Covid-19 miscellany

[Loren Pechtel]

..

 

[Loren Pechtel]

alabama man dies of cardiac event after 43 hospitals with full ICUs turned him away

The family of a man who died of heart issues in Mississippi is asking people to get vaccinated for COVID-19 after 43 hospitals across three states were unable to accept him because of full cardiac ICUs.

Ray Martin DeMonia died last week in Meridian, Mississippi. He was three days shy of his 74th birthday and a well-known native in Cullman, Alabama, his family said.

DeMonia suffered from a cardiac event, and emergency staff at Cullman Regional Medical Center had to bring him to the nearest available bed, which was nearly 200 miles away at a Mississippi hospital.

It's unlikely he would have survived anyway. If they can transport him 200 miles he's reasonably stable. This is almost certainly someone who didn't get help fast enough. Your heart stops and nobody sees it, you might make it to the hospital but your chances of getting out neurologically intact are very close to zero.

 

[barbos]

Covid-19 death rates 10 times higher in countries where most adults are overweight, report finds

We need OSHA to mandate no donuts in the company kitchen; weekly weigh-ins; $14k fines for employees with high BMI.

How much of this is actually obesity vs demographics? The fat countries are also older countries.

here:

They note that the link persisted even after adjusting for age and national wealth.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

Reich winger: "I have the freedom to buy an asteroid and direct it toward Earth."

Everyone Else: "No, you dumbass. Your 'freedom' stops once it harms everyone else."

Reich winger: "Fascists!"

 

[Toni]

alabama man dies of cardiac event after 43 hospitals with full ICUs turned him away

The family of a man who died of heart issues in Mississippi is asking people to get vaccinated for COVID-19 after 43 hospitals across three states were unable to accept him because of full cardiac ICUs.

Ray Martin DeMonia died last week in Meridian, Mississippi. He was three days shy of his 74th birthday and a well-known native in Cullman, Alabama, his family said.

DeMonia suffered from a cardiac event, and emergency staff at Cullman Regional Medical Center had to bring him to the nearest available bed, which was nearly 200 miles away at a Mississippi hospital.

It's unlikely he would have survived anyway. If they can transport him 200 miles he's reasonably stable. This is almost certainly someone who didn't get help fast enough. Your heart stops and nobody sees it, you might make it to the hospital but your chances of getting out neurologically intact are very close to zero.

Da fuck? We have no idea what kind of cardiac event he had. People can and do have cardiac events and survive and do quite well after. Prompt treatment is extremely important and having to try four different hospitals and drive 200 miles does not increase the chances of survival.

 

[Jarhyn]

It's unlikely he would have survived anyway. If they can transport him 200 miles he's reasonably stable. This is almost certainly someone who didn't get help fast enough. Your heart stops and nobody sees it, you might make it to the hospital but your chances of getting out neurologically intact are very close to zero.

Da fuck? We have no idea what kind of cardiac event he had. People can and do have cardiac events and survive and do quite well after. Prompt treatment is extremely important and having to try four different hospitals and drive 200 miles does not increase the chances of survival.

Why am I getting "George Floyd" vibes from LPs position on this? "He would have died anyways", as if the thing that apparently killed him wasn't entirely preventable and the product of continuing human decisions

 

[Toni]

It's unlikely he would have survived anyway. If they can transport him 200 miles he's reasonably stable. This is almost certainly someone who didn't get help fast enough. Your heart stops and nobody sees it, you might make it to the hospital but your chances of getting out neurologically intact are very close to zero.

Da fuck? We have no idea what kind of cardiac event he had. People can and do have cardiac events and survive and do quite well after. Prompt treatment is extremely important and having to try four different hospitals and drive 200 miles does not increase the chances of survival.

Why am I getting "George Floyd" vibes from LPs position on this? "He would have died anyways", as if the thing that apparently killed him wasn't entirely preventable and the product of continuing human decisions

The absolute …..cluelessness about the impacts of COVID-19 on our health care system—and the real live people who work in health care astounds me, as well as the lack of concern for the many, many people who are NOT COVID-19 patients but need hospital care but who are not able to find beds just stuns.

Today is 9/11 and in the US we are all remembering that day 20 years ago and the lives lost. We remember and honor the brave men and women who worked so valiantly to save who they could. We recognize the PTSD that many of the first responders and surviviors carry.

Health care workers who have worked in COVID-19 wards during this pandemic also face trauma and suffer PTSD —and get up and go back to do it again—and we have people who are fat shaming people who get ill, writing off those who need hospital care for cardiac events as though their lives do not matter

The smugness and arrogance boggles the mind.

 

[Ruth Harris]

You know, I read all this fussing and fighting over the political aspects of the pandemic – and all of it doesn’t mean squat.

Maybe my perspective is a little different because it has impacted me more intensely than others. All I can think about is my niece struggling to take care of her kids when she has trouble even walking from one side of her small home to the other. Or another friend who is despondent because he will never be able to work again due to heart and lung damage from COVID. And the saddest of all is a friend of over 40 years who died far too soon, two weeks after he was diagnosed.

I love these people, even though they all thought that the pandemic was “no big deal” or “fake”. THESE are the people that it is hitting hard, and by extension those of us who care about them. My heart hurts every time I think about them.

Who cares what the politicians bloviate about? Not me. I just want this evil disease STOPPED. I don’t care what makes a good sound bite on the news. I don’t care what you think is sound political strategy. I just want all those good scientists to be heard, and for their recommendations to be followed. They are our best hope to get past this.

Ruth

 

[zorq]

Ruth, of course you are correct, but we can't ignore the fact that the virus has become a political football. This is a horrible situation, of course, because political disagreements are rarely if ever won quickly and decisively in a democracy. And natural disasters, including pandemics, require prompt and decisive action.
So part of addressing the problem of the virus is addressing its political aspects too. The political fight is also the only fight that matters at this point because science has already delivered some amazing tools but they are most effective when everyone uses them. It is this political war of words and ideas that has the best chance of limiting the damage of the virus until things become so dire that truly dictatorial mandates are passed down from the government.


It is a TRAGEDY that at least a third of the people of the US are now unreasonable ideologues who reject any scientific authorities who even hint at disagreeing with the political or religious authorities they worship. This guarantees that there is no easy solution here. Ignoring the politics will only make it worse though.

 

[bleubird]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemima...n-higher-rate-than-last-year/?sh=180c077f74c6
Sorry, if this has been posted before.
In the '70 I rode my motorcycle all over the west. Never saw this level of stupid. Must be a HD thing.I road a Yamaha.

 

[TomC]

In Louisiana, nearly 3500 children have been diagnosed with COVID19 in a 4 day span.

“Diagnosed”, lol. Tested positive maybe.

Few children will be in a situation where a test is required. Thus those are tests done because of symptoms.

I don't care enough to research it.
But it wouldn't be a surprise if, even in Louisiana, kids were tested around the first day of school. I would expect a big bunch of asymptomatic positives in that age group.
Tom

 

[ZiprHead]

They are not overwhelming the hospitals. Did you forget that point? It's central to the entire issue. Maybe pay attention better.

Nonsense. Those hospitalized overwhelmingly have co-morbidities, like obesity. If people actually cared about public health it would be the focus of discussion/prevention. But such talk is verboten.

Yes, I noticed that a lot of the hospitalized anti-vaxxers were fat, which makes their resistance to getting vaccinated all the more puzzling. So yeah, the fat mature unvaccinated should be put at the end of the line for ICU care. Of course some co-morbidities, like type 1 diabetes or many forms of cancer are not at all the responsibility of the individual.

Ironman athlete was young and healthy, until COVID-19 almost killed him

Fitness enthusiast, 42, who rejected vaccine, dies of Covid

15-year-old who wanted to go to law school dies of COVID-19
Dykota Morgan, a star athlete and honor student, died on May 4, 2021.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Ruth, of course you are correct, but we can't ignore the fact that the virus has become a political football. This is a horrible situation, of course, because political disagreements are rarely if ever won quickly and decisively in a democracy. And natural disasters, including pandemics, require prompt and decisive action.
So part of addressing the problem of the virus is addressing its political aspects too. The political fight is also the only fight that matters at this point because science has already delivered some amazing tools but they are most effective when everyone uses them. It is this political war of words and ideas that has the best chance of limiting the damage of the virus until things become so dire that truly dictatorial mandates are passed down from the government.


It is a TRAGEDY that at least a third of the people of the US are now unreasonable ideologues who reject any scientific authorities who even hint at disagreeing with the political or religious authorities they worship. This guarantees that there is no easy solution here. Ignoring the politics will only make it worse though.

I think this demonstrates something very real, namely that about a third of the U.S. population is scientifically illiterate.

Speaking personally I've seen this coming for a long time and have watched it getting worse. I'm certainly no fucking Einstein but am interested in the subject and always have been interested in understanding phenomenon. Some people - apparently about a third - don't share the behavior. So the chickens are coming home to roost.

 

[ZiprHead]

Few children will be in a situation where a test is required. Thus those are tests done because of symptoms.

I don't care enough to research it.
But it wouldn't be a surprise if, even in Louisiana, kids were tested around the first day of school. I would expect a big bunch of asymptomatic positives in that age group.
Tom

Despite Tswizzle's handwaving, a positive asymptomatic child can still spread the disease. Kids were called germ-wagons long before this disease came about.

 

[ZiprHead]

Kid with cancer can't get treated because hospital is full of covidiots.


Veteran dies of treatable illness as COVID fills hospital beds, leaving doctors "playing musical chairs"

When U.S. Army veteran Daniel Wilkinson started feeling sick last week, he went to the hospital in Bellville, Texas, outside Houston. His health problem wasn't related to COVID-19, but Wilkinson needed advanced care, and with the coronavirus filling up intensive care beds, he couldn't get it in time to save his life.

"He loved his country," his mother, Michelle Puget, told "CBS This Morning" lead national correspondent David Begnaud. "He served two deployments in Afghanistan, came home with a Purple Heart, and it was a gallstone that took him out."

But Dr. Z thinks this is all hunky dorey.

 

[southernhybrid]

I like the ACLU's opinion on vaccine mandates.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/02/opinion/covid-vaccine-mandates-civil-liberties.html

Do vaccine mandates violate civil liberties? Some who have refused vaccination claim as much.

We disagree.

At the A.C.L.U., we are not shy about defending civil liberties, even when they are very unpopular. But we see no civil liberties problem with requiring Covid-19 vaccines in most circumstances.

While the permissibility of requiring vaccines for particular diseases depends on several factors, when it comes to Covid-19, all considerations point in the same direction. The disease is highly transmissible, serious and often lethal; the vaccines are safe and effective; and crucially there is no equally effective alternative available to protect public health.

In fact, far from compromising civil liberties, vaccine mandates actually further civil liberties. They protect the most vulnerable among us, including people with disabilities and fragile immune systems, children too young to be vaccinated and communities of color hit hard by the disease.

Here’s why civil liberties objections to Covid vaccine mandates are generally unfounded.

Vaccines are a justifiable intrusion on autonomy and bodily integrity. That may sound ominous, because we all have the fundamental right to bodily integrity and to make our own health care decisions. But these rights are not absolute. They do not include the right to inflict harm on others.

Every effort should be made to ensure that vaccines are equally available to all without obstacles posed by cost, race, immigration status, geography or job responsibilities. Some undocumented people reportedly have been turned away from vaccination sites because they lack a government ID, for instance, while others have confronted obstacles related to cost, transportation or additional requirements imposed by vaccination clinics.

Public health officials should take concrete steps to counter vaccine hesitancy among communities of color whose past discriminatory treatment has understandably sown mistrust. Employers imposing mandates should afford workers paid time off as needed to obtain a vaccine and to manage potential side effects. And people should be permitted to offer written proof of vaccination rather than requiring proof via a smartphone app, so as not to disadvantage those who can’t afford a smartphone.

This is why I strongly support Biden's vaccine mandates. Freedom doesn't equate with people being permitted to spread a potentially dangerous virus t hat has put unprecedented stress on our entire medical system. All of this is due to those who are have believed misinformation or some other ignorant reason that makes them think they have the right to refuse to follow public health guidelines. That, imo is extremely selfish and/or stupid. There are some doctors who are no longer willing to examine people who have not been vaccinated. It's going to get worse if people continue to act selfish and ignorant regarding vaccination. There are many precedents for mandatory vaccines. It's only recently that for either political reasons or ignorance that a good percentage of Americans have stubbornly refused to do what's best for themselves and people in their communities.

I have a friendly acquaintance who spent over a week in the hospital with COVID. Her fiancé died of COVID a few days after she was hospitalized. Neither of them were vaccinated. She is a nurse who worked the day before she became ill. I can only hope that she didn't transmit the virus to any of her patients. This is what happens when so many people refuse the vaccine.

 

[TSwizzle]

I like the ACLU's opinion on vaccine mandates.

LOL, of course you do, now. But back in 2008 their position was the exact opposite.

 

[TomC]

Few children will be in a situation where a test is required. Thus those are tests done because of symptoms.

I don't care enough to research it.
But it wouldn't be a surprise if, even in Louisiana, kids were tested around the first day of school. I would expect a big bunch of asymptomatic positives in that age group.
Tom

Despite Tswizzle's handwaving, a positive asymptomatic child can still spread the disease. Kids were called germ-wagons long before this disease came about.

I understand that, but the claim was "diagnosed". Thousands of children, in just four days. That's not really the same as the kids tested positive when someone finally gave them a test.
Tom

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

I like the ACLU's opinion on vaccine mandates.

LOL, of course you do, now. But back in 2008 their position was the exact opposite.

Right Wing Stupidity Commandment One: Thou shalt never change one's mind based on new information because doing so constitutes weakness.

 

[lpetrich]

Ruth, of course you are correct, but we can't ignore the fact that the virus has become a political football. ...

Reminds me of If Today's Politics Had Been in WW2 from 2012

Like economic conservatives saying "Roosevelt is a Communist who is taxing us to death to pay for his war with our German brothers while Uncle Stalin pulls the strings, wasting our nation's wealth defending Bolsheviks while doing their bidding at home." Religious-Right types saying "To all God-fearing Americans, the signs are clear: The Beast has arisen, and his name is Franklin Roosevelt, leading his demonic hosts in the War of Armageddon." Xenophobic right-wingers saying "It makes me sick how soft on the Jap infiltrators this administration is." Republican Congressmembers obstructing the war effort while saying that its difficulties are all FDR's fault. Mealymouthed-centrist pundits saying "In the ongoing controversy between Nazism and democracy, the rhetoric on both sides has gotten quite heated, with some independents and moderates bemoaning the acrimonious tone of the war." The far left saying "Down with Poservelt! Down with the capitalist shill who forces workers to make concessions to Big Business for the sake of his war machine!"

Seems to me that right-wing politicians are doing what that page describes Republican Congressmembers as doing.