Vaccines and Therapeutics 2.0 & 3.0 Merge

[Res Ipsa]

An old (possibly outdated) anecdote on double-masking:

There's a little bit of a quasi-myth (or at least, it was when I was bumping around in a hospital long ago) that wearing a surgical mask over the N95 mask made the N95 mask "last longer." The thinking wasn’t that it made it safer or more effective -- it was that putting a cheapy on top helped the more pricey fitted mask get a bit more mileage. At the time, where I was, this was discouraged.

If I had to wager why it seems (from some brief googling) to be moderately commonplace now, I’d guess that some administrators might be pushing it to help cut costs, or because of PPE supply chain disruptions. Then again, maybe it’s just one of those weird folksy things of “if one is good, then two is gooder.”

I’d guess that the journalist just got the two types of masks confused (sloppy mistake). Or at least I really (really, really) hope they did. Otherwise, they might want to hire a new Infection Control Coordinator for the hospital. Ooph.

It looks like most of the healthcare staff is wearing N95s with surgical masks over them.

[Chap]

Interesting news here:

Nearly all Fox staffers vaccinated for Covid even as hosts cast doubt on vaccine
More than 90% of Fox Corporation staff inoculated, according to memo announcing daily testing for unvaccinated employees


Fox is happy to safeguard its profitable business by making sure its staffers are vaccinated - because they know it makes sense.

But they also know it makes sense to keep feeding its viewers all the crap they can swallow to reassure them that they are right about vaccines being useless, even dangerous. What matters is keeping them watching. Just so long as the number of viewers who die is not so large that it begins to damage Fox's audience ratings, of course. Then the messaging will change.

Follow the money!!

(By the way, what's the betting that Tucker Carlson is vaccinated? He won't say, of course ...)

The vast majority of employees at Fox Corporation, the umbrella company for the conservative Fox News channel, are vaccinated against coronavirus and those who are not will be required to do daily testing, according to a memo sent out from bosses – despite some of its biggest screen stars questioning the vaccine.

A daily test is stricter than the Biden administration’s firm mandate that businesses with more than 100 employees must require either vaccination or weekly testing.

The news came as Joe Biden was scheduled to meet with business leaders on Wednesday, including from Disney and Microsoft, to urge vaccine mandates for employees across US businesses.

Such mandates, which have earned the president both praise and flak since he announced them last week, are expected to cover 80 million workers at large firms along with 17 million healthcare professionals across the country.

In the memo, which was sent out on Tuesday to Fox Corporation employees, Kevin Lord, the company’s executive vice-president, announced that more than 90% of the company’s full-time employees had been vaccinated, CNN first reported on Tuesday night.

The information was uploaded on a secure system where employees could share their vaccination status, the memo said.

“Employees who are not vaccinated or have not provided their vaccination status and wish to access one of our facilities will not incur the cost of testing,” a Fox Corporation representative told the Guardian on Wednesday.

The memo did not clarify when the daily testing would begin for unvaccinated employees or those declining to disclose their status, and a representative for the company did not respond to a follow-up query on the matter.

It remains to be seen how it will affect the environment within the organization that hosts prominent vaccine skeptics such as Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham. The company did not respond to a specific query about this inconsistency in its messaging.

CNN further reported that the White House had praised Fox and challenged it to mirror its corporate practices to its viewers.

“Today’s news from Fox News follows a trend we’re seeing across the country: vaccination and testing requirements work,” a White House spokesperson told CNN on Tuesday night, adding: “We are glad they have stepped up to protect their workforce and strengthen the economy, and we encourage them to convey to their audience that these types of practices will protect their employees, their communities, and the economy.”

The update about Fox Corporation’s employees coincided with the Tuesday release of a Kaiser Family Foundation report that estimated that the cost of preventable hospitalizations for unvaccinated adults went from $0.6bn in June to $3.7bn in August, with a total $5bn spent on it across these three months alone.

During this time, the number of unvaccinated adults who were hospitalized primarily for Covid-19 treatment went up from 39,000 to 342,000, the report estimated.

As of Tuesday, the US had recorded 663,913 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, with one in 500 Americans dying from the virus, according to CNN.

[Res Ipsa]

Here is the caption:



What, specifically, is inaccurate about the caption? And what, specifically, do you contend are the firing offenses shown in the picture?

The caption implies, to me, and perhaps only to me, that the patient in the picture is a covid patient, or, as we call them, a POI if their covid status is unknown. If that is true, the staff should not be in the room performing procedures without the proper equipment which would include PAPRs, and not just double masks. Also, the room should be negative pressure, and the door should not be propped open like you see in that picture. Also, the nurse outside the room would be required to have, at a minimum, an N95 mask to stand in front of the open door of the room of a POI. If a nurse was working in that room during a procedure without a PAPR, seen in the picture, she would almost certainly be terminated. The two nurses at the door as well. There is clearly an institutional problem going on in this picture, one that goes way beyond just vaxxing, masking and nursing.

ETA: It is fair to say, and should be said, that those nurses should all resign if they are expected to work in those conditions. If they agree to work in those positions, they are either dumb or ignorant.

I took a closer look at the picture and at the CDC PPE requirements for Covid. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nc ... tions.html Part of the problem with a photograph is that it is a frozen moment in a series of events. The sign on the door prevents us from seeing the patient, so it's tough to tell exactly what is happening. The fact that the two people closest to the patient are wearing PAPR's could indicate that a procedure is planned, but we can't tell whether the procedure has started, is continuing, or has ended. The other staff in the room all appear to be in compliance with the CDC recommendations for being in the same room as a COVID patient. The door is open, but I don't see any sign that it is "propped open." The person in the doorway appears to be handing something to or taking something from the person in the room. The person in the hallway is the only person that appears not to be wearing an N95. I saw nothing in the CDC recommendations that would require her to be wearing one.

And the CDC requirements themselves recognize that hospitals may not have access to sufficient PPE to meet these requirements, in which case advice is provided on how to allocate the available resources.

So, I'm left with this. The article either contains photographic evidence that this hospital's practices are so horrible that we should expect the ICU to be shut down by the state any second now or that a random guy on the internet is drawing unsupported conclusions about what a single, still photograph actually shows. Not only that, but that the "errors" shown in the photograph are sufficient to conclude that the horrific experiences described in the article are due to the deficiencies shown in the photograph rather than the overrun of the ICU due to unvaccinated persons.

Hmmm. Not even a close call.

[canpakes]

It’s interesting to watch Cultellus put on a demonstration of confirmation bias as he tries to find some excuse to discard a graphic illustration of what COVID 19 vaccine refusal is doing to hospitals across America.

It is interesting to see your bias play out.

The article makes the point that over 75% of deaths were unvaccinated patients, mostly obese if not all obese. Later in the article, that number is revised to 80%. You are making a huge leap, and applying bias, to conclude that this article is a graphic illustration of a point that you want it to make, rather than a crappy journalistic piece and that it includes basic errors about something as simple as how masks are worn.

Except, that it doesn’t say that.


Your first reference:

From mid-July through August, 43 people died of COVID-19 at Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater. More than 75 percent of them were unvaccinated.


Your second reference:

By the numbers

July - August 2020 for BayCare’s 14 hospitals

Average age of COVID patients: 75+

July - August 2021 for BayCare’s 14 hospitals

Average age of COVID patients: 45-58.

More than 80 percent of them hadn’t been fully vaccinated


The first reference gives a figure for the number of people who had died at one specific hospital during a specific timeline, and the percentage of them who were unvaccinated.

The second reference gives a figure for the number of people who were infected with COVID throughout 14 hospitals during a specific timeline, and the percentage of them who were unvaccinated.

If you’re going to make a case about the credibility of an article, it will help to not make inaccurate claims about that article.

[Res Ipsa]

https://www.kyuk.org/post/avoid-all-phy ... row-scarce
9/15/21 "Avoid All Physical Risks YKHC Doctor Warns As Hospital Beds Grow Scarce"
KYUK, Alaska, Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta

Local health care providers are cautioning Bethel residents not to take physical risks, including riding ATVs. Their message is that if you get hurt, you might not be able to receive adequate health care as surging COVID-19 cases destabilize Alaska’s health care system.

“In a word, it is in crisis. Perhaps collapsing," Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation Chief of Staff Dr. Ellen Hodges said, describing the state of that system. She spoke during the Sept. 14 Bethel City Council meeting.

Hodges said that there are few, if any, staffed intensive care unit beds remaining in the state amid the current surge in COVID-19 cases. That means that YKHC is struggling to find beds for all patients, not just COVID-19 patients. To decrease the chance of seeking health care, Hodges warned against any activity that could pose a physical risk.

“Don’t ride your bike or ATV. Wear your seatbelt and drive the speed limit. Take good care of your health, taking all your prescribed medications,” Hodges said.

Hodges made her statements the same day that hospital executives at Providence Hospital in Anchorage issued a letter saying that there were no more staffed hospital beds available. Providence is rationing medical care and treatments, and it cannot accept any more critically sick or injured patients, including from other hospitals. That means it is not accepting patients who need to be transferred from rural communities, like those in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. According to state data, the Alaska Native Medical Center is also not accepting transfer patients.

YKHC does not have intensive care unit beds and cannot provide the advanced health care offered in Anchorage hospitals. For now, the health care providers in Bethel will do what they can with what they have.

Rising COVID-19 cases, driven largely by unvaccinated individuals, are straining resources. This week, on Sept. 13, the state reported its highest ever number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 throughout the pandemic. And cases are expected to rise over the coming weeks. In the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, cases rose by 5.4% over the past week. Over half the region’s cases are in children under age 18. Many are too young to get vaccinated.

Offered as evidence that the article I cited upthread about Clearwater, Florida represents conditions in hospitals across America.

[Res Ipsa]

https://oilcity.news/community/health/c ... wednesday/
9/15/21 Oil City News, Casper, WY
"WYOMING REPORTS 248 NEW CONFIRMED AND 162 NEW PROBABLE COVID CASES WEDNESDAY"

There were 45 COVID-19 patients at the Wyoming Medical Center and 43 at the Cheyenne Regional Medical Center on Wednesday. Four hospitals had no available intensive care unit beds on Wednesday. Three had only one ICU bed open. While ICU beds are not exclusively used to treat COVID-19 patients, when hospitals deal with surges in these patients, that can put a strain on their ability to care for other types of critical-needs patients.

Offered as evidence that hospital overruns are occurring across the country.

[Res Ipsa]

https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/coronav ... e/2613260/
9/15/21 NBC 5 Chicago
"For 2nd Day in a Row, Southern Illinois Health Care Region Has Zero Available ICU Beds Amid COVID Surge"

For the second day in a row, one of Illinois’ health care regions has zero available intensive care unit beds amid a surge in COVID cases and hospitalizations.

According to the latest figures from the Illinois Department of Public Health, Region 5, comprised of 20 counties in the southern tip of the state, has zero of its 87 staffed ICU beds available for admission as of Wednesday.

Offered as evidence that hospital overruns caused by COVID 19 are happening in counties across the country.

[Res Ipsa]

https://newsadvance.com/news/local/lync ... 11a27.html
9/15/21 The News and Advance, Lynchburg, VA
"Lynchburg leaders detail ‘dire’ impacts from surge in COVID-19"
[quoteLow vaccine uptake in the area has translated to the highest infection rates in the state — Lynchburg, Campbell County and Bedford County occupy the top three spots in Virginia for their rate of spread, according to the nonprofit Covid Act Now project, which calculates that rate based on daily case numbers and other factors.

Lynchburg remains one of the least vaccinated cities in Virginia, with just more than 39% of people fully immunized, and none of the surrounding counties have broken a 45% vaccination rate, compared to VDH’s 58.1% average for the state.

Anderson said rates of infection in Virginia this year are 8.5 times higher among unvaccinated people than among vaccinated people. Unvaccinated Virginians have died of COVID-19 at a rate of 9.2 times that of vaccinated Virginians, according to VDH data.[/quote]

As of Wednesday, Lynchburg General Hospital had 101 COVID-19 patients — occupying close to a third of its total beds, according to Centra Health’s Chief Clinical Officer, Dr. Chris Lewis.

Among those, 20 are in ICU-level care and 18 of those 20 are intubated. That means COVID-19 patients now are occupying ICU beds in other units not devoted to the disease, and hospital caregivers are putting extra work into juggling space to get those patients into appropriate beds.

“This is challenging because the rate of admissions continues to increase,” he said. “Over the last almost two weeks, we have been admitting between 10 and 20 COVID-positive patients every day.”

Two new mothers are being treated at the hospital for COVID-19, he said, with their newborns testing negative for the disease this morning.

LGH saw 35 COVID-19 patients die in August and 26 have died in the first two weeks of September — almost two patients per day, a rate Lewis expects to increase.

The hospital — which is treating any COVID-19 patients needing ICU care in Centra’s Lynchburg and Farmville coverage area along with patients showing less severe symptoms from around CVHD — is over capacity in terms of standard beds, according to Lewis. That’s led to patients waiting for beds in the emergency room, 14 of them there this morning.

“At our worst, we’ve had over 30 in the ER waiting for a hospital bed,” he said. “That is simply not a safe situation. In addition, it limits the care we can give regular patients.”

Wormser stressed people should only seek hospital treatment in the case of a true medical emergency.

Offered as evidence that hospitals across the country are being overrun by unvaccinated people.

[Res Ipsa]

https://www.greatfallstribune.com/story ... 352282002/
9/15/21 Great Falls Tribune
"Yellowstone County reports three COVID-19 deaths this week"

On Wednesday, Billings Clinic and St. Vincent Healthcare had 127 inpatients with COVID-19 illness. Thirty-seven of them were in ICU and 29 were on ventilators. Among the 127 COVID-19 patients, 101 weren’t vaccinated.

“Vaccination remains our fastest, most effective defense against COVID-19,” Felton said.

Per the state Hospital Occupancy and Capacity report released Monday, Benefis Health System has one ICU bed remaining, with seven beds occupied with COVID-19 patients. Ninety-seven percent of the total beds at Benefis are occupied, according to the report.

Offered as evidence that hospitals across the country are being overrun because of unvaccinated COVID patients.

[Res Ipsa]

https://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/cor ... 22908.html
9/15/21 Tri-City Herald, Kennewick, Washington
"Tri-Cities business leader spent 2 days in Idaho emergency room, waiting for ICU bed"

After a stroke on Aug. 25 he was initially taken to a small Idaho hospital that lacked a neurosurgeon to provide the care he needed.

There the search started, scouring the Northwest, including in the Tri-Cities, for a hospital with a critical care bed available.

Indigenous Affairs
Weekly roundup of news affecting Native American communities in the Northwest.
SIGN UP
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Within a couple hours he was flown by helicopter to a larger hospital in Idaho, where his wait for an ICU bed continued, his daughters said.

The experience left them frustrated and angry with people who do not get a COVID-19 vaccine.

ICU beds were filled with COVID-19 patients, almost all of whom were not vaccinated against COVID, his daughters were told.

The Ferguson family was not the only one struggling because of decisions by others not to be vaccinated, Kolinski said.

Surgeries were being canceled because so many COVID patients required staff time and hospital resources.

On Sept. 7, a day after Ferguson was flown to Chicago, Idaho activated its Crisis Standards of Care provision in the northern part of the state as there were more coronavirus patients than hospitals could handle.

It allows hospitals to decide who receives treatment and limited resources — not just for COVID but for all conditions — based on factors such as their age and whether their job is vital to providing care during the pandemic.

Offered as evidence that hospitals across the country are experiencing overruns from unvaccinated COVID patients.