EMTs & paramedics could. Which is why they’re in the process of forming their own association, hoping to combine the forces of paid & volunteer emergency responders, to ensure this doesn’t happen again. Protected workers in fire departments across CT are also stepping up to advocate for their brothers & sisters in response. And a petition was circulated which earned over 11,000 signatures, so the inertia to get them included in a bill revision is there.

Hopefully this means the change happens quickly, and the mealy mouthed “But, Cost Though” side comments from private emergency response companies are steamrolled over. There are plenty of junior varsity capitalists who would prefer a few extra bucks in their accounts instead of ensuring their staff isn’t showing up to work shell-shocked, but my hope is that the turn over, effectiveness metrics, and all of the non-humanity arguments also line up to ensure they’re given the coverage they need. They’re on the front lines, putting people back together every hour of every day, so we owe them that much. Not just in Connecticut, but all over the country.

Eye Watering Data Visualization of the Week: America’s population, or where you pay for surge pricing on Saturday nights. (Interactive version here)

Vaguely Dystopian News of the Week: “Link Hijacking Scheme” is now an idea you have to understand if you try to dabble in social media, SEO or marketing. Also, you should probably talk to your tween or teen about editing their face for social media.

Annoying-But-Correct Take of the Week: Kids are expensive, stop being confused as to why those who aren’t independently wealthy are nervous about having them.

“Huh, Interesting Read of the Week: For as long as we’ve been throwing soldiers into the meat grinder, we’ve been letting them get fucked up on drugs to cope with it.

Royal Sampler

Personal versions of the “phone farms” you’ve seen in viral videos are popping across the USA, as Americans struggle to generate income by any means necessary.

Everyone knows Murphy’s Law or Occum’s Razor, but have you ever heard of Dollo’s Law? Gibson’s? Morgan Housel’s list of lesser known universal laws is splendid.

Nick English is one of my personal heroes, so you should definitely look to him for advice on lifting, fitness and meditation. I certainly do.

A flywheel is a weird, but useful business concept you’ve probably heard used at a meeting you were only loosely paying attention at.

Google’s Deepmind is getting better at predicting acute kidney injury, giving clinicians a possible 2 day head start on treating a deeply problematic condition.

Ben Evans correctly diagnoses Netflix not as a tech company, but as a company who used tech as a crowbar to get into an industry.

Roblox hit 100 million users. But if you’ve got a Minecraft-aged kid, you probably already knew that.

Dunk of the Week:

Fall comes soon…have you gotten the sunlight you’d hoped to get? If not, you’ve still got time.

T