That’s certainly a possibility with covid. Then what? Then how do we go on living on this planet? Then do we open up or stay locked down? I guess time will tell what happens.
The primary goal driving government decisions regarding the lock down was never to reduce the number of Covid deaths. It was to slow the spread so that hospitals didn’t become overwhelmed. That’s what was meant by flatten the curve. Same number of dead, just spread out over a longer period of time. If numbers start to climb again with loosened restrictions that’s all fine as long as hospitals have capacity. Once the trend shows that hospitals are going to become overwhelmed then things need to be locked down again. That cycle would then need to be repeated over and over again until herd immunity was reached or an effective vaccine was found, whichever came first.
The possibility of opening up a field hospital at the convention center or some other such place has come up again in Dallas. How is a facility of this type going to meet even basic needs of even just moderately sick people? How do these people use the bathroom, or if they cannot, how do health care workers dispose of the human waste? How do they set up oxygen delivery systems in a convention center?
More importantly, where are they going to get the health care workers needed to care for this population? How are they going to set up a way to properly document treatment? Where are they going to get the supplies and PPE to properly serve this population?
What will be the nurse to patient ratio, and how in heck are they going to convince nurses to work in such a sub par environment?
This is the stuff that just gives me chills.
But yeah, go to the bars and get belligerent about being asked to wear a mask at the grocery store.
Field hospitals have been set up everywhere from Central Park to Somalia. Give the medics a bit of credit, they do know how to deal with logistical issues involved. Not their first rodeo.
BTW the field hospital in Central Park even had ICU capacity.
Just watching some of these exchanges I worry about the apparent degradation in the mental health of some people. The increasing anger and vitriol just flies off the page.
Be kind to yourself, and try to be kind to others.
One thing that might help is granting general tax penalty amnesty to those HCPs who go to affected areas. NYS/NYC insisting those HCPs who worked during the worst of the crisis were responsible for NYS/NYC income taxes might give some pause during this round.
@emilybee, let the kids attend school. If you need to hide from the kids, do so, and others can do likewise from their grandkids if they wish. To deprive children of an education when they aren’t at much risk from this disease is morally wrong and yes, highly selfish of you in my opinion. We can take reasonable targeted actions to protect the most vulnerable without losing a generation of kids’ education. You can stay home if you need to. Kids need in person education.
I don’t think either of us care if bars ever open. Limited societal value or even economic benefit in that.
I would be interested to hear the stories of patients treated at these makeshift hospitals, as well as those of the health care workers.
Kudos to the people who are willing to serve in such chaotic circumstances.
The African American attorney in my office has masks made with fabric from baby clothes. Very sad that he feels like he needs to do this. But apparently wearing a mask with baby ducks is pretty non-intimidating.
Again, what the Lt Gov said had nothing to do with keeping schools open - it had to do with keeping the economy going, I.e supporting businesses and jobs.
And, a lot of teachers are older and in the high risk groups, as are bus drivers, lunch personnel, janitors, and office staff.
Using the opening up of schools argument is a deflection.
I dislike the Lt. Gov. Patrick greatly. But I also like data so I looked up his quotes from March and April, and they are not even close to what you are portraying. You may wish to do the same.
Disneyland Postpones July Reopening Until Further Notice
https://www.travelandleisure.com/trip-ideas/disney-vacations/disneyland-plans-to-reopen-coronavirus?
We never got a surge in our hospital system (Ohio), and, though our cases are rising, we are taking down our field hospital (and it is being converted back into a medical education building). i watched videos of how they reconfigured the building and it was truly amazing. Also, some of our HCWs just came back from a month-long work period in Abu Dhabi, taking care of Covid-19 patients there.
I see masks with all sorts of stuff on them. Here, baby ducks do not look weird on any one of any race because mask compliance is very high. BTW, t-shirt and baby clothes fabric was found to be the best for trapping droplets (no wonder).
Our military has medics. The medics that were supposed to treat patients at a locally erected (but never used) filed hospital were military. I bet these docs and nurses would rather be here treating Covid patients than out in a foreign country treating GSW and amputating limbs.
I know what he said because I saw him say it on TV. I didn’t need to look it up. But I’ll post it, anyway, in its entirety.
“Appearing on Fox News, Patrick told Tucker Carlson, “No one reached out to me and said, ‘As a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves for your children and grandchildren?’” But if they had? “If that is the exchange, I’m all in,” Patrick said. He continued: “That doesn’t make me noble or brave or anything like that. I just think there are lots of grandparents out there in this country, like me, I have six grandchildren, that what we all care about and what we love more than anything are those children. And I want to live smart and see through this, but I don’t want the whole country to be sacrificed…I’ve talked to hundreds of people, Tucker, and just in the last week, making calls all the time, and everyone says pretty much the same thing. That we can’t lose our whole country, we’re having an economic collapse. I’m also a small businessman, I understand it. And I talk with businesspeople all the time, Tucker. My heart is lifted tonight by what I heard the president say because we can do more than one thing at a time, we can do two things. So my message is let’s get back to work, let’s get back to living. Let’s be smart about it and those of us who are 70-plus, we’ll take care of ourselves. But don’t sacrifice the country, don’t do that, don’t ruin this great America.”
Overwhelmed hospitals result in deaths which could have been prevented had hospitals not been overrun. So of course the lock downs were meant to reduce Covid deaths. Goal of the lockdowns was not to produce the same number of deaths as without them. Though it was to extend to the time of infections happening.
Problem is hospitalizations and deaths trail the infections. So you may well find yourself saying you should have locked things back down two weeks ago. But its too late. And economic activity isn’t like a light switch that can be turned off and on again repeatedly and easily. More repeats extend recover times.
In my past experience, people who make statements like this without a cite are usually wrong, and that remains true in this post.
Here’s a cite from Snopes:
Texas’ lieutenant governor said that the U.S. should get back to work in the face of the global pandemic and that people over the age of 70, who the Centers for Disease Control says are at higher risk for the coronavirus, will “take care of ourselves.”
Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick made the comments while appearing on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” Patrick, 69, went on the program after President Donald Trump said that he wanted the country getting back to business in weeks, not months.
“Let’s get back to work. Let’s get back to living. Let’s be smart about it,” Patrick said. “And those of us who are 70 plus, we’ll take care of ourselves. But don’t sacrifice the country.”
Patrick raised even more eyebrows the following month when, according to social media postings, he declared (in reference to the lockdowns prompted by the COVID-19 outbreak) that “there are more important things than living”:
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/patrick-more-important-living/
The WSJ had Harris County at roughly 50%, as of today’s edition.
Might be stale, might be true for the city but also true for the county, Fang.
By this website…http://91-divoc.com/pages/covid-visualization/ … California is a few days behind Texas on new cases/mm population, so they may qualify by first of next week.
Could be there’ll be a dispensation, too.