COVID-19 (f/k/a "the Coronavirus")

[GooooMarquette]

Another thing the ‘Covid deniers’ are contributing to, just when we need doctors the most...

Doctors Are Calling It Quits Under Stress of the Pandemic

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/15/health/Covid-doctors-nurses-quitting.html

“As an independent practice with no real connection to a big health system, it was awful,” Dr. McGregory said. At one point, she had only three surgical masks left and worried that she could no longer safely treat patients.

Families were also staying away, concerned about catching the virus. “I did some telemedicine, but it wasn’t enough volume to really replace what I was doing in the clinic,” she said.

After her husband found a new job in a different state, Dr. McGregory, 49, made the difficult decision to close her practice in August. “It was devastating,” she said. “That was my baby.”

Many other doctors are also calling it quits. Thousands of medical practices have closed during the pandemic, according to a July survey of 3,500 doctors by the Physicians Foundation, a nonprofit group. About 8 percent of the doctors reported closing their offices in recent months, which the foundation estimated could equal some 16,000 practices. Another 4 percent said they planned to shutter within the next year.

Other doctors and nurses are retiring early or leaving their jobs. Some worry about their own health because of age or a medical condition that puts them at high risk. Others stopped practicing during the worst of the outbreaks and don’t have the energy to start again. Some simply need a break from the toll that the pandemic has taken among their ranks and their patients.

Another analysis, from the Larry A. Green Center with the Primary Care Collaborative, a nonprofit group, found similar patterns. Nearly a fifth of primary care clinicians surveyed in September say someone in their practice plans to retire early or has already retired because of Covid-19, and 15 percent say someone has left or plans to leave the practice.

🙁

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Well the problem with lack of ICU beds isn’t the lack of actual beds, it’s the lack of professional staff to take care of the patients in the beds. And it’s not as though you can train a bunch of nurses like you can contact tracers.

[shoothoops]

A thread of GOP officials around the country that were dismissive of COVID-19, later, became COVID-19 positive, some of whom, died.

https://twitter.com/Cleavon_MD/status/1327494611338608640?s=19

[Warriors4ever]

I truly don’t get it. I do not understand their attitude in the least.

[MU82]

I truly don’t get it. I do not understand their attitude in the least.

What don’t you believe? They would kill for their emperor, even if it means killing themselves.

Freedom!

[MU82]

From the NYT:

The nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, made it clear on Sunday that President Trump’s coronavirus task force has not been allowed to communicate with President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s transition team, a step that he said was critically important to curbing the pandemic.

Responding to a question from Jake Tapper, the host of the CNN program “State of the Union,” about President Trump’s refusal to allow a normal transition to the incoming administration, Dr. Fauci said a smooth “handing over of the information” was in the interest of protecting public health.

“It’s almost like passing a baton in a race, you don’t want to stop,” Dr. Fauci said, adding later, “Of course it would be better if we could start working with them.”

When Mr. Tapper asked how he thought history would remember the U.S. government’s response to the pandemic, Dr. Fauci replied, “Obviously it’s not going to be a good report, because of the extent of suffering that we’ve had.”

He added, however, that the answer was complex, and that many variables were involved in the failure, including the nation’s “flare of independence” and the fact that many Americans simply “don’t want to be told what to do.”

Asked when President Trump had last attended a meeting of the White House coronavirus task force, Dr. Fauci said it had been “several months.”

[Warriors4ever]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/tegnells-predecessor-blames-wishful-thinking-124542268.html

Sweden news.

[GooooMarquette]

I have never been a fan of Boris Johnson's political views. But I will give credit where credit is due: since his bout with Covid, he has taken a much more responsible and scientifically sound view toward the pandemic. UK has been on a four-week lockdown to curb the fall surge. And now he is strictly following the quarantine rules (self-quarantining for 14 days due to exposure to a known positive case). He has learned over time, and is leading by example. I wish I could same for our double-down demagogue.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/16/uk/boris-johnson-covid-brexit-week-analysis-gbr-intl/index.html

[Pakuni]

This is really sad. South Dakota ER nurse talks about watching patients deny the existence of COVID while they are dying from COVID.

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/11/south-dakota-nurse-tells-horrific-stories-of-patients-near-and-still-denying-19-is-real/

https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2020/11/16/south-dakota-nurse-intv-newday-vpx.cnn

[forgetful]

With a presidential transition, and uncertainty in any relief efforts. One big program could impact many and make them homeless.

Right now, until Jan. 1st. There is some protection by a CDC issued decree, that can protect renters from eviction. That ends on Jan. 1st, before Biden will take office. Right now there are zero signs that Trump or the CDC will extend this. Meaning countless families may be thrown onto the streets in the Jan. 1st-21st window, with no remedy to undue the damage once Biden is in office.

[Jockey]

With a presidential transition, and uncertainty in any relief efforts. One big program could impact many and make them homeless.

Right now, until Jan. 1st. There is some protection by a CDC issued decree, that can protect renters from eviction. That ends on Jan. 1st, before Biden will take office. Right now there are zero signs that Trump or the CDC will extend this. Meaning countless families may be thrown onto the streets in the Jan. 1st-21st window, with no remedy to undue the damage once Biden is in office.

As I have said numerous times, cruelty IS the point.

[shoothoops]

Words matter. Lies matter. Disinformation matters:


https://twitter.com/NewDay/status/1328319845012824065?s=19

https://twitter.com/jmhorp/status/1327697429500727298?s=19

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

As I have said numerous times, cruelty IS the point.

I have a Marquette friend who has worked at the State Department since graduation. 
He has worked for the admins of HW Bush, Clinton, W Bush, Obama.  All four had clear policy plans, goals and their way of doing things and all were professional, organized and very diplomatic. 
He's been split on leaving the last year or two because the Trump admin has no diplomatic policy plan on anything.  Pompeo is simply a rubber stamper.  The only clearly identified "policy" was literally to be cruel to immigrants, refugees or any foreign national person or organization and they would be looking over people shoulders making sure they were cruel.  This is literally how he described it.   

[wadesworld]

I have a Marquette friend who has worked at the State Department since graduation. 
He has worked for the admins of HW Bush, Clinton, W Bush, Obama.  All four had clear policy plans, goals and their way of doing things and all were professional, organized and very diplomatic. 
He's been split on leaving the last year or two because the Trump admin has no diplomatic policy plan on anything.  Pompeo is simply a rubber stamper.  The only clearly identified "policy" was literally to be cruel to immigrants, refugees or any foreign national person or organization and they would be looking over people shoulders making sure they were cruel.  This is literally how he described it.   

That surprises nobody, and, incredibly sadly, excites way, way too many.

[GooooMarquette]

Georgia Tech Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool.

https://covid19risk.biosci.gatech.edu

Great tool to estimate the Covid exposure risk of attending an event. Uses real time data to calculate the odds that someone at an event will be Covid positive, given a specific county and number of attendees. As an example, if you go to an event in Milwaukee County with 10 other people, there is a 41% chance that one of them will have Covid. Increase the event to 25 people, and there is a 72% chance one of them has Covid.

This obviously will vary with the personal habits of the people attending and other factors. Still, the numbers are pretty sobering.

[MU82]

Breaking again from the absent emperor, Fauci is calling for a more centralized approach to tackling COVID-19, rather than a scattershot, state-by-state one.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/11/17/world/covid-19-coronavirus?campaign_id=60&emc=edit_na_20201117&instance_id=0&nl=breaking-news&ref=headline&regi_id=108420427&segment_id=44716&user_id=d36dcf821462fdd16ec3636710a855fa#fauci-calls-for-a-uniform-approach-rather-than-a-disjointed-state-by-state-pandemic-response

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, said on Tuesday that the nation needed “a uniform approach” to the coronavirus pandemic, rather than “a disjointed” state-by-state response — a remark that echoed the views of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. and contrasted sharply with President Trump’s coronavirus strategy.

Dr. Fauci, who has directed the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, has been in Mr. Trump’s cross hairs on and off during the pandemic. Speaking to Andrew Ross Sorkin of The New York Times at a DealBook virtual conference, Dr. Fauci steered clear of mentioning Mr. Trump or Mr. Biden by name, and insisted he wants to “stay out of the political stuff.”

But his remarks suggested that his own thinking is far more in line with that of Mr. Biden, who has promised a far more muscular federal approach to the pandemic.

“We need some fundamental public health measures that everyone should be adhering to, not a disjointed, ‘One state says one thing, the other state says another thing,’” Dr. Fauci said.

He also made clear — without overtly saying so — that he believes Mr. Trump should allow the Biden transition team access to federal health officials.

“I’ve been through five transitions; I can say that transitions are extremely important to the smooth continuity of whatever you’re doing,” he said, adding, “We need to transition to the team that will be doing it, similar to how we’re doing it.”

[GooooMarquette]

Coronavirus: Five signs that show how bad El Paso's outbreak is

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-54966876

Hospitals full, and field hospitals expected to fill up quickly; 10 mobile morgues filling with bodies; inmates moving dead bodies due to a shortage of staff; and a judge recently overturned a stay-at-home order.

In a more “normal“ news cycle, everybody would be focusing on the growing disaster in El Paso. The fact that they aren’t shows just how bad things are getting everywhere else.

[shoothoops]

Chuck Grassley, 87, 2nd oldest Senator, is COVID-19 positive:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1248059?__twitter_impression=true

[GooooMarquette]

Chuck Grassley, 87, 2nd oldest Senator, is COVID-19 positive:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1248059?__twitter_impression=true

Hope he recovers. His risk is awfully high given his age.

Even though I have not always agreed with his politics, Grassley has always struck me as someone who takes his role in serving the public very seriously. I also give him credit for being one of the GOP’s few outspoken advocates for wearing masks, even back in the summer.

https://www.radioiowa.com/2020/07/06/grassley-encourages-iowans-to-wear-a-face-mask-when-theyre-not-at-home/

[shoothoops]

Hope he recovers. His risk is awfully high given his age.

Even though I have not always agreed with his politics, Grassley has always struck me as someone who takes his role in serving the public very seriously. I also give him credit for being one of the GOP’s few outspoken advocates for wearing masks, even back in the summer.

https://www.radioiowa.com/2020/07/06/grassley-encourages-iowans-to-wear-a-face-mask-when-theyre-not-at-home/

Yep. He hasn’t missed a Senate vote since...1993.

[warriorchick]

“They told us, ‘Yeah, you should get tested, but we’re out of tests,’” said Tim Cigelske, 39, of Whitefish Bay, of a local testing site he called when his family grew sick. It required multiple phone calls, virtual doctor visits and four trips to testing sites over three days to get himself, his wife and their two children tested, Mr. Cigelske said.

All were positive for the virus.

No one recognized this guy's name?  He is the director of social media for Marquette.  Also  possibly the most diligent person I know regarding Covid-19 compliance.  He has no idea where he caught it.

[GooooMarquette]

No one recognized this guy's name?  He is the director of social media for Marquette.  Also  possibly the most diligent person I know regarding Covid-19 compliance.  He has no idea where he caught it.

I had no idea who he was.

Cases like that are what makes this pandemic really scary. Federal, state and local officials have allowed the virus to spread so widely that people can catch it with just a moment of inattention at the wrong time. Or even without inattention if you are really unlucky, since masks aren’t 100% effective.

It’s a shame our elected officials let it get this bad.

[shoothoops]

900 Mayo Clinic Staff have contracted COVID-19 within the past two weeks. Most contracted it in the community. The ones that contracted it at work, did so while eating in the break room (without a mask on).

https://www.twincities.com/2020/11/17/over-900-mayo-staff-have-gotten-covid-19-in-past-two-weeks/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

[rocky_warrior]

Cases like that are what makes this pandemic really scary. Federal, state and local officials have allowed the virus to spread so widely that people can catch it with just a moment of inattention at the wrong time. Or even without inattention if you are really unlucky, since masks aren’t 100% effective.

I donno.  I've been on multiple flights (with middle seat open, and mask worn the entire time), lots of shopping, plenty of dining out (outdoors), a few road trips (including some crazy un-masked rest stops - or I was masked, but others weren't) and have not been infected yet (knock on wood).  But I have several friends that think sitting in an restaurant (indoors) without a mask on is OK because it's allowed.  That's crazy to me.  I would not do that.  Sure, you're' still following 6+ ft masked/unmasked rules but lots of folks seem to think it's OK.

I don't doubt that people have no idea where they get this thing, but they probably also assume that indoors without masks is fine as long as you're 6+ ft away from someone.

That goes back to your elected officials thing...this thing is airborne.  Lets just accept that and not do things that would allow you to catch/transmit it indoors.

[Chili]

No one recognized this guy's name?  He is the director of social media for Marquette.  Also  possibly the most diligent person I know regarding Covid-19 compliance.  He has no idea where he caught it.

Probably while beer running.

All seriousness, hope Tim & his fam gets better quick.