AustinAg008 said:

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Not buying it.

Seems like folks are back to driving Covid hysteria again

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Old Buffalo said:

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State of Texas.

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P.U.T.U said:

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So we are fully open and despite being partially shut down at the same time last year we have a lot less deaths and hospitalizations. Vaccinations, younger population getting infected, and what we saw in Europe a virus being a virus becoming more infectious and less deadly. Florida and Texas spiked at this time last year so an increase in numbers should not be a surprise.

These should be looked at as positives and not public fear.

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wbt5845 said:

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Dr. Not Yet Dr. Ag said:

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This virus is not getting any less deadly, although deaths will likely be lower due to a younger population being hospitalized currently.

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Could you explain what this means? How can the disease not be less deadly if deaths go down?

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Gordo14 said:

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wbt5845 said:

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Dr. Not Yet Dr. Ag said:

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This virus is not getting any less deadly, although deaths will likely be lower due to a younger population being hospitalized currently.

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Could you explain what this means? How can the disease not be less deadly if deaths go down?

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It only appears less deadly because the most at risk population is largely vaccinated. If that weren't the case, the deaths and hospitalizations wouldn't have decoupled. So it has little to do with the virus being "less deadly".

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cone said:

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are these young patients uniformly unvaccinated?

the numbers are staggering if just within that tranche and young

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Skillet Shot said:

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Dr. Not Yet Dr. Ag said:

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P.U.T.U said:

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So we are fully open and despite being partially shut down at the same time last year we have a lot less deaths and hospitalizations. Vaccinations, younger population getting infected, and what we saw in Europe a virus being a virus becoming more infectious and less deadly. Florida and Texas spiked at this time last year so an increase in numbers should not be a surprise.

These should be looked at as positives and not public fear.

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We actually are trending near identical numbers of hospitalizations compared to last year despite having a significantly younger patient population which is pretty concerning. This virus is not getting any less deadly, although deaths will likely be lower due to a younger population being hospitalized currently. For the last 2 weeks I have been seeing about 10 COVID patients a shift, and admitting 4-5 to the hospital due to oxygen requirements. Average age is around 40, but obviously half of those patients are 20-30 year olds. We will probably see less deaths due to younger ages, however, death numbers do not completely tell the story of the impact this current wave is having. Every ER in my area has been on EMS diversion for the last two weeks.

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How many of your 20-40 year old hospitalizations are obese or have other comorbidities?

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cone said:

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primarily, if you go seek treatment at a stand-alone ER, and you are too sick to be successfully treated and discharged from there, they won't be able to find you a hospital bed in Texas or in Oklahoma or in Louisiana

so if you're really sick, go to a big hospital with a ICU and try to get in there and best of luck

in short, now's not the best time to be sick

and that's just the transfer situation. that's really temporary (I hope) compared to the front-line HC staff hitting the end of their rope.

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"Tallia says his hospital is 'managing, but just barely,' at keeping up with the increased number of sick patients in the last three weeks. The hospital's urgent-care centers have also been inundated, and its outpatient clinics have no appointments available."

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"Dr. Bernard Camins, associate professor of infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, says that UAB Hospital cancelled elective surgeries scheduled for Thursday and Friday of last week to make more beds available"

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"We had to treat patients in places where we normally wouldn't, like in recovery rooms," says Camins. "The emergency room was very crowded, both with sick patients who needed to be admitted"

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"In CA several hospitals have set up large 'surge tents' outside their emergency departments to accommodate and treat patients. Even then, the LA Times reported this week, emergency departments had standing-room only, and some patients had to be treated in hallways."

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"In Fenton, Missouri, SSM Health St. Clare Hospital has opened its emergency overflow wing, as well as all outpatient centers and surgical holding centers, to make more beds available to patients who need them. Nurses are being "pulled from all floors to care for them,"

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"it's making their pre-existing conditions worse," she says. "More and more patients are needing mechanical ventilation due to respiratory failure"

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"From Laguna Beach to Long Beach, emergency rooms were struggling to cope with the overwhelming cases and had gone into 'diversion mode,' during which ambulances are sent to other hospitals."

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"Hospitals across the state are sending away ambulances, flying in nurses from out of state and not letting children visit their loved ones for fear they'll spread Others are canceling surgeries and erecting tents in their parking lots to triage the hordes of patients."

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"There's a little bit of a feeling of being in the trenches. We're really battling these infections to try to get them under control," McKinnell said. "We're still not sure if this is going to continue "

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"At Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, waiting rooms turned into exam areas as a medical tent was built in order to deal with the surge of patients. A Houston doctor said local hospital beds were at capacity"

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"Dr. Anthony Marinelli says they've seen a major spike in cases. It's so overwhelmed the community hospital that they've gone on bypass at times -- that means they tell ambulances to bypass this ER and find another."

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"Dr. Atallah, the chief of emergency medicine at Grady, says the hospital called on a mobile emergency department based nearly 250 miles away to help tackle the increasing patient demand. "At 500-plus patients a day you physically just need the space to put a patient in. "

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