This isn’t my post but it is the post of a critical care doc here in Texas. Pretty sobering stuff. This pandemic is taking a serious toll on the doctors, nurses and healthcare staff in our country. Sad thing is so much of it could be prevented right now.

“ PSA (formerly known as rant) #4

I posted this about 3 weeks ago (7/30/21):

On Monday (just 4 days ago) we had 24 COVID patients in our hospital. That’s 14% of a normally full census. This morning that number hit a high of 47 (27%). At our high, during the 2nd surge, we hit 108. That was 62% of a normally full census. We went over capacity for weeks, with 2 patients to a room, some patients in hallway beds and others holding in the ER. We are quickly approaching that crisis level again.

As of yesterday (8/16/21) we had 84 COVID patients in our hospital. Still full capacity. Actually over capacity. Overflowing again to hallways, ER and two patients to a room. We were short staffed before this happened. More young unvaccinated people dying. Just now starting to see some vaccinated patients coming in. They are (as expected) about 5% of the COVID admissions. And now the overtaxed and overworked system is having to deal with the COVID Karens. These are the patients that are “put out” over having COVID. They don’t have time to be hospitalized. They’re pissed off at the hospital staff because we’ve chained them to their oxygen. They don’t know why they have to lie there on 100% oxygen when they could be at home. They curse at staff. They throw things at staff. They claim they just have the flu. They demand treatments that they’ve “researched” on the internet. And then they die. Some of them at least. Some of them get better and go home, but after weeks, sometimes months.

I was tired before this third surge. But this new population of patients is just unbearable. End of rant… sorry, PSA.”

I have a question for you Doc. This one may not be possible to answer yet since the pandemic is still somewhat new so there may not be enough data yet. I figure you may at least have a guesstimate on this. Anyway, when an unvaccinated COVID patient has a bad case and is hospitalized and needs oxygen for an extended time but never ends up on the ventilator, what are the chances they will eventually be able to get off the supplemental oxygen tank if they are sent home on oxygen?

All you had to do was confirm it was VAERS where the (fake) "vaccines are killing thousands" info came from. Waste of time to even quote that. Journalists that have followed up on the most concerning COVID ones posted there found they were fake. Zero surprises. The system is self reported and abused by anti-vaxxers LONG before this pandemic, and that has been turbocharged now.

Most patients will eventually recover and come off oxygen. The longest I have personally had a patient on oxygen post COVID and they came off was 8 months. I do have one patient who is still on oxygen post COVID from February and he will probably not come off but he also has had worsening heart failure and other issues that are contributing. He still refuses to get vaccinated by the way, tells me he’s done his research on the internet. At that point I have to be content with knowing I tried multiple times to give him good information and if he contracts COVID again and dies, that’s on him. I can’t carry that worry around.

E2E217EF-8BB0-4D16-BFB8-5774EDEE4B71 (resized).jpeg

https://www.wlox.com//app/2021/08/20/poison-control-calls-spike-people-take-livestock-dewormer-treat-covid-19/

Man oh man. So little faith in the vaccine. And based on my nationwide travels, I know a lot of y'all aren't wearing masks when hitting the barcades and other establishments. Sitting in a barcade in Seattle now, not a mask in sight.

0820212215_HDR (resized).jpg

Nationally, the 14 day moving average of deaths is now 897/day. It hasn't been this high since April, and is spiking rapidly over the last 3 weeks, almost tripling in that time. Given the enormous spike in cases that's still rising, the death spike will continue for the foreseeable future, trailing new cases by 2-3 weeks.

The vast majority of this rising wave was avoidable. Unbelievable.

“Get vaccinated?”

“I don’t want that shit!”

“Oh, you’d rather have covid?”

I believe the media has done a fantastic job of associating people that are cautious of, denying, or otherwise refusing a covid vaccination with true anti-vaxxers.

" University of Virginia disenrolls 238 students for not complying with university's vaccine mandate"

https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/20/us/uva-disenrolling-students-vaccine/index.html

School bus driver shortage.

This is the first time I have read about a bus driver shortage. I drove a school bus for a year and it would take a big pile of money for me to get behind the wheel with this pandemic going on.

And now parents are being offered money to drive their own kids to school.

I have no idea how wide spread a school bus driver shortage is. But if there are no drivers, Johnny doesn't go to school. And with the way our school systems are set up, Johnny cannot walk to the neighborhood school anymore.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

" Facing a bus driver shortage, this Delaware school will pay parents to take their kids to school"

https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/19/us/wilmington-delaware-bus-driver-shortage/

"EastSide wants to pay you $700 for the year for dropping off and picking up each child from school," said a notice to parents on the EastSide Charter School website."

"The Wilmington school said the entire state is facing a shortage of bus drivers and "empowering parents is the best solution."

"The incentive is $700 per child and, "if you have 3 children we would give you $2,100," the school notice said."

"Last month, Appoquinimink School District, just south of Wilmington, was looking for bus drivers and offering a $4,200 signing bonus, according to a post on the district's Facebook page."

Wow! A signing bonus for a bus driver. $4200.00 ! That has to be a first. I still would not get behind the wheel of one of those rolling Petri dishes.

What is the difference between anti-vaxxers and people that deny or refuse covid vaccination?

It’s usually the triad (no vax, no mask, science is wrong/covid 99.9% survivable!!) that distinguishes the merely vaccine cautious from the new breed of anti-vaxxer. This group is pretty large, very vocal, and encouraged by media outlets that are mainstream to them - fox/oann/newsmax as well as elected officials and other political influencers.

People just being cautious are just that. They aren’t showing up at school meetings for a mask protest and threatening HCWs. I would expect the science believing, but hesitant, folks to start rolling their sleeves up now the vaccines have shown to be safe. Especially with Pfizer about to get the full FDA approval.

It is always a few that blow it for everybody else.

Screen Shot 2021-08-21 at 2.28.36 PM (resized).png

Now no one gives me second look when I wear rubber gloves when going to the grocery/beer store. Take the box/jar beyond the front one and dig for the apples.wear gloves when shopping. Be prepared for the next round with the devil.

Actually it is the opposite. Those experts issuing the warnings are putting their careers and livelihoods on the line. There is a potential financial loss for them not a gain. These are all pro vaccine Immunologists, Scientists, and Doctors. Isn't it at least prudent to look at the scientific evidence they provide? If the science for the vaccines is so strong the experts opposing them should be easily dismissed. Instead they are being censored and silenced.

As for government experts Dr. Birx herself said she couldn't trust anything coming out of the CDC. Between Dr. Fauci's emails and the things he has said there has been a multitude of contradiction. He admitted to misleading the public about what percentage of the population had to be vaccinated to reach heard immunity. What he wont tell people is the actual truth. Herd immunity is impossible with leaky vaccines, and a quickly mutating Coronavirus with animal reservoirs. Even if we vaccinate every person on earth this wont end. The vaccinated still carry it and spread it.

If this situation were completely reversed and it was the pro Covid-19 vaccine scientists that were being silenced my feelings would be the same. They should be heard and a scientific debate on the issue happen. That has pretty much been the norm throughout history until now. Why?

They didn’t mention sheep though!

5FA81959-A72A-46B1-9B02-EBF74F296F29.jpeg

It's the very first sentence from the VAERS homepage.

"Established in 1990, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) is a national early warning system to detect possible safety problems in U.S.-licensed vaccines."

https://vaers.hhs.gov/about.html

Key word is possible.

The whole medical world is working on covid. There is absolutely no way an unsafe vaccine would be given out.

When creating vaccines, it’s hard to get participants to have it tested. With this one, people were more than willing to have it tested on them.

The people behind the vaccines are some of the smartest and hardest working in the world.

Bad faith VAERs death arguments are tiresome.

The 'cautious' as well as the anti-vaxxers are clogging up the healthcare system. It's like a DDOS attack on our entire healthcare system.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/s/opinions/2021/08/21/how-unvaccinated-pandemic-threaten-everyones-health/

The woman who sat there as a high ranking government official stood at the podium and suggested injecting bleach? Maybe putting the light inside the body? That Dr Birx? She’s not a very good person to be taking advice from after that. No matter her credentials, she blew it all right there.

As for the rest of your post, you hit enough right wing high notes. However, the one I take exception with is this:

This shows that either intentionally or unintentionally you are ignoring the current climate. It is completely impossible for the two sides of the Covid “debate” to be one to agreement. People need to be rational in a debate. As we have learned, one side simply isn’t. One side will give rational discussion about how a deadly respiratory virus spreads, while the other side grabs crayons, draws on the walls, then sticks the crayons in their ears to not hear the discussion. Mostly it’s scientists vs idiots now. There are people going to school boards with insane points wanting to be treated like they are rational, and they are not. Science can’t “win” an argument like that. Not because science is wrong, but because you can’t convince a cat to eat with a fork and knife.

I think this delusion is the plot of Hulu's Futureman. Seriously. Watch it and see if it doesn't line up.

Unfortunately, it's a self-reporting system with no real controls that has been co-opted by the anti-vax community for YEARS who post false stuff, then point to it as proof of what they posit. Completely useless as a reference for anyone in the public and only marginally useful for researchers due to all the noise in the data.

Where are you getting all of this information?

Another unvaccinated conservative radio host, Phil Valentine (right here in Nashville TN), has died from Covid. A Fauci bashing, Covid downplaying, "vaccine cautious" influencer, he had a death bed change of heart about vaccinations over the last month. Too late for him and probably many of his followers who trusted his wisdom during the pandemic.

They've mostly scrubbed his website of anti-vax messages, but he had a popular parody song "Vaxman" and frequently bashed vaccination efforts and science. This passage is from one of his blogs which was still up today:

"I’m not an anti-vaxxer. I’m just using common sense. What are my odds of getting COVID? They’re pretty low. What are my odds of dying from COVID if I do get it? Probably way less than one percent. I’m doing what everyone should do and that’s my own personal health risk assessment. If you have underlying health issues you probably need to get the vaccine. If you’re not at high risk of dying from COVID then you’re probably safer not getting it. That evokes shrieks of horror from many, but it’s true. I’m weighing the known versus the unknown."

Sound familiar? You bet it does.

I’m starting to wonder what they are putting in the water in Pennsylvania.

To co-opt a recent cartoon posted...
facebook-pocalypse (resized).jpg

He bet on common sense and busted. I wonder if it helped his ratings?

One less to worry about for spreading BS.

A topper for his grave stone.

large_635935_6th0yuhh0ricwztkcer_yzpyz (resized).jpg

Good question.
Anti-vax implies an individual is against all vaccines; the example given was tetanus. Or MMR, etc.

People against the Covid vaccine, may or may not be against all vaccines. I have read many posters here stating they have had all of their shots, but are waiting on this one. That, to me, is not an anti-vaxxer. It is a specific vaccine targeted.

I think if we were to "brand" these people anti-covax or something, it would clear that up.

Anybody else read The Primer? Young, vaccinated, and now on a ventilator. This sucks….

https://mobile.twitter.com/MikeTagliereNFL?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=campaign_2762169

Saw that about an hour ago and it shocked me.

The one that has me shaking my head is the Maine politician. Ardently anti covid protocols of any kind. (He got stripped of committee assignments for flagrantly violating state house masking rules)

Gets covid, gets pretty sick. Wife gets covid, wife dies last week. He then goes to an anti-vax rally Tuesday…while still potentially in the quarantine period. Maskless of course. (He has been a bit squishy on the dates. July 26 he told a reporter he was sick with covid for example. Best guess is he is still on the edge of quarantine)

Brief summary of the finale:

https://www.businessinsider.com/maine-gop-lawmaker-attends-anti-vax-rally-wife-dies-of-covid-19-2021-8

I’m pretty sure people in this thread know who we are all talking about and can distinguish between the anti-vax sub-types just fine.

Vaccine Hesitant covers the people who are pro-vaccine, but just need the FDA approval or more info to make it a go.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/francis-mossman-actor-in-spartacus-and-the-horizon-dies-at-33-1234999761/

Looks like it worked, he won’t be able to catch or spread anything at all anymore.

What I am starting to see with a lot of these links we share is more and more of them are blocking you unless you are a subscriber. I don't blame them; Everybody has to make a living, but after 20 some years of free-for-all, the internet is "growing up". I cannot view your link and after all of the breech of data issues that have been happening, I am loathe to be giving out my information to any more websites for just a freebie read.

I did find this, though.

https://www.mainepublic.org/politics/2021-07-24/maine-lawmaker-who-opposed-coronavirus-restrictions-reportedly-has-covid-19

This Florida mom lost her two sons (35 and 41) to Covid. The vaccinated mom also got Covid but had a milder case in comparison to her much younger unvaxxed sons.

https://www.news4jax.com/health/2021/08/20/jacksonville-mother-loses-2-sons-to-covid-19-in-12-hours/

https://www.rocketnews.com/2021/08/a-florida-mom-lost-her-2-sons-to-covid-19-in-the-span-of-12-hours-after-they-refused-to-get-the-vaccine/

Well, to his credit, the vaccine didn't kill him.

What are you talking about? Are you suggesting he died from COVID or the vaccine? The article says nothing about that, it says a cause of death has not been released.

In fact, another article about his death states "A cause of death has not been confirmed, but his family gave a statement to Daily Mail Australia saying he had suffered from the resurfacing of “old scars and trauma from high school” while unable to work during the COVID-19 shutdown in Sydney."

https://www.advocate.com/people/2021/8/19/actor-francis-mossman-spartacus-horizon-dead-33

Please tell me I am misunderstanding your post. It’s hard for me to believe that any human being would stoop to using another mans suicide to make a joke or try to bash his vaccination status.

I find that the “reader view” on my phone eliminates a good 75% of the pop up pay walls.

That or if I hit my “free limit” I just open a private window and poof I have another set of free views.

If that doesn’t work, I move on to another source. I agree, I don’t want to give away personal info for any one-off stuff either.

What does this guy's death have to do with this thread? His cause of death appears to have been suicide.

https://observerdesk.com/francis-mossman-commits-suicide-at-the-age-of-33/