Tag: healthcare

Absolute idiocy is the real problem. And most people are idiots.

I just got off the phone with doctors in Bergen County, New Jersey who told me their hospitals are saying doctors & nurses will be *disciplined* for wearing protective gear, including masks. This is dangerous and may be illegal. And their stories are alarming…

Hospital physicians tell me this is happening across the state. Nurses worry they could be fired if they wear protective gear, but worry if they don’t they’re putting themselves & patients at risk. It comes as NJ has an explosion in COVID cases, particularly Bergen County. I’ve heard other hospitals nationwide are enforcing this policy, too. Who knows how rampant it is? Some internal documents we obtained suggest certain federal restrictions by the CDC may be guiding this decision.

If that’s the case, @realdonaldtrump should immediately intervene & prohibit public hospitals from being able to threaten their staff for wearing protective equipment during this crisis, including gloves and masks. This is urgent and common sense. And it will save lives.

Folks have been asking for what the “explanation” is for this decision. We’ve been told the hospital administrators are concerned patients & visitors would be unduly alarmed & fearful if they saw health care workers wearing protective clothing & masks.

I am always very skeptical of decisions that are supposedly made on the basis of “preventing panic”. In most cases, that translates as “the denial of information in order to prevent rational self-interested behavior on the part of the correctly informed”.

And no, it’s not just rumors out of New Jersey, as this case of an Oklahoma nurse fired for wearing a mask will demonstrate:

Kevin Readel worked at the Oklahoma Heart Hospital South for over five years. That was until Wednesday when he claims he was fired for wearing a droplet isolation mask.

“It was to protect myself, to protect the patient and to protect my family,” Readel said.

Readel worked in the Cardiac Care Unit, an ICU area for the heart hospital. Readel said he didn’t wear it all the time, but he was wearing it while putting an IV in a patient on Monday.

“I was trying to maintain some level of barrier,” he said when referencing himself and the patient.

According to Readel, his supervisor approached him and allegedly told him he needed to take it off, stating that it could cause fear and panic among the patients and staff.

Fear and panic are not the problems. Infectious disease and a failure to take basic precautions are. What are they going to do for an encore, ban surgeons from washing their hands prior to an operation for fear that impious ablutions could cause the surgery gods to frown upon the surgery?

We literally had an anesthesiologist WALK OUT because our Chief of nursing refused him having a mask.  

He did the right thing. All medical workers should refuse to work under unnecessarily unsafe conditions. They are on the front lines and their health should be the absolute top priority of everyone involved.

UPDATE: It should not be surprising to learn that the CDC’s policies are insanely counterproductive. It’s being run by corrupt Deep State clowns:

As the coronavirus spread to all fifty states over the last two months, the Trump administration faced mounting criticism for the lack of reliable, widely accessible test kits. Now, a former senior federal health official nominated to his post by President Trump, alleges that the delays in testing occurred because leaders at the Centers for Disease Control “lied” to the president, and to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, about the center’s ability to produce the kits.

In making the allegation, Chris Meekins, a former assistant secretary of Health and Human Services for preparedness and response, cited private discussions he has held in recent weeks with top federal officials and physicians and scientists employed in private-sector industries that are active in the anti-coronavirus effort. Meekins described his contacts on the White House Coronavirus Task Force as “friends,” some of whom he has known for many years.

“From my conversations with members of the task force, both inside and outside the administration,” Meekins told Sinclair in an exclusive interview, “The U.S. government, from Secretary Azar to the president relied on the Centers for Disease Control to produce a test; they failed….CDC said they would handle it….What we have found out is that these leaders at the CDC lied to both the HHS secretary and, by extension, the president. And as a result the nation got weeks behind.”

This is yet another reason why the Swamp must be drained.

Spacebunny transcribed some translated advice from Spanish medical professionals who are fighting Corona-chan and are up on the latest protocols. Keep in mind this is advice for the medical personnel who are in regular contact with the infected; no need to be paranoid or apply the “every 20 minutes” advice. It’s also consistent with other information that is being passed around by informed European sources.

The Chinese now understand the behaviour of the covid19 virus thanks to autopsies that have carried out. This virus is characterized by obstructing respiratory pathways with thick mucus that solidifies and blocks the airways and lungs. They have discovered that in order to apply a medicine and unblock these airways so that the treatment can be used to take affect. However, all of this takes a number of days.

Their recommendations for what you can do to safeguard yourself are

1. Drink lots of hot liquids. Coffees, soups, teas, warm water. In addition take a sip of warm water every 20 minutes because this keeps your mouth moist and washes any virus that’s entered your mouth into your stomach where gastric juices will neutralize it before it can get to the lungs.
2. Gargle with an antiseptic in warm water, like vinegar, or salt, or lemon, every day if possible.
3. The virus attaches itself to hair and clothes, any detergent or soap kills it, but you must take a bath or shower when you get in from the street. Avoid sitting down anywhere and go straight to the bathroom and shower. If you cannot wash your clothes daily, hang them in direct sunlight which also neutralizes the virus.
4. Wash metallic surfaces very carefully because the virus can remain viable for up to nine days. Take note and be vigilant about touching handrails and door handles, etc. I guess within your own houses you can keep those clean by wiping them down regularly.
5. Don’t smoke.
6. Wash your hands every 20 minutes using any soap that foams, do this for 20 seconds and wash your hands thoroughly.
7. Eat fruits and vegetables. Try to elevate your zinc level not just vitamin C levels.
8. Animals do not spread the virus to people. It is person-to-person transmission.
9. Try to avoid getting the common flu, I guess because this just already weakens your system. And try avoid eating and drinking cold things.
10. If you feel any discomfort in your throat, or a sore throat coming on, attack it immediately using the above methods. The virus enters the system this way and remains for 3 or 4 days within the throat before it passes into the lungs.

Spacebunny passed on a translated warning concerning several common over-the-counter medications from the French government. TL;DR: do not take aspirin or Advil or other forms of ibuprofin for headaches, flu, or fever at this time. Tylenol is to be preferred.

The virus has just been shown to enter the lung alveolus cell through the ECAII receptor. When it binds to it it overexpresses it and kills the alveolar cell. Hence everything it produces. Men have more receptors than women, Asians more than Caucasians and people who take anti-hypertensive drugs such as antiECAs and especially Anti-ECAII have a brutal overexpression of the receptor and therefore are more susceptible to infection and infection is more serious.

The serious cases of young people are patients who have taken anti-inflammatory drugs at the beginning of the disease. Aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen, voltarene (diclofenac), etc. must be avoided, because they favor the grave forms. You should only take Paracetamol.

Do not take ibuprofen or anti-inflammatory if you suspect Covid. In France, four serious cases of young people without previous pathology have in common the taking of ibuprofen. Apparently it makes the infection develop much faster.

They are reminded that they should NOT take Ibuprofen, Motrin, Advil, or aspirin for flu or fever symptoms. In Italy and France they have discovered that people who have died from Covid-19 have taken ibuprofen and causes the virus to be potentiated five or more times.

Anyone who has symptoms should take only and exclusively PARACETAMOL  (except, of course, medical prescription), drink plenty of water, and very often (if possible sips every 15 minutes). We also have natural antivirals such as Garlic, Ginger, Propolis, and almost all aromatic plants (Mint, Melissa (Torongil), Rosemary …) Cinnamon, Curcuma, Fruits with Vitamin C … in direct infusion.

Hate is good for your health. Especially racial hate, if this Italian virologist is to be believed:

An Italian virologist says that the country’s attempt not to appear “racist” in the early says of the coronavirus outbreak crippled the ability to properly respond to the pandemic. Professor of Virology and Microbiology at the University of Padova Dr. Giorgio Palù told CNN that measures imposing travel restrictions and border controls were taken too late due to fears over political correctness.

“There was a proposal to isolate people coming from the epicenter, coming from China,” Palù told CNN. “Then it became seen as racist, but they were people coming from the outbreak.”

Italy is now the hardest hit country in the world in terms of coronavirus deaths, with 3,405 people losing their lives.

The need to minimize potential “racism” and “stigmatization” in response to the coronavirus was a policy endorsed by the World Health Organization itself on numerous occasions and adopted by the left-wing Italian government.

As we previously highlighted, the Mayor of Florence launched a nationwide campaign at the start of February encouraging Italians to hug Chinese people on the street to “stem the hatred.”

That Florentine campaign certainly didn’t age well. And if you weren’t already convinced that anti-racism is immoral, at least you should now be able to grasp that it is both unhygenic and anti-public health. President Trump’s “racist” action in shutting down travel from China earlier than the experts advised almost certainly saved many American lives.

Now contemplate how many more lives will be saved when similar “anti-racist” policies are abandoned. Imagine a return to crime-free shopping malls and safe neighborhoods where no one even needs to lock their doors. Regardless of what you believe about “racism”, do you genuinely believe it is worse than rape, murder, and the plague? Do you seriously believe it is worse than all of them combined?

Another interesting diagnosis:

Prince Albert of Monaco, 62, tests positive for coronavirus – the first head of state to be infected – nine days after he met Prince Charles in London.

Hey, he travels a lot, you know….

Australia is closing its borders, but it should have done so four weeks ago:

The Prime Minister has closed Australia’s borders to prevent the spread of coronavirus. From 9pm on Friday night, only Australian permanent residents and citizens will be allowed to enter the country.

Scott Morrison said he made the drastic move because 80 per cent of Australia’s 636 coronavirus cases have come in from abroad.

The ban, which has no end date, is likely to cause chaos for thousands of temporary residents who live and work in Australia, such as people on skilled work visas.

If they are overseas on holiday they have one day to return to their lives here. If they are in the country they cannot leave because they will not be able to come back.

Think about how much better off these countries would have been if they never permitted foreign invasions in the first place, and prioritized the well-being of their citizenries rather than sacrificing them at the altar of GDP. Whether the issue is bad government or disease, open borders and centralized governments are like building a ship without watertight compartments. It increases both the risks and the costs of anything going wrong.

Never forget that efficiency is a double-edged sword that always cuts both ways.

The Schengen area closes its borders:

The EU today revealed plans to shut itself off from all outsiders as it takes drastic measures to halt the spread of coronavirus. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen unveiled a proposed ban on all non-essential travel by non-citizens into the 26-nation Schengen free travel area for 30 days.

In addition, emergency medical and food supplies into the bloc will be able to use special ‘fast lanes’ to ensure health services and supermarkets can cope with demand.

The Schengen area includes 22 EU countries but not member states Ireland, Cyprus, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria. Non EU-members Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein are also within it.

Introversion intensifies….. I’m contemplating giving up talking on the telephone. We don’t know that the virus can be transmitted via sound waves, but one can’t be too careful.

First, if you think this is fear porn, then you aren’t old enough to remember either AIDS or the Cold War. Second, this can’t be “the same as SARS” or other recent epidemics, because corona-chan is observably at least one, and possibly two, orders of magnitude more infectious.

The SARS epidemic in 2003 reported 8098 cases with 774 deaths, and was eventually brought under control by July, 2003, in a matter of 8 months. Although 26 countries reported cases, the vast majority of cases were concentrated in five countries or regions: China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Toronto, Canada. SARS was eventually contained by means of syndromic surveillance, prompt isolation of patients, strict enforcement of quarantine of all contacts, and in some areas community-level quarantine. By interrupting all human-to-human transmission, SARS was effectively eradicated.

By contrast, there are presently 134,317 reported cases with 4,968 deaths in 116 countries in less than three months of the present pandemic. One of these things is not like the others. To claim that it is accomplishes nothing but to parade one’s statistical innumeracy.

The refusal to take action in the face of potential adversity is not indicative of courage or intelligence. To the contrary, it is paralysis based on denial, fear, and binary thinking.

Neither pestilence nor war are influenced by your opinion of the reality of their existence.

Now, you are certainly welcome to bluster and posture about how you aren’t afraid of no virus, or pontificate concerning the probabilities that corona-chan is just a hoax, and so forth. I don’t mind that sort of thing. Everyone deals with these situation in a wide variety of different ways. Personally, I find the bluster-prone to be as needlessly annoying as the panic-stricken.

But what I do mind is actively telling people not to prepare for 2-3 weeks of quarantine, and here is why. Preparation is necessary if you are planning to stay home and keep the excursions outside to a minimum, we all understand that. But what most people fail to keep in mind is that if you, or anyone in your family, even gets knowingly exposed to the virus, (much less actually comes down with a case of the Wu-flu) you will be facing the same 2-3 weeks of home quarantine, only then it will be too late for you to obtain the necessary supplies. And then you will become an unnecessary burden on someone else to keep you supplied.

I understand that not everyone believes a nine-month supply of red and white wine supplemented by a six-month supply of prosecco – yes, we’re ready now – is necessary, but there is literally no harm in doing the month’s grocery shopping ahead of time and it might make your family’s life considerably more easy in the next six-eight weeks if you take the trouble to do so.

One more thought on the subject. If corona-chan is a hoax being perpetrated by the good guys for Storm-related purposes, FFS, play along! 

UPDATE: There is also a major US military exercise taking place in Europe right now.

UPDATE: CDAN asks: “Does anyone think this will turn into The Purge?”

An epidemial modeling explains why it is hugely beneficial to slow the rate of viral transmission even if the entire population gets infected, based on the Chinese numbers:

Total population 327 million, with a single initiating infection. 12 day course of disease, initial R0 of 3.5 (as per the stats from China that Steve linked.) Assume 5{de336c7190f620554615b98f51c6a13b1cc922a472176e2638084251692035b3} of cases are critical, 2{de336c7190f620554615b98f51c6a13b1cc922a472176e2638084251692035b3} of those critical cases die with ICU care, 5{de336c7190f620554615b98f51c6a13b1cc922a472176e2638084251692035b3} with general hospital care, and 50{de336c7190f620554615b98f51c6a13b1cc922a472176e2638084251692035b3} with no care. 90,000 available ICU beds and 900,000 available hospital beds.

Run this model through to completion and it sweeps through the population in about a year, infecting most everyone (less about 9 million who escape), killing 5.4 million.

Now, suppose we impose infection controls on day 80, right about when there’s 1000 deaths from this thing. And then we vary how strong those controls are: from 0.35 (what the Chinese managed) up to nothing at all.

Here we see how the # of deaths varies with the strength of our controls. If we impose Chinese-style controls, we get away with only 5K deaths, or 1000-fold fewer than without the controls. But the inflection point isn’t just at 1.0. In particular if we can get the R0 below about 1.5 that gets us down under 500K, or a 10-fold reduction. At 1.0 we get down to about 50K.

And this is why it is best to leave the opinionating on these matters to those who are, at the very least, statistically numerate. Don’t be like the NBA idiot who, in his clueless effort to demonstrate his brave lack of concern over corona-chan, went out of his way to touch all of the media’s microphones and promptly contracted the virus.

It costs very little to alter your day-to-day life for a few weeks, so why take even a low risk of putting yourself through the experience, even if it is nothing more than a bad flu. If you don’t suck on the runny noses of strangers on the bus just to prove you’re not afraid of the flu, why would you feel any need to avoid taking a few simple steps to avoid altering your routine now?