All things political. Coronavirus Edition. (18 Viewers)

Since I am working one day a week now, the changes I see are more stark. At my hospital roughly 30% of our patients yesterday are there due to Covid. They have taken two adjoining conference rooms and converted them into a 14 bed ward in anticipation of the time when we will run out of beds. As of yesterday we still had good nursing staffing, and were at 89% capacity. We are also getting Covid transfers from two small rural hospitals who don’t have some of the capabilities we have for treatments. Big picture: we are managing the patient surge right now, but with concerns about near future.

The lab is now having to ration convalescent plasma transfusions though. Used to be the doctor could keep ordering units on the same patient if warranted, but now it’s one unit per patient. This is because demand has soared and is outpacing supply. If any of you reading this have recovered from Covid, your blood donation to Red Cross or your local blood supplier is sorely needed.

Since I had a relative express a lack of concern because “89% capacity is fine, it doesn’t matter why the patients are there” I thought I would post my explanation. It is true that we do run at that capacity often.

But:
It absolutely matters when 30% of the hospital is filled with one type of patient. These are all isolation patients who require extra care, extra PPE, a different skill set than a normal patient, they require more respiratory therapists, more oxygen, more lab tests and a different set of lab tests, more blood products than the typical mix of patients that we would see in a normal 89% capacity.

Plus, these beds being filled means that certain other patients can’t be cared for. Or they are not getting the full care that they need, maybe going home a day sooner, maybe certain procedures are postponed if possible.

We are putting a lot of stress on the system. I can hear it in the nurse’s voices when I have to talk with them. Sometimes hospitalists are answering the phones because the RNs are all in isolation rooms and the unit support tech is busy.

MT15 said:

Since I had a relative express a lack of concern because “89% capacity is fine, it doesn’t matter why the patients are there” I thought I would post my explanation. It is true that we do run at that capacity often.

But:
It absolutely matters when 30% of the hospital is filled with one type of patient. These are all isolation patients who require extra care, extra PPE, a different skill set than a normal patient, they require more respiratory therapists, more oxygen, more lab tests and a different set of lab tests, more blood products than the typical mix of patients that we would see in a normal 89% capacity.

Plus, these beds being filled means that certain other patients can’t be cared for. Or they are not getting the full care that they need, maybe going home a day sooner, maybe certain procedures are postponed if possible.

We are putting a lot of stress on the system. I can hear it in the nurse’s voices when I have to talk with them. Sometimes hospitalists are answering the phones because the RNs are all in isolation rooms and the unit support tech is busy.

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What was your relative's response to this explanation?

Propaganda Barbie, who regularly tells Americans to disregard reality, says that Covid-related Thanksgiving restrictions are "Orwelian."

Optimus Prime said:

What was your relative's response to this explanation?

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not much of a response that I recall, we were texting, they probably just ignored it.

I expounded a bit more here, though.

superchuck500 said:

Propaganda Barbie, who regularly tells Americans to disregard reality, says that Covid-related Thanksgiving restrictions are "Orwelian."

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The restrictions themselves are not Orwellian. What seems Orwellian to me are people who are calling Trump a dictator, authoritarian, fascist, etc. while forcing Americans to cancel graduations, funerals, weddings, and now Thanksgiving family gatherings.
And it seems even more Orwellian when those same people do not abide by the rules they impose on others.

This is what seems Orwellian to me:

JimEverett said:

The restrictions themselves are not Orwellian.

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JimEverett said:

What seems Orwellian to me are people...forcing Americans to cancel graduations, funerals, weddings, and now Thanksgiving family gatherings.

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The restrictions are not Orwellian. It's just the damn people implementing the restrictions that are Orwellian!

Let's be clear. COVID is forcing Americans to cancel graduations, funerals, weddings, and Thanksgiving. NOT the people calling Trump a dictator. COVID.

Trump's play at overturning an election has absolutely fork all to do with Thanksgiving COVID recommendations.

Looks like Louisiana is rejoining the party. and Miami Dade needs to figure it's shirt out.

NY times might need to update their color chart. Too much red, can't see if anything is worse than the others...










These are the only ones kinda doing ok...

wardorican said:

Looks like Louisiana is rejoining the party. and Miami Dade needs to figure it's shirt out.

NY times might need to update their color chart. Too much red, can't see if anything is worse than the others...

These are the only ones kinda doing ok...

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but. but. but...I was told after the elections it would just disappear...

wardorican said:

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makes note to start looking into moving to an island...any island...well...except the UK.

Complex Kid said:

but. but. but...I was told after the elections it would just disappear...

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Obviously this is the Democrats keeping up the hoax to try to steal the election.

EmBeeFiveOhFour said:

Obviously this is the Democrats keeping up the hoax to try to steal the election.

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Might as well. Makes about as much sense as everything else.

wardorican said:

Looks like Louisiana is rejoining the party. and Miami Dade needs to figure it's shirt out.

NY times might need to update their color chart. Too much red, can't see if anything is worse than the others...

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Yay! Natchitoches is in the white blotch! .... nevermind that we have three schools that have gone virtual due to covid issues...

JimEverett said:

The restrictions themselves are not Orwellian. What seems Orwellian to me are people who are calling Trump a dictator, authoritarian, fascist, etc. while forcing Americans to cancel graduations, funerals, weddings, and now Thanksgiving family gatherings.
And it seems even more Orwellian when those same people do not abide by the rules they impose on others.

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I find statements like this too general to be useful (and I'm picking on you a bit unfairly, because it seems to me that a lot of people do the same thing - take a generalized argument from "the other side" based on their impression).

For example, you seem to making a statement that there are some people directly calling Trump a dictator, and those exact same people are cancelling Thanksgiving, etc. Which I assume you're pointing out those people are the ones actually effecting your life, while Trump is not restricting your life, which is double plus ungood.

However, it would be more useful to look at the context of whoever is calling Trump a dictator, etc. and also look at the context for the various COVID-19 restrictions. I don't think it's unreasonable to look at Trump's actions and statements and conclude that he has strong authoritarian tendencies and has weakened general norms that we expect from our leaders that have evolved over our Republic to avoid dictatorships, while at the same time looking at the COVID-19 situation and believe that time-bound metric based restrictions are both necessary and reasonable.

As far as leaders not abiding by rules they impose on others, I agree. If anything they should hold themselves to an even tighter standard to set an example.

wardorican said:

Looks like Louisiana is rejoining the party. and Miami Dade needs to figure it's shirt out.

NY times might need to update their color chart. Too much red, can't see if anything is worse than the others...

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Dude, I'm pretty sure you just circled the entire country. Or may as well have because it's about to go down.

insidejob said:

Dude, I'm pretty sure you just circled the entire country. Or may as well have because it's about to go down.

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Yeah, but it's mostly the Midwest and Mississippi valley.

JimEverett said:

BUT, it does strike me as Orwellian to have people running around calling Trump an authoritarian while supporting decisions that are some of the most intrusive and authoritarian a government can institute.

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Jesus Christ what an exaggeration.

You can't think of any other decisions that could be more intrusive and authoritarian than telling people to put on a mask and maybe just call their loved ones for Thanksgiving this year? Really? Can't think of anything? Maybe we could ask Hitler, Mao, or Stalin to give you some tips.

Like damn, nearly a quarter of a million Americans have died and you're griping about missing grandma's turkey like it's a train to the gulag.

brandon said:

Jesus Christ what an exaggeration.

You can't think of any other decisions that could be more intrusive and authoritarian than telling people to put on a mask and maybe just call their loved ones for Thanksgiving this year? Really? Can't think of anything? Maybe we could ask Hitler, Mao, or Stalin to give you some tips.

Like damn, nearly a quarter of a million Americans have died and you're griping about missing grandma's turkey like it's a train to the gulag.

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Amen, brother.

Here's an idea I'm stealing from my boss... drive-by Thanksgiving. Call and let us know when you're on your way and we'll have your plate wrapped in a to-go box by the door or the edge of the drive-way... your choice.

Boss was dead serious when she told me her plans. Her mother is 93 and has 11 children who all have kids (and some grandkids). She's in good health and wants to keep it that way. She will love them from a distance.