The Coronavirus

[pbrower2a]

[Bob Butler 54]

With COVUS getting worse, the George senate run offs are becoming more and more a referendum on how the pandemic should be handled. I can't help but think the overload situation over the next few months may make the hoax and denier people think twice about selfishness against sacrifice for the community.

[pbrower2a]

Just under 250,000 now... the death toll just surpassed Winston-Salem, North Carolina, home of some very bad habits (R J Reynolds Tobacco, Krispy-Kreme donuts) and the 90th-largest city in the United States. These days, failing to wear a mask or congregating in large groups can be about as fatal -- and far more quickly -- than smoking.

...Holidays are ahead, and COVID-19 has no reverence for them.

[David Horn]

(11-16-2020, 05:50 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: With COVUS getting worse, the George senate run offs are becoming more and more a referendum on how the pandemic should be handled.  I can't help but think the overload situation over the next few months may make the hoax and denier people think twice about selfishness against sacrifice for the community.

Don't bet too much on that.  We have people around here outraged that they may have to cancel huge holiday gatherings and parties, because it's a hoax isn't it?  And no one get's that sick.  There are even a few who, having gotten sick, prefer the freedom to life saving and boring.  It's high tech nihilism.

[Bob Butler 54]

(11-16-2020, 02:49 PM)David Horn Wrote:

(11-16-2020, 05:50 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: With COVUS getting worse, the George senate run offs are becoming more and more a referendum on how the pandemic should be handled.  I can't help but think the overload situation over the next few months may make the hoax and denier people think twice about selfishness against sacrifice for the community.

Don't bet too much on that.  We have people around here outraged that they may have to cancel huge holiday gatherings and parties, because it's a hoax isn't it?  And no one get's that sick.  There are even a few who, having gotten sick, prefer the freedom to life saving and boring.  It's high tech nihilism.

Give it a few more months of the hospitals being overloaded. If they can't see that it isn't a hoax, it is on them. There is only so much vaccine to go around anyway.

[David Horn]

(11-16-2020, 05:06 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:

(11-16-2020, 02:49 PM)David Horn Wrote:

(11-16-2020, 05:50 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: With COVUS getting worse, the George senate run offs are becoming more and more a referendum on how the pandemic should be handled.  I can't help but think the overload situation over the next few months may make the hoax and denier people think twice about selfishness against sacrifice for the community.

Don't bet too much on that.  We have people around here outraged that they may have to cancel huge holiday gatherings and parties, because it's a hoax isn't it?  And no one get's that sick.  There are even a few who, having gotten sick, prefer the freedom to life saving and boring.  It's high tech nihilism.

Give it a few more months of the hospitals being overloaded.  If they can't see that it isn't a hoax, it is on them.  There is only so much vaccine to go around anyway.

Luckily, Virginia now has Medicaid expansion, but that's not the case next door in Tennessee. Ballad Health, the primary hospital chain serving the rural areas there, has already informed the governor that they are maxxed-out and going broke at the same time.  It seems to be falling on deaf ears.  Ballad also supplies services in far southwest Virginia, and hoped it could move some of the Tennessee overflow across the border.  It's still under review, but compassion may rule and Virginia could bail-out their undeserving neighbor.

Here's you test case.  We'll see if the system bends or breaks.

[Eric the Green]

(11-17-2020, 06:13 AM)David Horn Wrote:

(11-16-2020, 05:06 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:

(11-16-2020, 02:49 PM)David Horn Wrote:

(11-16-2020, 05:50 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: With COVUS getting worse, the George senate run offs are becoming more and more a referendum on how the pandemic should be handled.  I can't help but think the overload situation over the next few months may make the hoax and denier people think twice about selfishness against sacrifice for the community.

Don't bet too much on that.  We have people around here outraged that they may have to cancel huge holiday gatherings and parties, because it's a hoax isn't it?  And no one get's that sick.  There are even a few who, having gotten sick, prefer the freedom to life saving and boring.  It's high tech nihilism.

Give it a few more months of the hospitals being overloaded.  If they can't see that it isn't a hoax, it is on them.  There is only so much vaccine to go around anyway.

Luckily, Virginia now has Medicaid expansion, but that's not the case next door in Tennessee. Ballad Health, the primary hospital chain serving the rural areas there, has already informed the governor that they are maxxed-out and going broke at the same time.  It seems to be falling on deaf ears.  Ballad also supplies services in far southwest Virginia, and hoped it could move some of the Tennessee overflow across the border.  It's still under review, but compassion may rule and Virginia could bail-out their undeserving neighbor.

Here's you test case.  We'll see if the system bends or breaks.

I'm glad to hear Virginia has joined the ranks of the medicaid states.

[pbrower2a]

Any questions?

[Bob Butler 54]

On Earth 2... just a hoax.

[pbrower2a]

(Reuters) - Dr. Drew Miller knew his patient had to be moved.

The vital signs of the 30-year-old COVID-19 victim were crashing, and Kearny County Hospital in rural Lakin, Kansas, just wasn’t equipped to handle the case. Miller, Kearny’s chief medical officer - who doubles as the county health officer - called around to larger hospitals in search of an ICU bed. With coronavirus cases soaring throughout Kansas, he said, he couldn’t find a single one.

By the time a bed opened elsewhere the following day, the young man was near death. For a full 45 minutes, Miller and his staff performed chest compressions in a desperate attempt to save him.

Somehow, Miller said, the patient regained a pulse, and was dispatched in an ambulance to the larger facility about 25 miles away. Miller then prayed with the family, whom he knew “very well” from Lakin, a town of just a few thousand people.

“It’s truly a miracle he has survived,” Miller said.

After pounding big U.S. cities in the spring, COVID-19 now has engulfed rural and small-town America, seeming to seep into the country’s every nook and cranny. According to Reuters’ interviews with more than a dozen medical care providers and public health officials in the nation’s heartland, many hospitals are severely lacking in beds, equipment and - most critically - clinical staff, including specialists and nurses.

COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are spiking nationally. But the Midwest - encompassing a dozen states between Ohio and the Dakotas - has been especially brutalized. Reported case rates are more than double that of any other region in the United States, according to the COVID Tracking Project, a volunteer-run data provider. From mid-June to mid-November, reported cases in the Midwest rose more than twentyfold.

For the week ending November 19, North Dakota reported an average of 1,769 daily new cases per 1 million residents, according to the tracking project. South Dakota recorded nearly 1,500 per million residents, Wisconsin and Nebraska around 1,200, and Kansas nearly 1,000. Even in New York’s worst week in April - with business closed and panic gripping the public - the state never averaged more than 500 new cases per million people. California never topped 253.

COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are spiking nationally. But the Midwest - encompassing a dozen states between Ohio and the Dakotas - has been especially brutalized. Reported case rates are more than double that of any other region in the United States, according to the COVID Tracking Project, a volunteer-run data provider. From mid-June to mid-November, reported cases in the Midwest rose more than twentyfold.

For the week ending November 19, North Dakota reported an average of 1,769 daily new cases per 1 million residents, according to the tracking project. South Dakota recorded nearly 1,500 per million residents, Wisconsin and Nebraska around 1,200, and Kansas nearly 1,000. Even in New York’s worst week in April - with business closed and panic gripping the public - the state never averaged more than 500 new cases per million people. California never topped 253.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/covid-cas...b88c619fe3

[pbrower2a]

[pbrower2a]

South Dakota broke another record Saturday. One day after reporting 39 deaths, the Department of Health reported 54 COVID-19 deaths in the state. The previous record had been 53 two weeks ago on Nov. 14.
That brings the total to 517 for November and 942 overall. There were only 425 deaths in the state when the month began. 
The deaths Saturday included 31 men and 23 women. There were five people in their 50s, 11 in their 60s, 13 in their 70s and 25 over 80 years old. 

Pennington County reported four deaths to bring the county's total to 77 since March. Minnehaha County reported 11 deaths Saturday. Codington and Davison counties each reported four and Oglala-Lakota, Aurora, Buffalo, Day, Faulk, Jackson, Lincoln, Roberts, Tripp, Turner and Union counties all reported two. One death was reported in Beadle, Brown, Charles Mix, Grant, Gregory, Hamlin, Hanson, Hutchinson and Walworth counties. 

Due in part to the number of deaths Saturday, the number of people hospitalized dropped 30 to 539. Ninety-five of those patients are in intensive care units and 55 are on ventilators. In the Black Hills region, there are 116 patients in hospitals with 15 in ICU and 10 on ventilators. 


There were 819 new infections reported Saturday on 1,892 people tested. There have been 79,099 positive tests in the state with 17,106 of those cases still active - an increase of 724 from Friday's report. 


Pennington County reported 90 new infections on 233 tests. There have been 8,465 cases in the county with 1,841 of them still considered active. Meade County reported 17 positive tests Saturday and Lawrence County had 12. There were nine in Oglala-Lakota and Custer counties and two in Butte and Fall River counties.

Minnehaha County reported 202 new cases Saturday. Yankton County had 45 and there were 44 in Brown County. Lincoln County added 32 new cases and there were 23 in Charles Mix, 22 in Brookings, 21 in Davision and 20 in Union. 
Hamlin County had 18 new infections and there were 17 in Todd County, 16 in Hughes County and 15 in Codington County. There were 13 positive tests in Beadle County, 12 in Grant and Roberts counties, 11 in Clay and Hutchinson counties and 10 in Bon Homme and Walworth counties.

Lake County reported nine new cases and there were eight in Day and Kingsbury counties. Seven new infections were reported in Brule, Hanson and Lyman counties and six in Corson, Marshall and McCook counties.

Five positive tests were reported in Deuel, Moody, Potter and Turner counties and four in Aurora, Douglas and Tripp counties. Clark, Edmunds and Spink counties each had three new cases and there were two in Gregory, Jackson, McPherson, Mellette, Perkins and Sanborn counties. One new case was reported in Bennett, Buffalo, Faulk, Hand, Harding, Jerauld, Miner and Stanley counties.


For Saturday's report, there were 138 cases in children under 19. People in their 20s were responsible for 117 new infections and 105 people over 70 tested positive.

from the Rapid City (South Dakota) Journal

and a tweet from the Governor:

[/url]Governor Kristi Noem

@govkristinoem

·
Nov 28



Remember, today is #SmallBusinessSaturday


These businesses are the lifeblood of so many South Dakota communities. Please support them today and every day! #shopsmall


[url=https://twitter.com/hashtag/shopsmall?src=hashtag_click]



(If you want to take risks with COVID-19, then I suggest shopping for things that could be very useful, such as a casket or memorial stone).

[Bob Butler 54]

CNN's headline is 'America's fatal crisis'.  I guess that puts to lie the prediction that the coverage of the bug will die after the election.  Another day, another record increase in infections.  I suppose the Thanksgiving holiday surge on a surge has got to hit.

[pbrower2a]

The SARS-2 virus which causes COVID-19 will go away... but most likely only when Americans get the collective immunity from mass inoculation, probably in the spring or summer.

In the meantime, wear a mask in public, wash hands frequently for at least 20 seconds, avoid crowds, stay home if sick, and stay sober.What you miss in 2020 and early 2021, just plan to do it bigger and better in 2022.

[Bob Butler 54]

Now it seems that Trump has Operation Warp Speed running under impulse power. He was given the opportunity to buy more vaccines but didn't.

[David Horn]

(12-07-2020, 07:51 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: Now it seems that Trump has Operation Warp Speed running under impulse power.  He was given the opportunity to buy more vaccines but didn't.

Trump is simply so self centered and vindictive that he can't think it's abnormal to be the way he is.  That's a sure sign of mental illness that won't be addressed because he is who he is.

[Bob Butler 54]

(12-08-2020, 06:13 AM)David Horn Wrote:

(12-07-2020, 07:51 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: Now it seems that Trump has Operation Warp Speed running under impulse power.  He was given the opportunity to buy more vaccines but didn't.

Trump is simply so self centered and vindictive that he can't think it's abnormal to be the way he is.  That's a sure sign of mental illness that won't be addressed because he is who he is.

It is beyond self centered.  If he had let somebody run some sort of effort against the bug, he would likely be a hero now, elected recently to his second term.  He just does not care about or understand the situation.  

It is perverse, but to a president, a problem for the country is a chance to build popularity.  Think a bit on Bush 43, the September 11 response, and the initial responses to invading Afghanistan and Iraq.  It is when you attempt something and fail that gets you burned.  Bush 43's popularity went ever downward, but he got huge bounces whenever a new problem arose.

Well, at least until the economy collapsed.  You can only botch it so many times it seems.

[Bob Butler 54]

While Pbower has been comparing the cumulative casualties of COVID to the population of increasingly big cities, the coastal media is comparing the day’s death rates to important events such as Pearl Harbor, D Day or September 11th.  Yes, the daily deaths have matched those events.

[David Horn]

(12-11-2020, 07:54 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: While Pbower has been comparing the cumulative casualties of COVID to the population of increasingly big cities, the coastal media is comparing the day’s death rates to important events such as Pearl Harbor, D Day or September 11th.  Yes, the daily deaths have matched those events.

The total death toll now exceeds the war casualties of every war we've fought -- even WW-II and the ACW.

[pbrower2a]

(12-11-2020, 01:57 PM)David Horn Wrote:

(12-11-2020, 07:54 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: While Pbrower has been comparing the cumulative casualties of COVID to the population of increasingly big cities, the coastal media is comparing the day’s death rates to important events such as Pearl Harbor, D Day or September 11th.  Yes, the daily deaths have matched those events.

The total death toll now exceeds the war casualties of every war we've fought -- even WW-II and the ACW.

One of the most disgusting citations that I have heard or seen by someone not Adolf Hitler is one of Josef Stalin:

"One death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic".

The most obvious divide between Good and Evil is respect for life. By comparing a death toll to a the population city I attempt to make the deaths related to COVID-19 a tragedy instead of a statistic. I have mentioned places for being cities with distinguished colleges (Tuscaloosa, College Station, South Bend, Boulder, Berkeley, Ann Arbor), for having major-league sports franchises situated in them (starting with Green Bay and now approaching Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and St. Louis), state capitals, largest cities in states... and of course, death tolls from America's wars.  Maybe I could have counted numbers of deaths related to the Holocaust, except that national totals are not so discrete as the result of the positions of borders during the war. I have compared the number of deaths due to vehicle collisions, and noted that deaths from this cause have been in decline. Vehicle-related deaths have fallen due to 

(1) better training of young drivers
(2) more rigid enforcement of traffic laws
(3) the improvement of existing roads to remove death traps or the replacement of Blood Alleys with freeways
(4) more safety features built into motor vehicles

America still remembers Pearl Harbor even if the people remembering it were largely not born at the time. Consciousness of the Holocaust is seared into the minds of people who weren't around at the time, who are not Jewish, and have never been in Europe. Newsreels of dead bodies stacked like cordwood and photos of emaciated people who barely survived sear a conscience -- if one has one. Maybe it need not be so recent, and dehumanization of people for profit is disgusting, too. The Atlantic Slave Trade killed at least as many people as did the Holocaust, and somehow I can compare a death train to Auschwitz with a ship laden with slaves to the New World. Diagrams of such ships elicit their own disgust in me. No, I am not Jewish, and I am not black.  

...Even Stalin refuted his quip trivializing mass death when it was time to take revenge on Holocaust perpetrators, and the Soviet Union lost more people to the Holocaust than any other political entity of the time. The Nazis committed massacres of Jews as far from Germany as one of their easternmost advances in Krasnodar, and that is one of the first cities the Nazis fled. As early as 1943 the Soviet Union held a trial for Nazis and local collaborators who participated in massacres of the local Jews and performed eight executions of offenders who didn't escape with the Wehrmacht.