This is a very quick note because this trending Twitter editorial made me scratch my head. I am completely willing to assume that I am missing something because lying that obviously—even for a Twitter editorial—would be a little bold. I mean never mind the recent horse dewormer scandal but none the less. So, if you are in Idaho—and especially if you are a doctor in Idaho—please chime in!
This is what Twitter says.
And these are the number for hospital availability Idaho.
True, compared to, say, New York, there is a high percentage of COVID patients in the ICUs in Idaho. That said, there are a few unknowns.
We don’t know how they count COVID patients. (As in, do they count anybody with a positive test on admission, even if the patient is there for a broken leg?) Even the Atlantic said recently that half of hospitalized COVID patients were not in the hospital due to COVID.
We don’t know if COVID patients are receiving adequate treatment. I suspect not—and even monoclonal antibodies seem to be experiencing a shortage.
Additionally, we don’t know if there is a shortage of medical staff in Idaho due to v-e mandates. That seems to be the case nationally, including the recent situation where a hospital in New York state had to stop delivering babies as a result of the mandate. (It’s for our health). Allegedly, the mandate in Idaho is on hold due to a crisis in care.
And finally, based on my understanding, this level of ICU occupancy is not considered insane. Allegedly, ICUs need to be pretty full to be commercially viable.
Bottom line, let’s discuss. All the curious horses want to know.
UPDATE:
Links and references:
https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/idaho.division.of.public.health/viz/DPHIdahoCOVID-19Dashboard/Home
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2019/mar/04/idahos-biggest-county-running-out-of-morgue-space/
I've been doing research on this lockdown for 19 months. The claim of lack of capacity at hospitals is in fact true because of 40 years of downsizing by our governments and BigMed to create leaner meaner profits for the financier class. In 1980, the average beds per capita in the US was 4.5 beds/1000. Oregon, my state was 3.5/1000 in 1980. Today? US avg. 2.4/1000 and Oregon and Washington tied at the bottom at 1.7/1000 and CA neck and neck at 1.8/1000.
Across the board since the Reagan/Thatcher De-evolution downsizing, detaxation of the rich, reduced services has driven a leaner-meaner austerity for the 99% and our Public Commons. This corporate occupation of social policy making has decimated all public services as we see with hospitals during kovid.
I've looked at the Oregon Dashboard many times and am mystified by them listing only 5500 beds in the system. OR population is 4.3 million. A 1.7/1000 ratio would be 7300 beds. This alone would cover easily the surges. If OR were the US average 2.4/1000 there would be over 10,000 beds and we would have a system designed to handle emergencies like this. But the prevailing fashion in social policy is ruthless and cheap rather than serve the social needs of humanity.
I remember a day in the early 2000's when my 80 yr old dad's HMO employee literally carried him in his arms upstairs and dropped him off on a sofa in the house with a casted broken leg from one day in hospital. No hospital bed, no wheelchair or even one item to help him live at home with my 80% blind mother. No nurse or support or advice even. This kind of lean and mean economics is what has us in crisis in 2021.
Capitalism will never serve the social needs of humanity until the people take over policy & budget and design a beneficial Public Commons of services and good paying jobs. Instead, all we get is cuts for us and riches for the rich. When we all acknowledge the socially destructive nature of austerity and demand limits to poverty and wealth and place the rich in wealth cages, we will begin to eliminate class society and start to evolve to an adult civilization. Below are links to data and articles.
http://www.sandys.art/special_projects/Swiss_Cheese_Incident/US-OR-capacity-crisis-graphs.pdf
http://www.sandys.art/special_projects/Swiss_Cheese_Incident/consumer-GS-bus-card-leaflet_Au-2021.pdf
http://www.sandys.art/special_projects/Swiss_Cheese_Incident/8-27-21_Reasons_for_Overwhelmed_Hospitals.pdf
http://www.sandys.art/special_projects/Swiss_Cheese_Incident/Hospitals-layoff-staff-WaPo2020.pdf
http://www.sandys.art/special_projects/Swiss_Cheese_Incident/Israel-human-immunity-better-Science-AAAS.pdf
http://www.sandys.art/special_projects/Swiss_Cheese_Incident/Why_Are_California_Hospitals_So_Overwhelmed_The_Atlantic.pdf
I am fighting ever harder to keep my head above the media quicksand. PCR cycles are different for vaxxed vs unvaxxed, yes? PCR positive is proof of nothing, yes? Hospitals continue to be financially encouraged to run bodies through the Remdesivir/ventilator to body bag discharge industrial size conveyor belt, yes? Vaxx makers are accountable to no one, yes? Children are not at risk of harm but Must Be Vaxxed because we must protect the vaxxed from the unvaxxed even though the vaxxed are more contagious than the unvaxxed and natural immunity is durable and any presumptive vaxx protection wears off anyway and for those that aren't young anymore there's safe and quite effective stuff, but that's no longer available because all have to be vaxxed so the vaxxed can be protected from the unvaxxed, yes? Uh oh, gurgle, I'm going under...