World famous Nevada hospital is forced to treat COVID patients in its underground parking lot as admissions surge 230% Renown Regional Medical Center opened an alternative care site with two floors of supplemental hospital beds inside a parking structure on November 12 to accommodate an overflow in COVID-19 cases Since then they have treated 265 people in the garage as the number of people hospitalized in Nevada surges 'Our frontline caregivers are seeing things that they never would have imagined,' Renown Health CEO says Nevada reported 2,448 new COVID cases and 4 more deaths Monday as the state continued to hit new highs The state's 14-day positivity rate was 21.2% on Monday — the highest since the start of the pandemic Officials also reported that the number of patients needing ventilators grew 250% from early November Nevada has reported 170,587 COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic and 2,319 deaths https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...-garage-COVID-hospitalizations-surge-230.html (More at above url)
CDC Predicts Up To 362,000 People Could Die From COVID-19 By January https://dailycaller.com/2020/12/10/...ember-centers-disease-control-and-prevention/ he Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) predicted that up to 362,000 could die from COVID-19 by Jan. 2, their website said Wednesday. The CDC’s forecast projected 12,600 to 23,400 people will die of coronavirus “over the next four weeks,” according to the website. The forecast projected 332,000 to 362,000 total virus deaths by Jan. 2. The U.S. recorded a daily record of over 3,000 deaths from the virus, according to The Washington Post. The record happened as two vaccine candidates are getting closer to passing the last of the U.S.’s regulation barriers. Over 106,000 people were hospitalized for the virus, which sets a new record, the Post reported. The CDC advised Americans “to stay at home and not travel” during the holidays as they had previously done regarding Thanksgiving, Dr. Henry Walke, director of the Division of Preparedness and Emerging Infections (DPEI) in the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, said in a briefing on Dec.2. “We do have recommendations out related if people do travel, how to travel safely and now today, we’re also releasing guidance related to consider testing before and after travel,” Walke said in the briefing. There are 289,531 reported coronavirus deaths in the U.S., according to The New York Times. On Dec.9, 3,055 died from the virus. The CDC didn’t immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
Deadliest place in America: They shrugged off the pandemic, then their family and friends started dying https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...s-rural-republican-leaning-county/3828902001/ Sitting in the front seat of a red pickup as wind-whipped sorghum husks fly down Main Street like snowflakes, Ivy Charles fingers the white surgical mask slipped down beneath her chin. "He was a puzzle piece who can never be replaced," she says, tears welling into her tired eyes. "He was supposed to get better. We weren't expecting him to die." Just over a month ago, the now-rampaging coronavirus pandemic tore through this rural town of 1,000 and surrounding Gove County, killing 20 residents. Among them was Charles' father, Edward "Mac" McElhaney, 78. Here, where most everyone knows most everyone else, the pandemic has killed farmers and their wives. The town's unofficial historian. The beloved grandmother whose sour cream chocolate cake with chocolate fudge frosting was always the talk of the party. The mom whose piano-playing still echoes in the heads of her friends. And it has drained the hearts of the survivors. Those who feel guilty that they recovered. The ambulance workers battling to treat their own relatives. The exhausted doctor who watched nearly half his patients die. "It was overwhelming and sad and you don't think you have that many tears to shed," says Charles, 46. "And you do." As of Thursday, coronavirus has killed a higher percentage of Gove County residents than any other county in the United States: One out of every 132 people has died. Their intertwined stories illuminate the toll the pandemic has taken on communities across the country as emotional debates over how to control the infection have unfolded amid mounting losses. Even today, mask-wearing remains controversial in Gove County, and friendships are being strained as authorities struggle to persuade their neighbors to follow basic public health guidelines, such as avoiding large gatherings. President Donald Trump won the county with 88% of the vote in November, and many of the residents, including the farmers who raise up corn and sorghum, are deeply skeptical of government and public health orders, often echoing the language Trump has used about mask-wearing and the pandemic's severity. Conservative churches like the Dunkard Brethren — a Protestant faith brought over from Germany — help shape social life, and the Dollar General store is the biggest retailer for 50 miles in any direction. Quinter, the largest town, is 300 windswept miles west of Kansas City, and the paved streets surrounding it quickly give way to dirt roads. Many young people move away when they can. Gove County's median age is nearly 50 years old, a decade older than the national average. Among the 2,600 residents, coronavirus found easy targets, especially once it worked its way into the nursing home. In August, just before the wave of positive cases began growing, Gove County leaders mandated everyone wear masks in public. They were forced to remove it two weeks later after a series of angry confrontations with their constituents. Around the same time, someone anonymously reported the county's COVID-19 information Facebook page as spam or fake news, and it was temporarily taken offline just as public officials were trying to warn residents of the danger. The first two deaths were reported on Oct. 7, setting off a wave of concern among public health officials and county managers. By Oct. 13, seven people had died, six of them inside the nursing home. Some community leaders remain concerned their neighbors still aren't taking the pandemic seriously. "We are living through history right now, and I worry what the history books will say about us," says Ericka Nicholson, 47, who helps run the town's volunteer ambulance service and survived the infection. Nicholson, 47, doesn't want to be seen as criticizing her neighbors, but she's often been the last familiar face the nursing home residents saw as she wheeled them, dying, into a strange hospital 50 miles from home. "We have to honor these people who passed so there is a story to tell about us in 50 years," she says. "The people who died in our long-term care facility, they are our identity. They are why we are here. And they are dying." (Much more at above url)
It's time to hold doctors pushing quack nonsense accountable! We Must Do More to Stop Dangerous Doctors in a Pandemic Some have crossed the line from free speech to medical practice — or something akin to malpractice. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/11/opinion/scott-atlas-doctors-misinformation.html It’s bad enough when our political leaders promote quack theories about the coronavirus and its treatment. But what do we do about the doctors who enable them and use their medical authority to promote pseudoscience? Take Scott Atlas, a former Stanford University radiologist with no training or expertise in public health or infectious diseases. As President Trump’s special adviser on the coronavirus, he cast doubt on the efficacy of face masks, long after science had confirmed their efficacy. He was a staunch proponent of herd immunity— a recommendation that would almost certainly have resulted in vast mortality. And on Dec. 8, Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, known for his allegiance to fringe theories, called two doctors with such beliefs to testify before his committee. One was Ramin Oskoui, a cardiologist in Washington who said that “masks do not work” and that “social distancing doesn’t work.” In fact, there is indisputable scientific evidence that both are effective in preventing or limiting the spread of the coronavirus. The other was Jane M. Orient, a doctor who has cast doubt on vaccines and, like President Trump, promotes hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug, to treat Covid-19. But hydroxychloroquine is considered either ineffective or possibly even harmful in this setting. When doctors use the language and authority of their profession to promote false medical information, they are not simply expressing their own misguided opinions. Rather, they have crossed the line from free speech to medical practice — or, in this case, something akin to malpractice. These doctors might argue that they are not actually “practicing” medicine, that they are only providing an alternative opinion — one that is unconventional. But there is no getting around the fact that their expert views, made from the powerful perch of a Senate hearing or White House briefing, will be reasonably taken by the public as medical advice. And if that is not a form of medical practice, what is? As doctors, we are sworn by the Hippocratic oath to do no harm. And there are potentially lethal consequences in telling the public that hydroxychloroquine is a remedy or that face masks don’t prevent the spread of infection. But where is the outcry from medical leaders and various professional organizations in the face of this betrayal of public trust? Where was the leadership of Stanford University, for example, when its faculty member Scott Atlas was telling Americans that they could forget face masks? Typically, rogue physicians come to the attention of their state’s medical board only because a patient makes a formal complaint to the board. But many state medical boards have the authority under law to initiate an investigation of a dangerous doctor on their own, according to Dr. Humayun Chaudhry, president of the Federation of State Medical Boards. Shouldn’t all state medical boards have such authority — especially when the “patient” in question is the nation? Arguably, the harm done by a doctor who knowingly pushes misleading medical information can be vastly more dangerous than whatever he or she does in a single patient encounter. To date, there are no reports that a doctor has lost his or her medical license for spreading disinformation, according to Dr. Chaudhry. But some states are beginning to act. For example, the Oregon medical board recently suspended the license of a doctor who boasted on video about not wearing a mask at his clinic. Doctors who provide outrageous advice that is far outside the bounds of accepted standards should be investigated by their state board and subjected to sanctions, including revocation of their medical licenses. The question, of course, is what constitutes “accepted medical standards.” Since medicine is not an exact science, reasonable minds can and should differ about the optimal treatment for a given medical disorder. There are many different ways, for example, to safely and effectively treat depression or high blood pressure. But there are limits to what’s allowed, and no doctor should get away with pushing bad advice, especially during a pandemic. Even if a regulatory board doesn’t take action, one’s peers certainly can. Earlier this week, for example, nearly1,500 lawyers urgedthe American Bar Association to investigate the conduct of President Trump’s legal team, including Rudy Giuliani, for making indefensible claims of widespread voting fraud and actively seeking to undermine public faith in the election’s integrity. Doctors should realize that their advice is, in effect, a form of medicine. If they step outside accepted standards of practice, based on empirical evidence, it’s time for the state boards to take disciplinary action and protect the public from these dangerous doctors.
‘He’s Done With Covid’: Trump Advisers Say President Has Given Up on Pandemic as US Goes Through ‘Dark Winter’ https://www.mediaite.com/donald-tru...p-on-pandemic-as-us-goes-through-dark-winter/ President Donald Trump may be continuing to tweet that he’s fighting to overturn the election, but he’s essentially surrendered to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a devastatingly detailed article by the Washington Post on Saturday. The Post spoke to nearly 50 members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force and other advisers in the president’s inner circle, both on and off the record, to compile their report, bylined by Yasmeen Abutaleb, Ashley Parker, Josh Dawsey, and Philip Rucker. The article describes how Trump refused to take even simple actions that would have likely reduced the spread and death toll of the virus, like encouraging his supporters to wear face masks. Polling (and many photos from Trump’s crowded campaign rallies) showed many of his supporters shared his disdain for face masks, social distancing, and other safety recommendations. Deborah Birx, Anthony S. Fauci, FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn, and CDC Director Robert Redfield — all of whom are doctors — reportedly attempted an intervention with Trump before Thanksgiving to address face masks and other pressing issues with the pandemic, warning of a “dark winter” to come as cases continued to surge. Their warnings went unheeded, with Chief of Staff Mark Meadows throwing cold water on their suggestions as overly alarmist, Vice President Mike Pence neglecting to strongly encourage mask wearing at the last task force presser before Thanksgiving, and Trump not appearing at all. Trump went days without mentioning the pandemic other than to celebrate progress on vaccines. The president by then had abdicated his responsibility to manage the public health crisis and instead used his megaphone almost exclusively to spread misinformation in a failed attempt to overturn the results of the election he lost to President-elect Joe Biden. “I think he’s just done with covid,” said one of Trump’s closest advisers who, like many others interviewed for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly discuss internal deliberations and operations. “I think he put it on a timetable and he’s done with covid. . . . It just exceeded the amount of time he gave it.” Now, a month later, the number of coronavirus cases in the United States is reaching records daily. The nation’s death count is rising steadily as well, this past week surpassing 300,000 — a total that had seemed unfathomable earlier this year. The dark winter is here, hospitalizations risk breaching capacities, and health professionals predict it will get worse before it gets better. The tragic fact is that “the virus has caused proportionately more infections and deaths in the United States than in most other developed nations — a result, experts say, of a dysfunctional federal response led by a president perpetually in denial.” Among other criticisms in the article: Jared Kushner’s sometimes-effective-but-unfocused tactics which one adviser described as “whack-a-mole,” efforts to create misleading models that would downplay the expected death rate, a failure to implement an organized national testing strategy, a plan to contract with Hanes to send masks to every American household was kiboshed over superficial concerns and Trump’s ongoing criticisms of the Post Office, advisers like Stephen Miller who convinced Trump to view face masks as a cultural wedge issue with his voter base, the misleading information and ridiculous boasts Trump made at the task force press conferences, Scott Atlas’ unwise promotion of a “herd immunity” strategy and clashes with Fauci and Birx, and Trump’s White House holiday parties. Read the full report here.
There is no science confirming the efficacy of cloth faces masks. there are a few data points.. and a meta analysis or two.. but there are too many factors in meta studies... like distancing to show that face masks do anything. Ron Paul just commented on it today. There are a few meta studies... but that is it. Distancing works. Face masks... which have been required in many places like CA have not prevented massive spikes in the virus. Its just such horseshit to pretend its obvious. Is it possible clean masks may prevent a sick person from spreading the virus for a short time... yes. Is there science saying clean masks outweigh the risks of dirty masks... no. Is there science saying masks protect the wearer... no... to the contray... we have studies sayin they show no efficacy. In short... since 71 percent of Americans think face mask protect them... Face masks are probably partially responsible for why all these high risk people are winding up in hospitals when they should have protected themselves better.
December Sees Highest COVID-19 Death Toll In U.S. Since Pandemic Began President-elect Joe Biden warned last week that the “darkest days” of the pandemic are yet to come. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/december-deadliest-us-coronavirus_n_5fe87fa0c5b64e44210423de December marked the deadliest month in the United States since the coronavirus pandemic began, with more than 63,000 COVID-19 deaths recorded nationwide during the month so far, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. April held the previous monthly record for the highest number of COVID-19 deaths, with at least 55,000 reported. The U.S. saw a steep incline in coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths in the spring, followed by a sharp decrease over the summer. Those numbers began to increase again in the fall and have continued to surge into the winter. As of Sunday, there have been nearly 19 million recorded COVID-19 cases in the U.S. and more than 331,000 deaths nationwide. COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna began rolling out across the U.S. in recent weeks, marking a turning point in the pandemic that has wreaked havoc on the health and economy of the country. Members of the White House coronavirus task force have said the hope is to have 20 million Americans vaccinated by the end of December, another 30 million in January and 100 million by March. Still, public health experts and top officials have warned that the next few months could continue to see record COVID-19 deaths. “One thing I promise you about my leadership during this crisis: I’m going to tell it to you straight,” President-elect Joe Biden said during a news conference Tuesday. “I’m going to tell you the truth. And here’s the simple truth: Our darkest days in the battle against COVID are ahead of us, not behind us.” “We need to prepare ourselves, to steel our spines,” he added. “As frustrating as it is to hear, it’s going to take patience, persistence and determination to beat this virus. There will be no time to waste in taking the steps we need to turn this crisis around.”
COVID has killed 1 in 1000 Americans. That's not 1 in 1000 infected; it is 1 in 1000 f@cking Americans. Yet deniers claim COVID is not an issue. How quickly the US lost 1 in 1,000 Americans to Covid-19 https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/26/us/1-in-1000-died-coronavirus-timeline/index.html The United States reached a grim milestone on Saturday: 1 in 1,000 Americans have died from Covid-19 since the nation's first reported infection in late January. Census Bureau estimates for the last week of December place the US population at around 330,750,000. On Saturday afternoon, the national death toll from Covid-19 reached 331,116, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Covid-19 infections in the US have reached more than 18.7 million. The first death in the US attributed to Covid-19 occurred on February 29 in Kirkland, Washington. However, autopsy results in April determined two Californians died of Covid-19 earlier in February. The World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic on March 11. Nearing the end of March, the nation's 1,000th death was recorded, according to a CNN tally. Some states at the time began restrictive lockdown protocols to try and curb the spread. Meanwhile, most European nations were in the midst of a Covid-19 surge that overwhelmed hospitals and health care systems. Within weeks, Johns Hopkins data showed at least 10,000 Americans had died of Covid-19 on April 4. Health experts warned that because of testing issues and misclassifications, the total number of deaths may be undercounted. With an average rate of more than 1,000 deaths per day, the US tally reached 100,000 on May 23, per Johns Hopkins data, four months after the first confirmed infection on US soil. During the summer, death rates and infections nationwide slowed from April highs, although different states experienced intermittent outbreaks, which caused local figures to spike. Four months after 100,000 Americans died by May, a total of 200,000 American deaths was tallied on September 21. Since November, death rates have accelerated. Instead of a similar incline that took four months to reach 200,000, the next leap to 300,000 deaths took just 11 weeks. The mark was announced December 14. Health officials are beseeching the American public for continued vigilance with coronavirus protocols, including quarantining, social distancing and wearing masks. Officials in California, where infections have grown at an alarming rate, have directly attributed a driving force behind the November surge to coronavirus fatigue. With the arrival of Christmas and New Year's, along with accounting for the long incubation time of the virus, hospitals and state governments are bracing for the surge to continue into January and February, one year after the start of the pandemic.
Yeah, we only have give up any and all privacy. Do you think that drug dealers and gang members will subject themselves to contact tracing? Is contact tracing even legal in the US? Do you really think that US citizens should give up all privacy for covid? That genie would never be put back into a bottle.