A pat on the back? Are you kidding? A standing ovation might be more appropriate, which is how I interpret other board members' opinion of your input.
COVID-19 Vaccine Issues & New Poll Part VIII
- Thread starter NationalTitles18
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< A version of me without eyebrows weighing 200 lbs more than I do and very jaundiced, blushing
September 7, 2021
A Moment of Silence
 | Frank McPhillips
|
September 7, 2021
Labor Day Weekend 2021 is now behind us and Alabama’s Covid data since Friday are in the books. Not surprisingly, the 9,148 new cases reported for the last 3 days - Saturday through Monday - compare favorably to 11,521 cases for the same three days last week. Today’s number (collected on Labor Day) is 2,672. However, it is quite likely that spotty holiday reporting played heavily into the numbers.
Last Friday, Alabama’s hospitalization rate dipped to 25.3 patients per reporting hospital (2,629 in 104 hospitals). By Monday, however, it rose again to 27.2 patients per hospital (2,777 in 102 hospitals, 53 of whom are children) - not a promising sign. As of Monday, there were 1,712 patients requiring ICU care and only 1,531 staffed ICU beds in the State - 52% of all such ICU patients were struggling with Covid.
In a press briefing last Thursday, Dr. Scott Harris expressed optimism about rising vaccinations, noting we were no longer last in the percentage of fully vaccinated residents - ahead of Mississippi. Sadly, that did not last long, as Mississippi’s vaccination rate is now higher than ours. In the last 7 days, an average of 19.5K doses per day were given in Alabama, a 19% decline compared to the prior week. A weirdly giddy headline graced al.com last week: “Alabama COVID vaccination rate surges ahead of Mississippi. Watch out, Wyoming.” It seems like an odd way to celebrate a vaccination rate (39.1%) that trails Cambodia (55%), Panama (45%) and Croatia (40%). Must we be reminded that if Alabama were a country, our vaccination rate would fall roughly between Sri Lanka (39%) and Cuba (36%)?
At noon today, UAB will join with the Alabama Hospital Association in observing a statewide moment of silence to remember the 12,416 Alabamians lost to Covid, their families and the healthcare workers caring for us all. It is clear that the strain on our healthcare workers has reached a breaking point. The strain increasingly impacts everyone, even vaccinated people who are not infected, but need other care. What is worrisome is not only the influx of Covid patients but the growing loss of trained health professionals to exhaustion and demoralization, as they care for dying young and middle-aged patients who have refused vaccines. The NY Times reported last week that Mississippi has 2,000 fewer nurses working in its hospitals than it had on January 1 of this year. In the hard-hit Deep South, there is increasing reliance on traveling nurses and emergency medical teams supplied by the federal government, but they cannot fully compensate for hospital systems on the verge of collapse.
There is a striking disconnect between the growing despair inside hospitals, especially in the South, and the oblivious world outside them. Fewer than 100,000 people work inside Alabama’s hospitals - 2% of the population - and yet, they are left to fight this war against Covid largely alone and without the support of almost two-thirds of the population who refuse to take a vaccine. It reminds me of the sacrifices that are expected from the 1% of Americans who serve in the active military …. But, unlike many of our courageous healthcare professionals, our soldiers and sailors are revered for their service.
Delta has increased the chances of getting Covid for almost everyone, but if you’re vaccinated, your chances remain extremely small. For the vaccinated, Covid resembles the flu and usually a mild one. For the unvaccinated, of course, the chances of infection are far higher and the chances of hospitalization are higher still (for example, 89% of UAB’s current Covid patients are unvaccinated). If the world, as we know it, is to ever return to normal, we must learn to live with Covid like it is the flu. To reach that point, the answer is obvious. We must do whatever it takes, including mandates of every variety, to get people vaccinated. “Personal choice” is not an option when it wrecks our healthcare system and kills over 660,000, as it has so far in the United States. The totals:
8/26 - 4,998
8/27 - 6,207
8/28 - 5,016
8/29 - 3,433
8/30 - 3,072
8/31 - 5,206
9/1 - 4,691
9/2 - 5,312
9/3 - 5,128
9/4 - 4,420
9/5 - 2,162
9/6 - 2,566
9/7 - 2,672
Identical twins: One was vaccinated for COVID, the other wasn't; how'd they fare?
COVID vaccine lesson? Identical twins Billy and Bobby Ford of Vero Beach took different tacks on getting inoculated. The result might be instructive.
One of my favorite co-workers tested positive today.
Fully vaxxed.
Ten-day quarantine.
And then they informed us (I told you) that due to staffing shortages no leaves beyond the one I have for later this month on this schedule.
Third co-worker positive in the last month, all fully vaxxed.
Fully vaxxed.
Ten-day quarantine.
And then they informed us (I told you) that due to staffing shortages no leaves beyond the one I have for later this month on this schedule.
Third co-worker positive in the last month, all fully vaxxed.
And now they want to talk to me about my PTO.......you know what's about to happen.....
MSN
www.msn.com
Quote:
I realize that not everybody sees what I see every day. While stories about vaccine reactions abound, few hear about the realities of severe COVID-19 infection. However, when I close my eyes at night, I see the healthy 27-year-old man who died after four weeks hooked up to machines that tried to keep him alive, and the young family he left behind. I see the 41-year-old woman now weak and permanently disabled after a long hospital stay. I see the 53-year-old farmworker who now requires dialysis after developing renal failure, a common complication of severe COVID-19. And countless more.
I often hear claims of“99% survival” from COVID-19 with or without the vaccine, but in reality, the facts are much more staggering. Nearly 1 in 500 Americans has died from this disease, and for those who survive, the devastation is like nothing I’ve ever seen. Holes in lungs, muscle wasted, organs failing one by one – millions of people will suffer physical, psychological and financial consequences that will last months or years, a toll difficult to quantify.
The impact on our health care system is also difficult to quantify. Staffing, even more than beds or ventilators, is critically low. In Washington state, Texas and across the country, experienced health care workers are leaving the profession in droves, exasperated by the continuous onslaught of sick COVID-19 patients and a demanding work environment. People – nurses, respiratory therapists, doctors, physical therapists, sanitation workers – do the work in hospitals; a hospital bed is worthless without staff to provide care.
Because of these staffing shortages, hospitals are closing, and the inequities and weaknesses in an already-stretched health care system are being exposed. Revered as “health care heroes” just a year ago, doctors are being heckled and even assaulted after speaking out about science at school board meetings.
Leaders need to lead, not kowtow.
www.al.com
Archibald: Experts say we’ll beat COVID if leaders lead
"The Delta variant is ripping through our state and laying waste behind it, including children,” he said. “It’s an all-hands-on-deck situation that nobody realizes is all-hands-on-deck.”
www.al.com
The Latest COVID-19 Surge Is Just the Start of a New Nightmare
With schools reopening and hospitals buckling again, an exhausted, defiant, and heavily unvaccinated nation is entering a new and scary phase.
www.thedailybeast.com
After watching college football this weekend with packed stadiums and zero masks, either everyone was vaccinated or there's about to be another spike across the country.
Another spike. Give it about another week or so to become apparent. Combined with Labor Day it should be a doozy. Time will tell, though.
My aunt has just texted they are removing life support from my uncle (her husband).
Very sorry to hear this. I have lost 3 uncles in 2 months. It doesn't matter how they passed because it sucks you can't hear their stories anymore. Many good laughs.
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