Heroes in a 1st world country that looks more like a 3rd world one

Submitted by snoopydawg on Thu, 03/26/2020 - 10:47pm

Heroes.

13 Deaths in a Day: An ‘Apocalyptic’ Coronavirus Surge at an N.Y.C. Hospital

Machine beeping] “The frustrating thing about all of this is it really just feels like it’s too little, too late. Like we knew — we knew it was coming. Today is kind of getting worse and worse. We had to get a refrigerated truck to store the bodies of patients who are dying. We are, right now, scrambling to try to get a few additional ventilators or even CPAP machines. If we could get CPAP machines, we could free up ventilators for patients who need them. You know, we now have these five vents. We probably — unless people die, I suspect we’ll be back to needing to beg for ventilators again in another day or two. There’s a mythical 100 vents out there which we haven’t seen. Leaders in various offices, from the president to the head of Health and Hospitals, saying things like, ‘We’re going to be fine. Everything’s fine.’ And from our perspective, everything is not fine. I don’t have the support that I need, and even just the materials that I need, physically, to take care of my patients. And it’s America, and we’re supposed to be a first-world country. On a regular day, my emergency department’s volume is pretty high. It’s about 200 people a day. Now we’re seeing 400 or more people a day. At first, we were trying to isolate patients with cough and fever and be more careful around them, but we weren’t necessarily being extra careful around all the other patients. And then we started to realize that patients who were coming in with no fever but abdominal pain actually had findings on their X-rays and chest CTs that were consistent with this coronavirus, Covid-19. So someone in a car accident gets brought in and we get a CT scan of them, and their lungs look like they have coronavirus. We were seeing a lot of patients who probably had Covid, but we didn’t realize.
Ten residents and also many, many of our nurses and a few of the attending physicians got sick. The anxiety of this situation is really overwhelming. All of the doctors, it’s hard for us to get tested even if we want to, even if we have symptoms. We’re exposed over and over again. We don’t have the protective equipment that we should have. I put on one N95 mask in the morning. I need to have that N95 mask on for every patient I see. I don’t take it off all day. The N95 mask I wore today is also the N95 mask I wore on Friday.
We’re always worried that we’ll be out of N95 masks. What’s a little bit scary now is the patients that we’re getting are much sicker. Many of the young people who are getting sick don’t smoke, they’re healthy, they have no co-morbidities. They’re just young, regular people between the ages of 30 and 50 who you would not expect to get this sick.
So many people are saying it’s going to be OK, everything’s fine, we have what we need. And if this goes on for a month or two or three or five like it did in China, and we’re already this strained, we don’t have what we need. I don’t really care if I get in trouble for speaking to the media. I want people to know that this is bad. People are dying. We don’t have the tools that we need in the emergency department and in the hospital to take care of them, and — and it’s really hard.”

The medical personnel who have been showing up day after day to help the people who have been infected by the CoronaVirus are nothing short of heroes because they are not only risking their lives, but their families too. Some are isolating themselves away from their families so they don't risk infecting them. I wish that I could still be on the front lines helping people, but alas I can only admire them from home.

We have been warning about a pandemic and yet here we are

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For you astrology buffs

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Have you been effected by the stay at home orders yet and have run out of things to do?

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Submitted by CB on Thu, 03/26/2020 - 11:15pm
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to be working in that environment. The attrition rate will be huge. Then what? Where will the extra medical personnel come from when that occurs, especially if there will be a half dozen additional epicenters in the US?

Looks like the treatment plan will default to herd immunity. May the strongest survive. Dog eat dog. I wonder what special considerations are being made in Washington for "continuity of government". How many ventilators and CT machines do they have available?

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Thu, 03/26/2020 - 11:37pm
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@CB

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This was in a NYPost article I read a few days ago. The hospital had run out of gowns for their employees so they made their own.

3rd world countries are better equipped than some hospitals here. And still people show up to work.

ETA

Continuity of games is being talked about already. They have been talking about sending a select few to an area that hasn't been affected by the CV and dealing with it from there. I don't remember who has been selected to go and I can't figure the article I read on this. So far under 10 congress members have been infected or exposed to this. Only McAdams has been admitted to a hospital. No word on how sick he got though.

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Submitted by TheOtherMaven on Fri, 03/27/2020 - 12:12am
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@snoopydawg
Hiding out in "unaffected" areas is not a good answer - no area will stay "unaffected" for long.

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Submitted by Centaurea on Fri, 03/27/2020 - 5:08am
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@CB

they can find a good supply at the US Capitol and 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue. Those places are full of windbags.

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Thu, 03/26/2020 - 11:24pm
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After Considering $1 Billion Price Tag for Ventilators, White House Has Second Thoughts

The White House had been preparing to reveal on Wednesday a joint venture between General Motors and Ventec Life Systems that would allow for the production of as many as 80,000 desperately needed ventilators to respond to an escalating pandemic when word suddenly came down that the announcement was off.

The decision to cancel the announcement, government officials say, came after the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it needed more time to assess whether the estimated cost was prohibitive. That price tag was more than $1 billion, with several hundred million dollars to be paid upfront to General Motors to retool a car parts plant in Kokomo, Ind., where the ventilators would be made with Ventec’s technology.

Government officials said that the deal might still happen but that they are examining at least a dozen other proposals. And they contend that an initial promise that the joint venture could turn out 20,000 ventilators in short order had shrunk to 7,500, with even that number in doubt. Longtime emergency managers at FEMA are working with military officials to sort through the competing offers and federal procurement rules while under pressure to give President Trump something to announce.

By early Thursday evening, at the coronavirus task force’s regular news briefing, where the president often appears, there was still nothing to disclose, and the outcome of the deliberations remained unclear.
....
At the center of the discussion about how to ramp up the production of ventilators is Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and a senior White House aide, who has told people that he was called in two weeks ago by Vice President Mike Pence to produce more coronavirus test kits and who has now turned his attention to ventilators.

He has been directing officials at FEMA in the effort. Two officials said the suggestion to wait on the General Motors offer came from Col. Patrick Work, who is working at FEMA. Some government officials expressed concern about the possibility of ordering too many ventilators, leaving them with an expensive surplus.

As the agency has sorted through offers, trying to weigh production ability and costs, hospitals in New York and elsewhere are reporting a desperate need for more ventilators, which are critical in treating respiratory problems in a fast-rising tide of severe coronavirus cases.

The $1.5 billion price tag comes to around $18,000 a ventilator. And the overall cost, by comparison, is roughly equal to buying 18 F-35s, the Pentagon’s most advanced fighter jet.

So on Wednesday, despite the president’s tweet three days earlier, FEMA was still weighing competing offers in order to make a recommendation to Mr. Kushner. And it seemed clear to several officials that the agency would have to select multiple manufacturers, in part to avoid the risk that one production line runs into technical troubles, or that its workers contract the very virus the ventilators are being built to defeat.

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h/t PriceRip

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Submitted by Pricknick on Thu, 03/26/2020 - 11:36pm
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@snoopydawg
for subscription news articles.
It's not your fault snoop but that is a pay for view article.
So much for news unless you can pay for it or know how to cheat it.
I love the people but I fucking hate this country.

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Thu, 03/26/2020 - 11:50pm
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@Pricknick

I have posted the entire article (letter) since they did this. Are you not able to read it?

The NY Post has some good coverage and it's free.

84 people died today in NYC

Another thing we should be thinking about is the toll that helping taking care of people who are sick is taking on health care workers. Can you imagine what it's like seeing people dying from this and being helpless to stop it? Eventually people who work in health care develope some type of defense to the constant deaths they witness, but not when they watch a high number of people die. This is why I'm calling them heroes.

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Submitted by Pricknick on Thu, 03/26/2020 - 11:48pm
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@snoopydawg
I did read it all but always look to the link for reference.
It's paywalled unless you block JavaScripted. Thanks.
Fuck the new york slimes.

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Submitted by Pricknick on Thu, 03/26/2020 - 11:29pm
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This virus is Not a one hit wonder.
It will return, again and again, until there is herd immunity or a vaccination.
China will again have to deal with it. We all will.
Then mom (mother nature), will devolope another contagion to rid herself of the scourge of humans.
Sorry to be so blunt but we all deserve bluntness.

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Fri, 03/27/2020 - 3:04am
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Too many to choose from.

"There is nothing in this bill that even comes remotely close to trying to cutting Social Security. That’s just nonsense."

The GOP have been saying they want to cut SS for decades. Nothing new. But anything suggesting Dems are looking to cut it or would even allow cuts to happen is borderline CT. Take a deep breath."

Except that companies don't have to pay for payroll taxes for the rest of the year. "Doh!

"The Affordable Care Act will help at least some of the people losing their jobs and health care"

Yes, but only if you can afford to buy into it. 'Doh!

"Yeah, and thanks for reminding me that I had stepped in dog crap and left my right shoe next to the back porch to avoid tracking it in ( you know you can never get it all out of a vibram sole) and forgot about it a couple of weeks ago. Anyone need a perfectly good size 11 left shoe?"

I have no idea....?

A few comments on how Putin is down playing the epidemic except that he put everyone on a paid holiday which congress wouldn't dream of doing.

DCOTN is dumbest comment of the night for those wondering.

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Submitted by mhagle on Sat, 03/28/2020 - 9:53am
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@snoopydawg

DCOTN? I don't know what that means. I am terrible with acronyms.

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Submitted by TheOtherMaven on Sat, 03/28/2020 - 1:28pm
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@mhagle

the poster is anagramming off of.

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 03/28/2020 - 1:33pm
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@mhagle

@TheOtherMaven

It is right there in my comment at the end.

DCOTN is dumbest comment of the night for those wondering.

How could it have been more clear?

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Submitted by TheOtherMaven on Sun, 03/29/2020 - 10:03am
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@snoopydawg

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Submitted by Snode on Fri, 03/27/2020 - 6:23am

that this will be bad for both "lefty" coasts. Trump gets to bolster flyover country resentment in time for the campaign to heat up, and beat up on those libtards. You don' need no stinkin' respirators.

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Submitted by Cant Stop the M... on Fri, 03/27/2020 - 8:37am
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are taking aspirin, ibuprofen, or aleve.

Not that I think that's *all* that's going on.

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Submitted by CB on Fri, 03/27/2020 - 9:48am
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to subvert the US with a disinformation campaign.

"They need to knock it off. We don't approve of it," Pompeo said. "The idea of transparency and accuracy in information is very important."

Pompeo spoke days after the Financial Times reported on an internal EU document that concluded pro-Kremlin media have engaged in a "significant disinformation campaign" to undermine Westerners faith in their governments' response to the spread of the coronavirus. The campaign seeks to stoke "confusion, panic and fear," particularly by undermining credible information, and to "subvert European societies from within."

"The overarching aim of Kremlin disinformation is to aggravate the public health crisis in western countries, specifically by undermining public trust in national healthcare systems — thus preventing an effective response to the outbreak," according to the report.

The effort was ongoing as of earlier this week, the report claimed.

Nasty Putin has issued the following directive specifically to shame and denigrate America's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2020/03/25/mr-putins-nationwide-address-on-t...
Among the key measures that President Putin mentioned in his speech this afternoon were the following:

  • A week-long stay at home order for the population beginning this weekend except for essential services
  • A substantial rise in unemployment insurance payments to those laid off due to the virus and its impact on the economy. These will rise from 8,000 rubles monthly to the legal minimum income (poverty level) of 19,000 rubles monthly (223 euros at today’s exchange rate)
  • Speeding up the allocations of new social benefits to families with children announced during his state of the nation address in mid-January as well as accelerated payment of bonuses to veterans of WWII
  • A moratorium on personal credit and mortgage credit repayments during this crisis
  • Credits to be made available to small and medium businesses
  • A temporary halt to bringing bankruptcy proceedings against businesses in default

Then, with special flourish, Mr. Putin used the impending crisis to fix several unpopular tax loopholes favoring the very rich, so that the proceeds of the new taxes may be used to offset some of the costs of the social protection measures now being introduced for the great majority of the working population, for families, etc. To name one such abuse, he is calling for all remittances of dividends and the like by physical persons to offshore ‘tax havens’ where they go untaxed, now to be subjected to a 15% income tax in Russia. The double taxation treaties with those tax haven countries allowing this abuse will be amended accordingly.

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Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Fri, 03/27/2020 - 10:43am
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@CB

Well done, indeed.

Perhaps the US should put a moratorium on their population-killing sanctions against other nations. Such good will could come back to the US. I don't think the rest of the world will send so much as a "get well" card.

Pompeo is a hideous Deep State troll, even more depraved that his evil twin, Cheney.

The President is a lap puppet, just like Bush. It's hard to say whose hand is shoved up his ass at any given moment, moving his lips.

The only surprise in the stimulus is that most of what was gifted to the war-profiteer corporations and their bankers wasn't directly earmarked for Israel and Empire.

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Submitted by CB on Fri, 03/27/2020 - 11:15am
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@Pluto's Republic
especially served alongside a large bowl of borscht and finished with a tall glass of Putinka vodka.

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Submitted by WoodsDweller on Fri, 03/27/2020 - 10:23am
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I think we're all subscribed to John Campbell at this point, but this popped up a few minutes ago. Tragic. Discretion is advised.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWFr6khY2U4]

People over 65 are being pulled off ventilators to give them to younger patients. They are sedated while they suffocate. Their families can't be with them.

Was it just two weeks ago Spain wasn't taking this seriously? Read my current sig again.

Also this:
Horrifying images show coronavirus patients lying on the floor of a packed Madrid hospital as city is overrun with cases and country's death toll tops 2,000 with 462 victims in past 24 hours

Yet I don't see those nurses wearing trash bags for PPE like here in the US. We're a week behind this, two weeks tops.

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Submitted by CB on Fri, 03/27/2020 - 11:40am
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@WoodsDweller
already endorsing this policy.

I wonder what weighting system the PTB will use to determine who gets first dibs and who gets unplugged when push comes to shove. How many years can be added for those with a higher income bracket? One year for each $100,000 increase in net worth? That would give a millionaire 10 extra years - to age 75 - before the plug is pulled.

Billionaires of course, will not be affected by this. They will continue to get comprehensive service at their private facilities.

The one good thing to come of this is that it would serve to decrease the overall poverty level of the country. /s

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Submitted by ovals49 on Fri, 03/27/2020 - 2:30pm

@WoodsDweller

If you’re not already convinced, I direct you to the full video from Madrid. I will not post a link here...I’m still crying. It may be found on Dr John Campbell’s YouTube channel.

If you are already sufficiently horrified, there’s no need to further traumatize yourself. Please be vigilant with your precautions and encourage others to do the same.

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Submitted by CB on Fri, 03/27/2020 - 11:01am
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The US is on the steepest slope. Unless something changes immediately the situation is going to become extremely dire.

Coronavirus tracked: the latest figures as the pandemic spreads | Free to read

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Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Fri, 03/27/2020 - 12:37pm
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@CB

...and China in death rate, exceeded only by Spain and Italy. In a week or two we could soar past both of them, as well.

It is only reasonable to assume that Covid-19 has been in US for much longer than admitted. It was misclassified as pneumonia. I've seen quite a few references to this. From the moment that the Chinese were able to sequence the virus genome for the world, they were able to rapidly develop and deploy tests to contain it in a population exceeding one billion.

If the US plowed as much money into science and health as China does and less into global murder weapons and wars, USians would have fared much better than they will now. The US has yet to reach the top of the death rate arc, where it begins to mercifully curve. Instead, deaths are shooting straight up past all other nations.

There has been a continuing failure in science in developing tests — which well be blamed on China.

There was a failure in stockpiling medical supplies — instead the national stockpile was raided during the trade war with China — and never replaced. This, too, will be blamed on China.

I don't know which strain of coronavirus is raging through the US, but I do know that Iran and Italy were dosed with a different genetic version than China was. Maybe that's why our tests haven't worked so well and we are not buying tests from more advanced nations that have offered to supply them.

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Submitted by CB on Fri, 03/27/2020 - 1:31pm
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@Pluto's Republic
it would be #6 (44,635) in the current tally of confirmed global cases - between Germany (49,344) and Iran (32,332). What is even worse, New York's daily rate of increase in confirmed is 14.51% compared to Germany at 12.3% and Iran at 9.95%.

Are these figures a result of a greater infection rate or more testing in the US? Time will tell.

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Fri, 03/27/2020 - 2:07pm
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@Pluto's Republic

Italy’s WORST day: Coronavirus death rate highest since start of outbreak with 900+ fatalities

Italy has experienced its worst day yet in the country’s devastating coronavirus epidemic, with 919 deaths recorded in the last 24 hours – the highest single-day total since the pandemic began.

The highest-ever single-day spike in fatalities brought Italy’s death toll to 9,134, a number that has long since surpassed the outbreak’s original epicenter in China. Italy had 86,498 confirmed cases as of Friday, also exceeding China’s numbers as Beijing has seen new infections all but flatline.

While single-day deaths in the country had been on the decline for several days, Friday’s numbers show Italy is not yet on the mend with regard to the devastating epidemic that has overwhelmed hospitals, triggered nationwide quarantines, and exhausted national resources.

It is bewildering why Italy, Iran and China have been hit the hardest while from the last article I read Saudi Arabia is not even reporting any cases. Unless you look behind the curtain.

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Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Fri, 03/27/2020 - 3:09pm
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@snoopydawg

...into this. It's widely reported in geopolitical circles.

Zhao’s explosive conclusion is that Covid-19 was already in effect in the US before being identified in Wuhan – due to the by now fully documented inability of US to test and verify differences compared with the flu.

Adding all that to the fact that coronavirus genome variations in Iran and Italy were sequenced and it was revealed they do not belong to the variety that infected Wuhan, Chinese media are now openly asking questions and drawing a connection with the shutting down in August last year of the “unsafe” military bioweapon lab at Fort Detrick, the Military Games, and the Wuhan epidemic. Some of these questions had been asked – with no response – inside the US itself.

Extra questions linger about the opaque Event 201 in New York on October 18, 2019: a rehearsal for a worldwide pandemic caused by a deadly virus – which happened to be coronavirus. This magnificent coincidence happened one month before the outbreak in Wuhan.

.
This article may explain what's going on:

China locked in hybrid war with US

The US is desperate to suppress any news of this controversy from reaching the American public. But the rest of the world is tuned in. Trump tried to force the G-7 to blame China for the outbreak by renaming Covid-19, the Wuhan Virus — and the G-7 refused. It caused a big international blow-up, mostly unreported in the US.

House Republican urges Pompeo to take steps to limit misinformation from China on coronavirus

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Submitted by Hawkfish on Fri, 03/27/2020 - 2:41pm
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@CB

The two week moving window fit for WA was up to 5.6 days yesterday (haven’t downloaded latest JH data today) but we have been isolating for 2-3 weeks and locked down since Wednesday.

Other parts of the country are not doing as well, and there is a difference between Clinton and Trump states. I want to recheck that last by party control, but it’s not a huge difference.

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Fri, 03/27/2020 - 12:24pm
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[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYsMO3rE1To&list=TLPQMjcwMzIwMjB-8NqHeMe...

How much longer will health care workers put their lives on the line as well as their families if supplies run out? I really am beyond words reading the stories from people who entered a profession to help people, but are now treated as disposable. Shouldn't be surprised since I have been watching the country being asset stripped for decades, but I am.

Many hospitals were bought buy rich assholes who then asset stripped it to the barest minimum so it could still function just so they can make a profit while calling it a non profit hospital. I have heard stories from friends where many internal departments of their hospital has been outsourced to a third party that then pays its worker much lower pay. I first started working at one of the 2 hospitals in Ogden when I was 17 and have been involved in health care until I was no longer able to work a decade or so ago. I worked at St. Benedicts Hospital that was run by the nuns of St Ben and every department worked as a family. People enjoyed going to work because they were treated well. Then it got sold and you could see both moral and quality of treatment started plummeting. Then it was sold again. And again and is now just one in a chain of hospitals. I cannot begin to imagine what it is like working for profits only. 4 years ago my mom was in the old St. Bens for a week and even though her needs were met there was a huge difference from how I remember people treating each other. It's now a dawg eat dawg hospital.

I haven't read the whole bill passed by congress, but from what I have read there is much more that needs to be done for our health care system which includes getting people the supplies they need to stay safe.

I just watched Jimmy talking about the bailout and he mentioned how insurance companies are lobbying congress to put a limit on how much hospitals and doctors can charge for people being treated for the CV. Unreal, but not really surprising is it?

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Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Fri, 03/27/2020 - 12:44pm
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@snoopydawg

...for the nation's grocery store workers. It is they who make lockdown possible for the rest of us. May the gods of evolution protect them all.

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Fri, 03/27/2020 - 12:38pm
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I just read this comment from a doctor on another blog who has a great discussion on what he is seeing.

Back in the day, most hospitals in our country were owned by the state, or the county, or the city or town where they were. (“AAAA! SOCIALIZED MEDICINE! THE GUBMINT OWNED THE HOSPITALS!”) The profits that the corporations now suck out of the local economy to go to their shareholders and the corporate overlords salaries, stayed there, in the community, buying better equipment, paying staff, keeping the local people healthy... and employed. In some small towns, the local hospital was one of the, if not THE largest employer.

His diary is worth a read. DK link

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