One place we haven't heard much about amid the COVID hysteria is Cambodia
Tom Woods
Cambodia is reporting zero deaths from COVID. Not zero deaths yesterday, or last week, or last month. Zero deaths, period.
Now you know the standard view: places that "listen to The Science(TM)" manage to keep the virus under control, and wise government policy is what makes the difference between one country and another.
How anyone can still believe this in December 2020 is beyond me. The phrase "policy invariance" is now one of my favorites. It doesn't seem to matter what we do. The mayor of Los Angeles even admitted that the behavior of the people there hadn't changed at all and they were seeing a major spike anyway. He's so close to an important truth, but you know what they say: none so blind....
Cambodia was ranked 89th in the world for its preparedness for an infectious disease outbreak.
Are we supposed to believe that the reason Cambodia is at zero is the huge supply of public-health PhDs they have there?
Could there be explanations other than government policy? Practically every chart in existence screams out this conclusion at us -- the charts in yesterday's email, which I hope you saw, being particularly revealing.
Here's the thing:
Dr. Fauci has been doing his level best to give the impression that COVID is an equal-opportunity killer. He will emphasize extreme outliers to give the impression that the average 35-year-old is at genuine risk, when the average 35-year-old has a vastly higher chance of dying in a bicycle accident.
Not only is COVID not an equal-opportunity killer for individuals, but it is evidently also not an equal-opportunity killer for countries and regions, either.
Africa has barely been touched by the virus -- and again, not because public-health PhDs have been having their way.
In east Asia we've seen "policy invariance," according to Stanford's Jay Bhattacharya. Hard lockdown in China, lackluster response in Japan, and evidently good results in both cases.
The COVID crazies in the West want to blame us: why, if only we'd been like east Asia, etc. But it's obvious, given the policy invariance, that something other than government policy is at work.
That could be:
Overall health, Vitamin D levels, age, or low obesity levels -- or T-cell immunity (Bhattacharya's supposition).
In Japan, in fact, a September seroprevalence study yielded an astonishing result of 47%, which suggests masks and social distancing aren't the explanation for the low death count. Lots and lots of Japanese had it (so they failed to "stop the spread"), but they didn't get sick or die -- almost certainly because of preexisting immunity. Not because of the public-health PhDs.
If government policy were the explanation, there should be piles of corpses in Florida at the moment, where even theater and live music have made a comeback. And yet such blue-state, "follow the science," ruin-people's-lives states like New York, California, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, New Mexico, and New Jersey, among others, have worse hospitalization numbers per million right now.
All of this should be excruciatingly obvious by now.
And yet chances are, you're surrounded by people trying to blame you and your neighbors for their bad behavior -- for bad behavior is what makes "cases" rise!
If the insanity has reached a point that you've decided the time has come at last to join my private group, where you'll be surrounded by normal people and be able to stay up on what's actually happening as opposed to panic-mongering lunacy, I remind you of an added bonus: the group is permanently off Facebook.
So if that was holding you back, no longer.
See you there:
http://www.SupportingListeners.com
https://mailchi.mp/tomwoods/cambodia?e=e73edc2b1d
**************************************Amid fears of overwhelmed medical systems, data shows ample hospital capacity nationwide
As fears persist of overwhelmed medical systems and at-capacity hospitals nationwide, data indicate that ample hospital space remains available for both COVID-19 patients and other medical needs, with one official at a major hospital network stating that the country is "managing pretty well" the latest surge of COVID-19.
For most of 2020, rising positive test results of COVID-19 have brought with them fears of swamped hospitals, overwhelmed medical systems, emergency patients being turned away, and COVID-19 patients being triaged, suffering and dying in hallways and vestibules.
Much of that fear crystallized in the early stages of the pandemic, when parts of the northern Italian medical system were put under significant strain due to a crush of COVID-19 patients. In response, leaders and medical officials around the world suspended elective surgeries and constructed emergency medical facilities to cope with anticipated waves of COVID-19 patients.
In many cases those facilities were eventually shuttered for lack of patients, even after millions of dollars had been invested in their construction. In Chicago, for instance, the city spent $120,000,000 on four facilities to treat a total of 38 patients.
The latest spike in positive COVID tests has brought renewed fears of hospitals straining under an influx of COVID-19 patients, with some facilities across the country reporting difficulties managing large numbers of patients, either from a dwindling number of scarce beds or not enough medical officials to man them, or both.
Capacity nationwide appears to be far from overwhelmed
Yet federal government data compiled from state-level reports suggests that hospitals nationwide have considerable space left to deal with both routine medical issues and COVID-19 patients.
The Department of Health and Human Services offers on its website estimates of hospitalization rates across the United States. The data, the department says, is "estimated from hospital submissions, either reported through their state or reported through HHS Protect," which the department describes as "a secure data ecosystem ... for sharing, parsing, housing, and accessing COVID-19 data." (HHS did not respond to queries about any limitations or caveats to the data.)
The HHS numbers belie forecasts of impending collapse of the U.S. medical system. As of Saturday, the department estimated that hospitals nationwide were at about 75% capacity. ICU beds were even lower, at 63.5%. Patients who had tested positive for COVID-19 occupied just under 15% of all beds nationwide.
Even in areas that have recently posted huge surges in positive COVID tests, the numbers were largely similar to the national average: In New York, 76% of hospital beds (and 61% of ICU beds) were taken.
In California, where positive test results have skyrocketed, 76% of inpatient beds were likewise filled (though the ICU numbers were notably higher than New York's, at 79%).
Ohio, which has also seen a surge in positive tests over the last few months, has 71% of inpatient beds taken, and 77% of ICU beds.
Those numbers are not far out of line with national average occupancy rates seen in normal times and are, in some cases, lower than what are widely considered optimal rates.
'We are not in crisis care'
Dr. Joanne Roberts, the chief value officer of Providence St. Joseph Health system, told Just the News that "a well-functioning hospital probably runs about 85% capacity on an average day."
The problem, she pointed out, is that a virus like COVID-19 can "quickly overwhelm that last 15%" due to its virulency and ability to send a significant number of patients to the hospital at once.
Roberts, who coordinates the chief medical officers of Providence St. Joseph's 51 constituent hospitals across seven states, said her system has been working creatively to address spikes in patients.
"We've spent a whole lot of energy decreasing the other number of patients as we possibly can," she said, "trying to do hospital-at-home models, stopping non-urgent procedures that require ICU space. You can't stop emergency. But you can stop some things that are coming into the hospital, say, a knee replacement."
"It's a dance that every one of our hospitals is doing today," she said. "Some are still doing elective procedures, some are not. Because governors have allowed our hospitals to figure that out, we are seeing our hospitals figure that out themselves."
Roberts confirmed that none of their hospitals is turning patients away.
"What we have done is we've done some creative bed usage," she said. "We've done some agreements with smaller hospitals that they would send some surgical cases to us in our larger hospitals, and once the patient was stable after surgery, we'd send them back to recover in the smaller hospital."
"We've not done anything like close our emergency departments," she added, "and I can't imagine that happening."
Roberts said that her system's hospitals are "reflecting the national emergency" as they deal with increases in patients.
"There are guidelines for emergency situations of normal care, contingent care, and crisis care," she said. "We are not in crisis care. That's where New York was, earlier in the pandemic. They were in crisis mode." Improvements in such factors as personal protective equipment have mitigated those challenges somewhat since then, she said.
Roberts noted that the critical issues are "less about bed capacity and more about staff capacity," particularly as staff get sick — including with COVID-19 — and must take time off, stretching other staff even thinner.
Of course, many medical facilities across the country are working under considerable strain to deal with the current spike. Some hospitals, such as locations in California, Texas and elsewhere, have been forced to set up tent-based medical facilities to deal with surges in patients. Yet similar circumstances have been seen during particularly virulent flu seasons, as happened in 2018 in states across the country.
The novelty of COVID-19, of course — along with its high virulence — means the coronavirus pandemic may pose a more significant risk of overwhelming hospitals than even a nasty flu season.
"The difference now compared to the spring and summer surges," Roberts said, is that "in those first two surges ... we would see a surge in Seattle and the rest of our system would be okay. A week later we'd see a surge in Southern California, and the Seattle surge would be down. What we're seeing now is a surge across the whole country. It's not so local as it used to be."
Still, she acknowledged, "the country is managing pretty well" — an assessment which accords well with current national hospital occupancy data.
**********************************
IN BRIEF
Despite record turnout, 80 million Americans didn't vote (NPR)
Judge releases Dominion audit report, which claims system "designed" to "create systemic fraud" (Daily Wire)
Georgia Runoff: Mail-in ballot requests top one million as early voting begins (Disrn)
Jon Ossoff says feds should ensure illegal immigrants receive good wages (Free Beacon)
Michigan Rep. Paul Mitchell leaving GOP over Trump's attempt to overturn election (NBC News)
Special Counsel John Durham is expanding team with prosecutors, making "excellent progress" (Fox News)
The New York Times has not covered the Eric Swalwell honeytrap scandal a single time (Not the Bee)
The Times slams writer not calling Jill Biden "Dr." Here's how the NYT referred to Dr. Ben Carson for years. (Daily Wire)
Media scramble to un-remember their dismissals of Trump's Operation Warp Speed win (National Review)
Governor Cuomo is destroying New York City's restaurant industry (FEE) | And yet, NYC could face "full shutdown" beyond indoor dining, Mayor de Blasio warns (NY Post)
United Auto Workers union pays $1.5 million to settle corruption probe (Free Beacon)
Portland autonomous zone removing barricades after totally weak-kneed mayor and police chief apologize (Daily Caller)
California church displays nativity scene that incorporates Black Lives Matter (Just the News)
NFL ratings plummet, despite a pandemic forcing millions to sit at home with nothing to do (Post Millennial)
**********************************
http://snorphty.blogspot.com (TONGUE-TIED)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
http://john-ray.blogspot.com (FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC) Saturdays only
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
*************************************
No comments:
Post a Comment