COVID-19 and the States

[Slim Cognito]

The National Guard is setting up a field hospital in an empty former KMART parking lot across from the hospital in Roseburg, Oregon. It's in a great location, one of the busiest shopping areas in town. People get to drive by and remind themselves covid isn't real.

I was going to ask why they didn't use the Kmart building, but I guess it would take too much time to clean it up?

[raison de arizona]

Florida.

[ZinWhit]

I was going to ask why they didn't use the Kmart building, but I guess it would take too much time to clean it up?

It's been empty for years. Winco bought it and has plans.

The parking lot is better IMV. It's a spectacle this community needs to get its collective head out of our ass.

[Notaperson]

Some potentially not-so-awful news from Florida...

[Slim Cognito]

Oh please, oh please, oh please...

I'm supposed to meet my cousin in Philly in late Sep. I'm half afraid they'll ban travelers from Florida if this keeps up.

[AndyinPA]

A friend's family (daughter, husband, granddaughters) just flew down to Florida for a vacation on Friday. She's worried sick. I thought it was bad enough with my daughter and family flying out to LA (home today), but at least LA is on Earth 1.

[tek]

What part of FL?

mask mask mask.

We are back to observing carefully when we enter a store/restaurant down here. If it doesn't look like the staff or the customers are serious, we turn right around and walk out the door.

Residents of some counties are way better than other counties about this.

[AndyinPA]

What part of FL?

mask mask mask.

We are back to observing carefully when we enter a store/restaurant down here. If it doesn't look like the staff or the customers are serious, we turn right around and walk out the door.

Residents of some counties are way better than other counties about this.

I don't know where they went. I'll ask next time I talk to her. She's the one who came down with Covid the other day, so I'm more concerned about her. The family is all vaccinated.

[Slim Cognito]

SWFL is probably the least deathly, but even I wouldn't visit me right now.

[p0rtia]

SWFL is probably the least deathly, but even I wouldn't visit me right now.

Actually, I think Lee Cty Health's last release said something about having a 30% positivity rate.

[LM K]

The National Guard is setting up a field hospital in an empty former KMART parking lot across from the hospital in Roseburg, Oregon. It's in a great location, one of the busiest shopping areas in town. People get to drive by and remind themselves covid isn't real.

This is disturbing.

Gov Brown called up 500 National Guard for the state to begin on Aug 20. She has approved up to 1500 NG members to help hospitals.

150 of those members have been deployed to Bend.

The hospital in Bend is now rationing care. Serious surgeries have been postponed.

Usually, when hospital officials talk about available beds, they mean staffed beds. But at Providence Medford Medical Center, where some units are operating at 120% capacity. That’s so many people, according to Providence Medford Medical Center Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jason Kuhl, that "literally we're out of physical beds."

At St. Charles Health System in Bend, there were 62 COVID-19 patients Thursday taking up about a third of its acute care beds.Oregon has fewer staffed hospital beds per person than most states, so there’s not a lot of room to expand capacity.

”These are beds that are being utilized for these very important patients with a severe infection. But [COVID-19 patients] are also taking the place of beds that are much needed for other care,” said Jeff Absalon, the president and CEO of St. Charles Health. “When you hear numbers about capacity, what I want you to know is, we are at or over capacity in our hospitals throughout the state.”

Those full hospitals have spillover effects. At Oregon Health & Sciences University in Portland, all four intensive care units were completely full.

System overload
This overloaded health care system has consequences for everyone, not just the unvaccinated.

Since the pandemic began, St. Charles has canceled or postponed over 3,000 scheduled surgeries.

”These are not cosmetic surgeries. These are patients that have cancer, heart disease, neurological disease, surgeries that are necessary to preserve life and function and they’re being delayed right now,” Absalon said.

Only patients with the most severe surgical needs are being seen, Absalon explained. “I don’t want to mince my words here: we are rationing care.”

Hospitals are so full that emergency departments are experiencing long wait times, bad enough that ambulances have to wait longer to get their patients in. And once patients are admitted to the emergency department, they could wait days for critical care beds to become available.

This is why Absalon is asking people to stop taking risks that could expose them to the coronavirus. And that doesn’t just mean avoiding crowded, maskless bars.

”What scares me the most about this is what’s been alluded to. If someone gets in an accident or has a heart attack or need for acute care, they might not get the care they need in a timely fashion,” Absalon said. “This is a time to really be cautious about your activities and keep yourself safe".

[LM K]

In Houston.

Man shot 6 times waits more than a week for surgery after hospital is overwhelmed by covid

Joel Valdez isn’t in the hospital for covid-19, but he’s feeling its effect.

For 10 days, Valdez has been in a hospital bed at Ben Taub Hospital in Houston awaiting surgery after he was shot six times outside a grocery store as an unlucky bystander to a domestic dispute.

“Having broken bones and bullets in me for over a week now, it’s a little frustrating,” Valdez told KRIV over the weekend.

He tallied his injuries, which include a neck wound and three gunshot wounds to a left shoulder that’s in need of surgery: “Everybody is really surprised I’m still in this bed a week later.”

Valdez confirmed Monday afternoon he was still awaiting surgery when contacted by The Washington Post, but declined to be interviewed on the record.

At Ben Taub Hospital where Valdez is awaiting surgery, the intensive care unit was at 103 percent capacity as of Monday morning, with 33 percent of those cases related to covid-19, a spokesperson for Harris Health System told The Post. Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital, the other public hospital in the Harris Health System, remains similarly stretched at 94 percent ICU capacity, with 54 percent of those cases covid-related.

Amanda Callaway, a spokesperson for the health system, said via email that in response to the influx of coronavirus cases, Harris Health System doctors must triage a patient’s condition and review the surgical cases throughout the day.

“Due to strained resources, surgical patients are being prioritized based on several factors, which unfortunately may result in a delay of nonemergent surgical procedures,” Callaway said.

The troubling fourth wave of the pandemic brought on by the highly transmissible delta variant and millions of Americans who remain unvaccinated is now straining hospital capacity in hard-hit areas such as Houston.

Last week, Arkansas reported its capacity had fallen to just eight ICU beds statewide while health officials in Mississippi warned that surging infections had pushed the state’s hospital system to the brink of “failure.” On Friday, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) activated 1,500 members of the National Guard to 20 hospitals around the state to shore up dwindling capacity. Officials in Louisiana warned Monday some hospitals are “days away” from being so overwhelmed, ambulances won’t be able to transport patients.

[Slim Cognito]

SWFL is probably the least deathly, but even I wouldn't visit me right now.

Actually, I think Lee Cty Health's last release said something about having a 30% positivity rate.

Crap! When did that happen? I hadn't checked in about a week.

[p0rtia]

SWFL is probably the least deathly, but even I wouldn't visit me right now.

Actually, I think Lee Cty Health's last release said something about having a 30% positivity rate.

Crap! When did that happen? I hadn't checked in about a week.

https://covidactnow.org/us/florida-fl/c ... s=22011127

Screen Shot 2021-08-22 at 8.31.48 PM.png (214.69 KiB) Viewed 1392 times

[Resume18]

I lived in Lee County for a year in the 80s. This is no surprise.

[ZinWhit]

Hope this wakes area spreadnecks up.

[Azastan]

Hope this wakes area spreadnecks up.

Why would it? The chants will be "It wasn't covid and even if it was covid, it's just like a bad flu unless you have co-morbidities and so that doesn't apply to me because I am young and healthy and the government lies anyway".

[bill_g]

Co-morbidities like my neighbor's ex that died in nine days from a "headache".

[Notaperson]

Doctors are getting really tired of dealing with unvaccinated patients. Who can blame them...

[Kendra]

WA, day one of everyone wears masks indoors vaccinated or not. Went to Safeway, saw three employees without masks. Two of those were working in produce.

[Slim Cognito]

I think I'm seeing fewer rather than more masks here in SWFL. I think I may go back to wearing gloves. A 30% positivity rate and less than 10% people wearing masks.

I'll probably get yelled at for this, but as I left $ Tree, I held open the door for a masked woman but dropped it for the unmasked person behind her. Fuck 'em.

[Kendra]

I think I'm seeing fewer rather than more masks here in SWFL. I think I may go back to wearing gloves. A 30% positivity rate and less than 10% people wearing masks.

I'll probably get yelled at for this, but as I left $ Tree, I held open the door for a masked woman but dropped it for the unmasked person behind her. Fuck 'em.

[raison de arizona]

I think I'm seeing fewer rather than more masks here in SWFL. I think I may go back to wearing gloves. A 30% positivity rate and less than 10% people wearing masks.

I'll probably get yelled at for this, but as I left $ Tree, I held open the door for a masked woman but dropped it for the unmasked person behind her. Fuck 'em.

One need not be polite to those attempting to infect you. Fuck 'em.

[sugar magnolia]

WA, day one of everyone wears masks indoors vaccinated or not. Went to Safeway, saw three employees without masks. Two of those were working in produce.

And my Karen ass would have marched over to the manager after I made a scene with the employees. I've literally reached my limit.

[Dave from down under]