Ag_07 said:

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So these TMC officials on TV don't seem to be too concerned and saying there is plenty of hospital capacity.

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Agreed. So why the EO for elective procedures?

Teddy Perkins said:

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Teddy Perkins said:

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Teddy Perkins said:

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TMC CEO Press Conference

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Methodist: EVERYONE, IF OUTSIDE YOUR HOME, NEEDS TO MASK UP! SOCIALLY DISTANCE! WASH YOUR HANDS! In good shape with PPE. Seeing lots of younger patients which generally require shorter visits. Come to the hospital if you have any medical issue and need care. Hospitals can convert beds into ICU beds if needed.

St. Luke's: Can staff as needed. Planning for anticipated needs in coming weeks and months. Also has ability to significantly expand need. Looking to double critical care capacity in coming weeks. Hospitals are incredibly safe. Sufficient PPE and have procedures to conserve. Houston hospitals are talking daily on how to care for patients. Still providing exceptional care. Responsibilities of public is to mask up, socially distance, stay home, and practice good hand hygiene. Asking businesses across Houston to implement safe guards with requiring masks, maintain social distance. Restricts visitors to help with socially distancing.

Texas Children's: Over 900 licensed beds. Daily basis operates 859 of those beds. This morning, using 581 beds due to slowly ramping up of elective procedures. Can flex up to 823. 355 beds are ICU and NICU beds. This morning, only using 121 ICU beds. Are taking care of COVID patients and have been since inception. Accepting referrals from some hospitals because they have capacity. Plenty of capacity to take care of children. Take care of the sickest of the sick. Dedicated over 30 beds to help care for adult patients. Has plenty of staff capacity. Here to fulfill our missions with great care.

Memorial Herman: 30% of ICU patients have COVID. 20% across other beds have COVID. Has plenty of capacity for COVID patients.

The letter from yesterday alarming bells regarding capacity was to urge people to do the right things in the community. Unintentionally alarmed bells regarding capacity for treatment. They have the bandwidth to increase capacity but still plea for Houstonians to socially distance, wash hands, mask up, and stay home.

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We're all really concerned about this virus. We all have an obligation to help stop the spread. The virus is spreading and it's concerning. We encourage the media and community to understand operational status because the numbers are misleading. We know how to operate at high capacity and can flex to care for additional patients. We are here to help and to work with community leaders. What we're really concerned about is that people unnecessarily get the virus and we need to avoid that. That's why we're emphasizing masking up, socially distancing, staying home, and washing hands.

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Not seeing employees getting sick. Using PPE correctly. Employees are safe at the hospital but are seeing some getting sick out in the community. We do surveillance testing and not seeing a significant number of asymptomatic positives from employees.

Not in imminent danger of running out of capacity. Community needs to engage, lock arms, and work harder to use measures to limit transmission. Help us, help you by wearing a mask, socially distance, and wash hands. If you have symptoms go get tested.

aTm2004 said:

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Ag_07 said:

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So these TMC officials on TV don't seem to be too concerned and saying there is plenty of hospital capacity.

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Agreed. So why the EO for elective procedures?

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Abbott got scared seeing the numbers in the letter. It sounds like it was an unnecessary reaction without having the full picture.

That's what it's looking like, which should be upsetting for everyone. It looks like he didn't consult the leadership of the hospitals in those areas before doing this.

I don't disagree. The problem isn't you, or people like you who are taking these precautions. It's the population who doesn't listen or doesn't know or defies them purposefully.

I don't think the government should shut down and they haven't been very creative or effective in putting together policies to curb this thing other than shutting down. People should have choice and opportunity, but also be mindful and do everything they can to contribute to slowing the spread to fellow citizens. But for some people, you give an inch and people take a mile. I don't know what response the government could give at this point that people would listen to other than forcing things to shut down or severely limiting them, unfortunately.

In theory I agree with most of what you're saying. From a practical perspective, I don't see anything that could be effective at this point other than government shutting down as the government has lost control through various events. I hope I am wrong.

BohunkAg said:

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schmendeler said:

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aTm2004 said:

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Actually, LA County is now leading the nation, but that's not going to be widely reported, and you know why.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/los-angeles-county-now-leading-nation-coronavirus-cases/story?id=71425749

Quote:

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LA County has more cases than any other county

Los Angeles County has more cases of coronavirus than any other county in the U.S.
LA has over 88,500 residents diagnosed with COVID-19, followed by 87,700 cases in Cook County, Illinois, and 64,000 cases in Queens in New York City.

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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/la-county-public-health-director-highly-likely-george-floyd-protests-caused-coronavirus-spike

Good for her for speaking the truth.

Quote:

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The top public health official in Los Angeles County blamed massive protests for a spike in coronavirus cases.

Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer told the Los Angeles Times it was "highly likely" that the demonstrations, meant to protest against police brutality and racial injustice, contributed to the significant spike in COVID-19 cases in the city.

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california has been trending upwards since early/mid May

here's LA county's running cumulative cases. do you see an inflection point around the time of the protests? i sure don't.


it seems to fit the overall trend of places that didn't get slammed to start with being hit harder now.

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Everyone is going to get slammed at some point is my opinion unless there's a vaccine. Maybe I'm just an idiot.

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i agree. i think it goes through the whole population (or mostly, anyway) before we get a vaccine. the important thing is to try to do what we can to prevent the hospitals from getting overwhelmed. the slope of the curve for texas and houston right now is the concerning thing for that situation.

Where is that coming from? I'm trying to get the data from the county's official site, but none of the graphs are coming up for me. Are you able to get them?

http://dashboard.publichealth.lacounty.gov/covid19_surveillance_dashboard/

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html

from the global map and the US map.

Appreciate it.

I think it already HAS. how many folks were sick last fall or early this year but were just labeled something because they knew it wasn't flu? How many got sick, but not sick enough to go to the doc (read: get tested)? How many got it but never showed any symptoms whatsoever? There's literally no way to know because there's no test data for those groups.

I understand the fact that shutting down/staying home/masks are to limit cases at once, and the idea is to have potentially the same number of cases, just drawn out over a longer period of time so as not to overwhelm the medical resources. My issue is, how long does that go on? The summer? All of 2020? Into next year?

Waiting for a vaccine is pointless because a) it takes forever to develop one, test mass production, animal & human trials, and approval by the FDA. b) viruses mutate quickly, so how effective is it going to be anyway, like the flu vaccine(s)? c) lots & lots of people won't get the vaccine anyway (I won't).

next time i need to declare everything i support or not on the internet i will let you know

Texan_Aggie said:

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I don't disagree. The problem isn't you, or people like you who are taking these precautions. It's the population who doesn't listen or doesn't know or defies them purposefully.

I don't think the government should shut down and they haven't been very creative or effective in putting together policies to curb this thing other than shutting down. People should have choice and opportunity, but also be mindful and do everything they can to contribute to slowing the spread to fellow citizens. But for some people, you give an inch and people take a mile. I don't know what response the government could give at this point that people would listen to other than forcing things to shut down or severely limiting them, unfortunately.

In theory I agree with most of what you're saying. From a practical perspective, I don't see anything that could be effective at this point other than government shutting down as the government has lost control through various events. I hope I am wrong.

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Yeah, we are pretty much on the same page. I just don't think another govt imposed shutdown is an option that can or should even be on the table. It's just not feasible.

I also think people need to accept that hospitals are probably going to be very busy and have a significant number of coronavirus+ patients for the foreseeable future.

As long as they have enough resources and staff to keep from being overwhelmed, I think that's the best we can hope for.

In the meantime, those of us who are following the rules just need to do the best we can to stay out of the hospital - as the prayer goes: give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change and the courage to change the things I can.

Being safe should be just as important and encouraged as wearing masks, washing hands, and social distancing.

The TEA put out their new guidelines for returning to school yesterday and it's amazing how much they've watered them down. Like this paragraph for instance:

Quote:

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Student-Teacher Groupings
Where feasible without disrupting the educational experience, encourage students to practice social distancing.
1. In classroom spaces that allow it, consider placing student desks a minimum of six feet apart when possible.
2. In classrooms where students are regularly within six feet of one another, schools should plan for more frequent hand washing and/or hand sanitizing and should consider whether increased airflow from the outdoors is possible.

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How many qualifiers are in that little paragraph?

One of two things has happened:
1. They've determined that kids won't transmit (doubtful); or,
2. They've determined the politically expedient thing to do is just open it all up and do the best you can and let the chips fall where they may.

Is anyone here going to refuse to wear a mask around others when heading out in public?

Here? Probably very very few. Other parts of this site. Yes.

Here? Probably very very few. Other parts of this site. Yes.

tylercsbn9 said:

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Finally an article with same sanity.

Hospitals typically operate 80-90% capacity.
Patient stays are shorter
With electives off the table there's plenty of space but hospitals will continue to hurt financially

https://www.khou.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/houston-hospitals-ceo-provide-update-on-bed-capacity-amid-surge-in-covid-19-cases/285-a5178aa2-a710-49db-a107-1fd36cdf4cf3

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That's great news. Makes sense given the fact that it seems the patient base is trending younger than we've seen in other parts, but still good to hear. I know some of the doctors on the COVID board have talked about how they've seen cases where treatment saves the life of someone, but causes them to stay in an ICU bed for a prolonged period.

Bassmaster said:

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sts7049 said:

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blindey said:

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HtownAg92 said:

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BohunkAg said:

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I don't know what it's like but it seems like the ICUs were at 70% capacity anyway, which is concerning. And this drive it up near 100. And we have a plan to help mitigate it. Which we should. What do you want?

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For it to be taken a little more seriously. Call me crazy, but I don't think that reaching our "oh s&&&" contingency is no big deal, especially since trends are showing that even that may not last. Usually the "worst case scenario" is a passing thought with no real expectation that it will be reached, but we are there.

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perhaps political leaders could have been preaching that message 2 weeks ago when .... something .... what was it .... 60,000+ people in mass .... what was that ..... but leaders encouraged it .... can anyone recall???

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next time you want to protest a social issue we'll check and see first if it's convenient or not

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Don't worry, it is not an issue for most of us. We are too busy working to support our families to have time to engage in pointless protests.

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how you feel about the issue at hand is irrelevant honestly. because if it were something important to you, i don't think you would care much about it being convenient to go protest your cause.

schmendeler said:

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Beat40 said:

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Ag_07 said:

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aTm2004 said:

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Ag_07 said:

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So these TMC officials on TV don't seem to be too concerned and saying there is plenty of hospital capacity.

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Agreed. So why the EO for elective procedures?

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I don't know

They specifically said that the 97% capacity number being thrown out yesterday was bogus and a false alarm.

Not only do they have capacity but they also have the ability to flip non ICU beds to ICU beds if needed.

They seriously were singing a different tune than what we've been hearing lately.

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It's called communication. People forget that communication is the biggest key. These leaders don't understand that if you want to get people to trust you, communicate well. The hospital leaders should have communicated to the governor's office and they should have had a joint press conference.

Leader's everywhere are seriously breaking people's trust by not communicating well.

I guarantee if leadership at all levels, especially the CDC, from the outset had communicated well regarding masks that more people would be wearing them. Instead, they said you don't need one, then got upset at everyone when people didn't want to wear one after they changed their mind - they lied about it at the beginning rather than communicating to the American people and treating them like adults.

If everyone just communicates, we can get through any situation. The lack of communication is hindering us at all levels.

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i understand that it's a little "eye-roll inducing" when government officials say one thing and then say another.

but i think it's also a little unfair to expect all the answers to be available immediately. this is a new virus and they are still learning a lot about it.

where do you see that they "lied about it" at the beginning?

the messaging has been pretty consistent for a while now, across the board. wear masks!

the CDC posted its recommendation that people wear masks on April 3rd. that was over 2.5 months ago.

the order that hidalgo put out requiring masks that everyone flipped out over was April 22nd.

the governor superseded that order, but still said that everyone should be wearing masks.

now, they have made it so that businesses must require people wear masks.

and the governor basically started begging people to wear masks this week.

so i get that you might have been a little irritated when the messaging switched to pushing masks, but that was over two months ago.

at what point do you get over it?

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I don't expect the answers to be correct and available immediately. I expect updates to thinking and recommendations to be made as we continue to learn about this virus. That's how real life works.

My post wasn't about information changing and updates to prior recommendations. My post wasn't about wearing masks or not - I'm not arguing that.

My post was about communication. I was answering a couple of questions from posters who asked, why the EO if the hospital leaders don't seem to be concerned and are saying there is plenty of capacity. The mask comment was another example where I think communication has been poor, and ultimately believe has caused some breakdown in trust been the American people and it's leaders.

The way this transpired with a letter being sent out that basically was a scare tactic, the governor making an executive order in response because of what the medical community said, and then the hospitals basically saying the executive order is not necessary absolutely is a gross breakdown in communication. The result is people lose trust in leaders when dumb crap like this happens, which could have easily been avoided with a phone call or two from both sides.

My overarching point is communication from here on out has to get better. Our leaders at the state, local, and now medical levels need to be on the same page and communicate consistently on every aspect as the situation is evolving.

The edit is for I had a lot of stuff regarding masks that is detracting from my main point. The reason I even mentioned the mask stuff was because I thought it was an example where communication was poor as in Feb and Mar Dr. Fauci and the US Surgeon General both told the American people to not buy masks, and even recommended the American people not wear masks. Of course they rightly changed their tune in April, and Dr. Fauci recently said they initially didn't recommend mask wearing/buying so hospitals could stock up. They could have communicated that from the beginning, but they chose not to do so. Dr. Fauci makes those comments and admit they had ulterior motives for recommending not to buy/wear masks in Feb and March. How do the people not feel like the were lied to or played? Communicate what you want to actually say, treat people like adults, and they will respond well. I think the way they communicated from the beginning of the pandemic and then subsequently admitted they had ulterior motives broke trust in a lot of Americans. We can disagree on this point about the communication, which I'm ok with. I don't want to argue it, because I think we're on the same page regarding mask wearing.

I just want to see good, solid communication going to the American people from it's leaders.