- This topic has 4 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 4 years, 3 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
-
NBC screams that hospitals are at a breaking point:
“Every morning in the Minneapolis metropolitan area, 200 to 400 people wait in an emergency room for a bed to come open.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/us-hospitals-are-breaking-point-delta-omicron-rcna9562
Yet a study from South Africa, where Omicron originated shows a much lower risk of hospitalization and severe illness:
“The authors found that the risk of hospital admission was roughly 80% lower for those with Omicron, and that for those in hospital the risk of severe disease was roughly 30% lower.
“In South Africa, this is the epidemiology: Omicron is behaving in a way that is less severe,” said Professor Cheryl Cohen of the NICD, one of the authors.”
Can it be both?
FWIW, 34 people are hospitalized with Covid in Contra Costa County currently, 8 in the ICU. That’s pretty flat from early November, and down from October.
-
I’m not overly sympathetic at this point. If health systems haven’t learned to deal with peak capacity in two years, they aren’t going to change their stripes. Shame on the people who run them for not having covid surge contingencies that approximate last winter’s peak.
The media can scream all they want, but where are the health “leaders” to answer for such shortages at this point? Do we need to spend another trillion to ensure we have a ready plan for field hospitals and other contingencies? Hardly.
To your point, Omicron is “supposed” to be milder (and, as some are actually saying, might provide a means to much broader immunity in the near term). I don’t trust all of those who say what any variant is “supposed” to be, however. If someone’s disease is bad enough to go to the ER, then they should go. If they are only in the ER because they are scared, then we have a media and messaging problem.
____________________________________________________________
Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work) -
-
The Biden administration has done far less with far more information than the Trump administration did. While I don’t know if there is a blame game to be played with the testing topic (I’ve heard that it’s a manufacturing issue, and in this economy that is a valid argument), but I can say that if we aren’t fully stockpiled on key emergency response items including tests, then our “authorities” aren’t paying attention.
Why our elected leaders can spend more time talking about the child tax credit, abortion, and bail reform than they can the threat of COVID locking up our economy again is beyond me. The number one priority today should be addressing major COVID disease (not mild or asymptomatic cases), and addressing the supply chain challenges that COVID “policies” cause constantly. If we haven’t overshot on government support on those two things, we haven’t done enough yet.
When it comes to other authoritarian measures, the difference today will be that the shoe is on the other foot when compared to last year. Last year, lockdowns had very attractive byproducts of civil unrest and economic ruin while the Republicans were in charge. My hunch is this year there will be no lockdowns because, well, they hurt and Democrats don’t like to hurt people unless it’s for political advantage or due to unintended consequences.
____________________________________________________________
Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work) -
Every story about capacity issues addressing our healthcare delivery infrastructure should include the number of local healthcare professionals that have been terminated due to CCP vaccine mandates. See pressing capacity problems associated with the administration of infused monoclonal antibodies.
So Joe takes a bow deploying medical pros from the national guard.
And now our Cornholio threatens with a winter of death from a mild variant…a that could otherwise further herd immunity? Think that will lower emergency room visits?
Reminds one of Klain’s assessment of Cornholio’s last engagement with public health delivery, “we fucked everything up. We just got lucky the bug wasn’t deadly”.
He is what he is…and water finds it’s on level…with the economy…with foreign policy…with immigration…with public policy…
Here's a toast with one last pour, may it last forever and a minute more;
Good fortune seems to you have sung, to live and love way past long
-
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.