I'm guessing, like at my hospital, they opened up elective stuff and the "normal" ICU pts are present. The surge of COVID is filling it up. I doubt it would be full now if this were happening in late March/early April.

aginlakeway said:

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flnk06 said:

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It should be concerning that 90% of ICU beds at TMC are full considering TMC is the largest medical center in the world. I heard yesterday that 5 of the Memorial Hermann hospitals have full ICU's, and I remember reading a few weeks ago that LBJ and Ben Taub (the two major county hospitals in Houston) already had ICUs at capacity.

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Any idea what percentage are COVID cases?

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26%

SoupNazi2001 said:

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Why is no one mentioning that fatalities have declined dramatically. Over 2,500 per day in April down to just over 250 yesterday.

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I have been posting about the decline for the past 8 weeks but I'm afraid we will see it trending back up very soon. Nearly 900 today.

HotardAg07 said:

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New graph from TMC


Summary Page:

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Feels a little strange to say this here, but I'd like to say a quick prayer that this does not happen. That these trends settle down, and that unnecessary pain and worry are not caused or felt. May God watch over the caregivers, doctors and nurses dealing with this plight, give strength to those in the ICU, and give comfort to their families.

SoupNazi2001 said:

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Why is no one mentioning that fatalities have declined dramatically. Over 2,500 per day in April down to just over 250 yesterday.

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New York City has contained Covid, they were the main reason why deaths were so high in April.

corleoneAg99 said:

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thelaw4 said:

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SoupNazi2001 said:

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Why is no one mentioning that fatalities have declined dramatically. Over 2,500 per day in April down to just over 250 yesterday.

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New York City has contained Covid, they were the main reason why deaths were so high in April.

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NY has contained Covid?

31,300 deaths and most recent daily total? 46 deaths. 1610 deaths per 1M pop.

Texas? The apparent real problem area in country?

2251 total deaths, 33 yesterday, 78 deaths per 1M pop.

But yeah...NY has done a great job of containing Covid.

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new york CITY had their outbreak in march/april, they NOW have covid contained, unlike Texas, whose cases are rising.

[Disrespectful comment removed. Let's be civil, Ags. - Staff]

Marcus Aurelius said:

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I'm guessing, like at my hospital, they opened up elective stuff and the "normal" ICU pts are present. The surge of COVID is filling it up. I doubt it would be full now if this were happening in late March/early April.

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Will they have to taper off on elective procedures soon? Is this something that is being discussed again?

I expect this to occur yes.

I hate to hear this. So many have, to their detriment, put off needed procedures and tests. Some of them were just beginning to feel that it was "safe", and now this. If only people would use the basic strategies: social distancing, washing your hands, not touching your face, most of all using common sense, using self-control, and caring about your neighbor.

Los Angeles County public health director: 'Highly likely' George Floyd protests caused coronavirus spike.'

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

All the charts should be updated to show the dates of the mass gatherings and marches in late May/early June, not just the Phase I and Phase II openings.

Texas cases rose substantially about 7 days ago. There is always a lag between new cases and deaths. I would expect the deaths to start rising here in the next 3-5 days.

ICU beds are obvious concern. The other is running out of the effective hospital medications and plasma.

BQAg84 said:

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All the charts should be updated to show the dates of the mass gatherings and marches in late May/early June, not just the Phase I and Phase II openings.

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Yup

Letter from the Texas Medical Center

HotardAg07 said:

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Letter from the Texas Medical Center

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But some people on the internet said everything is fine. /s

Expect elective procedures to get axed in the near future in heavier hit areas, hopefully not a blanket statewide restriction like before.

HotardAg07 said:

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Letter from the Texas Medical Center

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It's too late to make this manageable. It's still possible to prevent a disaster. But plenty of people have shown they are ready to run full steam ahead into it. This **** is so depressing because it could have been prevented and managed. But we're in an election year... So unpragmatic, empty, and irrational one-liners like "we can't shut down the economy again", "the healthcare system in Houston can't be overwhelmed", and "the virus won't spread out of control again" are more popular than rational, data-based decision making. We've spent two weeks with people trying to discredit the data, seek alternative data, and worse - ignore the data. I hope this letter makes people take this seriously. Anything we do today will take 2+ weeks to change the trajectory... Actions must be taken now if we don't want a disaster.

#doomsayer who actually cares about the people of Houston.

Gordo14 said:

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HotardAg07 said:

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Letter from the Texas Medical Center

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It's too late to make this manageable. It's still possible to prevent a disaster. But plenty of people have shown they are ready to run full steam ahead into it. This **** is so depressing because it could have been prevented and managed. But we're in an election year... So unpragmatic, empty, and irrational one-liners like "we can't shut down the economy again", "the healthcare system in Houston can't be overwhelmed", and "the virus won't spread out of control again" are more popular than rational, data-based decision making. We've spent two weeks with people trying to discredit the data, seek alternative data, and worse - ignore the data. I hope this letter makes people take this seriously. Anything we do today will take 2+ weeks to change the trajectory... Actions must be taken now if we don't want a disaster.

#doomsayer who actually cares about the people of Houston.

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So are we to stay locked down forever? A vaccine should not be depended on, they don't just happen within a year or two, sometimes never...as in the case of coronavirus.

Treatments and learning to deal with spikes is the only way to progress. Shutting down again (or never opening back up) was never an option. Unfortunately some hospitals will be overwhelmed, but the healthcare system as a whole will not. I drove by a hospital today with a giant brand new sign that said ER No Wait!! Maybe the election year goes both ways?

Gordo14 said:

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HotardAg07 said:

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Letter from the Texas Medical Center

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It's too late to make this manageable. It's still possible to prevent a disaster. But plenty of people have shown they are ready to run full steam ahead into it. This **** is so depressing because it could have been prevented and managed. But we're in an election year... So unpragmatic, empty, and irrational one-liners like "we can't shut down the economy again", "the healthcare system in Houston can't be overwhelmed", and "the virus won't spread out of control again" are more popular than rational, data-based decision making. We've spent two weeks with people trying to discredit the data, seek alternative data, and worse - ignore the data. I hope this letter makes people take this seriously. Anything we do today will take 2+ weeks to change the trajectory... Actions must be taken now if we don't want a disaster.

#doomsayer who actually cares about the people of Houston.

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At this point, I'm starting not to care. We live on some land in the unincorporated county. We'll do what we do out here, staying out of town. City folk want to have a pissing contest about how tough they are without masks and how they have a God given right to unlimited chips and salsa every night, fine with me. I'll just sit here in the country and watch the city melt down.

We now have proof that, yes, some literally wanted to stay locked down until there was a vaccine

Its odd how the narrative is now:

Assassins = Abbott, the government, anyone not wearing a mask, anyone who dare set foot in a restaurant or bar

Victims = anyone in the hospital, or who god forbid dies of covid

At what point is it ok to say "we have 4 months of data suggesting that hospitalizations and deaths aren't completely random - the older / unhealthier you are - especially if your diabetic - the more likely you are to end up in one or both of these categories If you don't take precautions"

If diabetic overweight-guy chose not to "social distance" this summer, and is having a bad time now, are we really jumping right to "gotta shut it down - damn you Abbott and damn you yuppies going to brunch!"

Obv many higher risk folks don't fall into that category and literally did 0 wrong and are still in the situation they are in ..and there's no easy fix for that. But any energy wasted on yelling at people for not wearing masks at Whole Foods is energy that could be spent on figuring out how to keep high risk people from getting covid/ending up in the hospital or worse.

And shut down / yelling at millennials in uptown or midtown or rainy isn't the answer.

Quote:

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and breathing in my own breath all day long.

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I can only imagine how awful it would be to breath your breath all day long.*








* I don't know you and this is just in jest.

This is a serious question...what poster on here has advocated staying shutdown forever? Or even staying shutdown in June? None that I've noticed. All I've been seeing in posters asking others to please wear a mask to help try and stop the spread of the virus when going to an indoor business.

I hate to say it but think bars need to be rolled back. The damn kids wont listen so this crap will keep spreading. Protesters also screwed this thing up too. Its so annoying.

Protests - ok

Bars - not ok

Good luck with that

Or - high risk people could just abstain from going to bars ?

Just an idea

Yes- I think that's an obvious outcome. However, super spreading by the healthy is also a very selfish act.

This was caused by the riots.

They ruined the lockdown months.

ccaggie05 said:

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Shutting down bars and requiring masks would go a long way in getting this under control without needing for the government to overreact again by implementing another shut down and causing even more economic chaos.

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Or stop all elective medical procedures again. Is there evidence bars are leading to an significant increase in hospitalizations? Elective medical procedures certainly are causing a rise in ICU cases.

DadHammer said:

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This was caused by the riots.

They ruined the lockdown months.

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If it were the "riots", Minnesota, Washington D.C., New York/New Jersey, and many other places around the country should be showing spikes.

However, they're not.

I have no doubt there was some spread at the protests, but there's certainly a lot more than that contributing to the current situation in Texas, Arizona, Florida, Oklahoma, etc.

DadHammer said:

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This was caused by the riots.

They ruined the lockdown months.

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What I find it hard to understand is why did the protests in certain cities cause increase viral spread, but not in others?

Lots of cities with big protests (like Minneapolis, Seattle, and New York) aren't seeing increases, while others like Houston are.

Maybe riots actually kept more people home in aggregate due to curfews or fear of property damage?

SoupNazi2001 said:

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ccaggie05 said:

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Shutting down bars and requiring masks would go a long way in getting this under control without needing for the government to overreact again by implementing another shut down and causing even more economic chaos.

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We don't know if closing bars would make a significant difference. Bars have never reopened in NC and there cases are increasing dramatically as well. They never opened gyms either.

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While North Carolina has been seeing a lot of cases lately, their chart actually looks different than Texas, Florida, Arizona, etc. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/usa/north-carolina/

They basically never had a drop; or never seemed to slow the growth. Its been a constant, slower ramp up. At least not yet, they've not had the dramatic blast off that has been seen in a few other states.

You could ask all the same questions about bars?

Protests ok

All businesses being open ok

We all agree