COVID-19

[sixstar]

The civilian hospitals in DC set up overflow tents because the bed situation is bonkers. Source: actual peds ICU doc.

Which hospitals in particular?

Assuming you mean ICU in particular since standard inpatient across DC is at 80%, limited by facilities with no spike in demand.



ICU utilization across DC is slightly high at 82%, but it's still a staffing issue, not a facilities issue. Note, the latest update is 11/27, so 11 days behind, but as of 11/27, there is no spike in patients - only an ever-decreasing availability due to staffing reductions. Staffing is down 7.5% from January, and ICU inpatients are down 9.1% since January. You can look at each hospital individually; as of 11/27, the numbers are lower at every hospital than at points earlier in this year.

My fellowship hospital in Seattle is operating at the highest volume ever (50 some icu instead of 30 something). It's not adult COVID bad, but it's the worst since H1N1. Fortunately RSV seems to have peaked before flu.

Which one? Seattle isn't showing spikes either. Again, might be the 10 day lag. Seattle ICU occupancy was low throughout most of 2021 and returned to ~80% in FEB 2022.

 

[PerthDomer]

Which hospitals in particular?

Assuming you mean ICU in particular since standard inpatient across DC is at 80%, limited by facilities with no spike in demand.

View attachment 3052182

ICU utilization across DC is slightly high at 82%, but it's still a staffing issue, not a facilities issue. Note, the latest update is 11/27, so 11 days behind, but as of 11/27, there is no spike in patients - only an ever-decreasing availability due to staffing reductions. Staffing is down 7.5% from January, and ICU inpatients are down 9.1% since January. You can look at each hospital individually; as of 11/27, the numbers are lower at every hospital than at points earlier in this year.

View attachment 3052186



Which one? Seattle isn't showing spikes either. Again, might be the 10 day lag. Seattle ICU occupancy was low throughout most of 2021 and returned to ~80% in FEB 2022.

View attachment 3052187

RSV is an issue in Children's hospitals. Everything you see about teipledemic etc. Is a general issue but more acutely felt in pediatrics. Specifically Seattle Children's, DC Children's, INOVA pediatrics. But the peds hospital thing is an issue everywhere. I don't think we need to do anything crazy from a public policy perspective, but the data you're looking at doesn't really give you good info.

For instance, just at Walter Reed where I practice the adult and peds sides are licensed for twice as many beds as we have the capacity to actually staff. You see that at many places. Those numbers are legal fiction as much as anything.

 

[NorthDakota]

These people start with nothing, created a non-profit, then let the success go to their heads. They think they have the right to use the money for personal gain. Wounded Warriors and Susan B Komen went through the same thing.

This lady sounds like a nut job though.

The same thing sorta happens in the movie "Contagion."

 

[sixstar]

RSV is an issue in Children's hospitals. Everything you see about teipledemic etc. Is a general issue but more acutely felt in pediatrics. Specifically Seattle Children's, DC Children's, INOVA pediatrics. But the peds hospital thing is an issue everywhere. I don't think we need to do anything crazy from a public policy perspective, but the data you're looking at doesn't really give you good info.

For instance, just at Walter Reed where I practice the adult and peds sides are licensed for twice as many beds as we have the capacity to actually staff. You see that at many places. Those numbers are legal fiction as much as anything.

Yes, RSV is on the rise in children everywhere. The question is why.

And yeah, I would argue that public policy needs to take a major step back in all cases and let doctors be doctors, especially with how poorly they've handled the last 2.5 years.

And while I understand that hospitals can be licensed for twice as many beds as they staff, realize that data reported to HHS would show over saturation in such cases - just like it does for Seattle Children's. I hear what you are saying, but I disagree with your dismissal. "Staffed beds" might under-report the number of hospital beds, but the problem is that, if this is true, we would see inpatient utilization higher, not lower, since the inpatient numerator would outpace the staffed beds denominator. We don't see that. And the data is far too consistent nationwide to support the over population boogeyman narrative.

 

[sixstar]

Xavier Becerra, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, is telling you all to get another shot if your 1.5 month protection window has passed (remember the first 14 days don't count toward protection due to immunosuppressive impact):



Seriously - don't do it. If the shots worked, you wouldn't need a fifth dose. If the shots worked, people wouldn't be taking Paxlovid when they get COVID. If the shots worked, we would've seen a drop - not a rise - in all cause mortality all else being equal.

Is bi-monthly the new COVID shot subscription model? Don't let a lawyer trick you into making a poor health decision.

 

[GrangerIrish24]

My entire house has been down for the last week. 2 year old and wife with strep, twin 6 year olds with fevers and throwing up, and I’m dealing with 2 ear infections. Doctor said basically it’s a bad influenza breakout.
My friend is an ER doctor in San Fran he gave me his thoughts on it. Said our natural immune systems are re-learning how to fight off common viruses. Masking up, isolation, and over sanitization have weekend our response to dealing with common viruses we use to be fight quite easily. Again, just opinion but it makes some sense.

 

[sixstar]

My entire house has been down for the last week. 2 year old and wife with strep, twin 6 year olds with fevers and throwing up, and I’m dealing with 2 ear infections. Doctor said basically it’s a bad influenza breakout.
My friend is an ER doctor in San Fran he gave me his thoughts on it. Said our natural immune systems are re-learning how to fight off common viruses. Masking up, isolation, and over sanitization have weekend our response to dealing with common viruses we use to be fight quite easily. Again, just opinion but it makes some sense.

Out of curiosity - did you all get the COVID shot?
There are studies showing data suggesting that the shot could be creating autoimmune disorders.

 

[ab2cmiller]

Out of curiosity - did you all get the COVID shot?
There are studies showing data suggesting that the shot could be creating autoimmune disorders.

Got the J&J shot out of concern over the mRNA shot. No booster. The reason I took it was because of my age and underlying health condition. As more and more info came out I decided that I didn’t want the booster. Body will still generate a T cell response.

 

[GrangerIrish24]

Out of curiosity - did you all get the COVID shot?
There are studies showing data suggesting that the shot could be creating autoimmune disorders.

I’m the only one in my family, but I only got the first shot. I started to have high blood pressure after the first one, so I never got the boosters. Not saying it was strictly due to the vaccine but I didn’t want to take any chances. I also have noticed that it takes me longer to recover from common viruses I used to get over in 24 hours.

 

[PerthDomer]

Yes, RSV is on the rise in children everywhere. The question is why.

And yeah, I would argue that public policy needs to take a major step back in all cases and let doctors be doctors, especially with how poorly they've handled the last 2.5 years.

And while I understand that hospitals can be licensed for twice as many beds as they staff, realize that data reported to HHS would show over saturation in such cases - just like it does for Seattle Children's. I hear what you are saying, but I disagree with your dismissal. "Staffed beds" might under-report the number of hospital beds, but the problem is that, if this is true, we would see inpatient utilization higher, not lower, since the inpatient numerator would outpace the staffed beds denominator. We don't see that. And the data is far too consistent nationwide to support the over population boogeyman narrative.

Adult hospitals are doing better than they have been since before the pandemic. We haven't seen what peak flu will do, but I doubt we'll see another Omicron or delta surge. The pediatric problem is multifactorial.

For one, kids haven't seen a real viral season in 3 years. No one has antibodies to anything, and neonates don't have antibodies from their moms. Two, COVID is another virus to add to the typical viral stew. Viruses generate more pediatric volume than adult volume from a percentage basis. The last issue is that there's a big shortage of pediatric nurses/respiratory therapists. There have been low volumes during COVID, so peds hospitals have been cutting costs, now to their detriment.

I will say that of you were a kid born in 2020 you were much better off from a purely health perspective. Getting the flu/rsv while young isn't good for you (more asthma, moms miscarry, etc.). However, it leaves a larger number of potential victims for infection and runs the numbers up.

The sad thing is everyone in the business has been predicting this, and wanted more nurses trained. It didn't fit in the business model of keeping costs as low as possible. And to add to the pain pediatric covid and flu vaccination rates are pretty low. So there you have it.

 

[IRISHDODGER]

Adult hospitals are doing better than they have been since before the pandemic. We haven't seen what peak flu will do, but I doubt we'll see another Omicron or delta surge. The pediatric problem is multifactorial.

For one, kids haven't seen a real viral season in 3 years. No one has antibodies to anything, and neonates don't have antibodies from their moms. Two, COVID is another virus to add to the typical viral stew. Viruses generate more pediatric volume than adult volume from a percentage basis. The last issue is that there's a big shortage of pediatric nurses/respiratory therapists. There have been low volumes during COVID, so peds hospitals have been cutting costs, now to their detriment.

I will say that of you were a kid born in 2020 you were much better off from a purely health perspective. Getting the flu/rsv while young isn't good for you (more asthma, moms miscarry, etc.). However, it leaves a larger number of potential victims for infection and runs the numbers up.

The sad thing is everyone in the business has been predicting this, and wanted more nurses trained. It didn't fit in the business model of keeping costs as low as possible. And to add to the pain pediatric covid and flu vaccination rates are pretty low. So there you have it.

The “big business” of hospitals is what’s so frustrating. Where I live, most are “not for profit” but then they have a loophole to pay all the C-Suite & MDs salaries via 3rd party practice administrator (created & owned by MDs & administrators). So they make bank but then only approve a 7 cents raise for RNs…LOL. To be clear, I think most MDs employed by hospitals are underpaid considering the hours & crap they have to deal with but the C-Suite folks don’t give a shit about patient care. They care about efficiency and bottom line which is their right if it’s a for-profit private entity but when the CEO starts every announcement w/ their “not for profit“ status to throw the public off their scent, it’s nauseating.

 

[PerthDomer]

The other thing we have is data that kids who get RSv shortly after COVID do worse than those who don't (hospitalized at twice the rate of non covid infected). We're going to learn all sorts of wonderful new things that living with COVID is going to bring us.

This isn't unique to COVID. Most flu deaths are actually secondary bacterial infections. There's good data to show that out to 6 months after getting the flu you have a higher rate of getting heart attacks/strokes.

The one upside for me is job security. The more new viruses we get the more you suckers need me around.

 

[Sea Turtle]

Man, this has been a rough December. My mother in law is in the hospital with a sepsis and staph infection in her heart. My wife's uncle is on a ventilator with covid and about a week away from pulling the plug.
Now my son has covid so we can't visit mother in law now, who is probably about 50/50 at this point. What a mess.

 

[sixstar]

Prayers for you and your family, turtle.

 

[MNIrishman]

Out of curiosity - did you all get the COVID shot?
There are studies showing data suggesting that the shot could be creating autoimmune disorders.

What studies are these? I spend time with a lot of doctors and they tell me this is nonsense.

 

[sixstar]

What studies are these? I spend time with a lot of doctors and they tell me this is nonsense.

They are self-reported by both Pfizer and Moderna, so it baffles me that doctors call it nonsense. It's also been observed in multiple independent studies, but I'll focus on Moderna and Pfizer since it came straight from their mouths.

Moderna self-reported auto-immune side effects in their study here:
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2209367

They still concluded that the vax was safe and effective (despite a 36.8% efficacy which fails to meet the EUA-minimum 50%), stating that "adverse events were mainly low-grade and transient, and no new safety concerns were identified."

Weasel wording, btw. Yes, most side effects are usually low-grade and transient. But they reported side effects that were both high grade and permanent too. So, they didn't lie - but they also used selective wording to hide more serious maters. And how do they get around those serious matters? By saying no new safety concerns were identified. That's because their side effects were in line with those previously reported and Pfizer. FDA already approved EUA and distribution for a vax with a historic side effect profile, so there was precedent to ignore the side effects observed by Moderna. And this is why you can't just read summary paragraphs.

Speaking of Pfizer's previous reports...

Pfizer vaccine disclosures also listed autoimmune disorders as side effects. Pfizer self-reported 1,050 vax-related autoimmune disorder side effects in their 3-month vaccine trial. This accounted for 2.5% of all side effects that Pfizer "highly correlated" to vaccine; the median report latency was < 24 hours after receiving the vaccine.

FDA knew this by the way, though they did not force vax manufacturers to include a single one of the 42,000 observed side effects in the vaccine disclosure documents when they distributed the vax. Did you ever see a list of side effects when you saw all of the "safe and effective" commercials? Nope. EUA drugs are not required to include side effect disclosures. That's why a commercial for blood pressure medicine will have a screen filled with fine print but the vax commercials did not.

In your doctor friends' defense, though, this Pfizer vax data was originally hidden to the public until March 2022 when a US District Court forced the FDA to release the data. Still, medical professionals have a responsibility to research this stuff before they definitively claim it to be nonsense; that is how misinformation is spread and how vaccine mandates cause undue harm on a population. In my experience, most practicing doctors do very little research and just follow public health guidance. This is dangerous when public health hid and misled medical communities.

 

[Irish#1]

Man, this has been a rough December. My mother in law is in the hospital with a sepsis and staph infection in her heart. My wife's uncle is on a ventilator with covid and about a week away from pulling the plug.
Now my son has covid so we can't visit mother in law now, who is probably about 50/50 at this point. What a mess.

Hang in there. Prayers headed your way.

 

[zelezo vlk]

Man, this has been a rough December. My mother in law is in the hospital with a sepsis and staph infection in her heart. My wife's uncle is on a ventilator with covid and about a week away from pulling the plug.
Now my son has covid so we can't visit mother in law now, who is probably about 50/50 at this point. What a mess.

prayers for you and your fam


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Sea Turtle]

Thank guys. Much appreciated!

 

[irishff1014]

Man, this has been a rough December. My mother in law is in the hospital with a sepsis and staph infection in her heart. My wife's uncle is on a ventilator with covid and about a week away from pulling the plug.
Now my son has covid so we can't visit mother in law now, who is probably about 50/50 at this point. What a mess.

Prayers to your family.

 

[MNIrishman]

They are self-reported by both Pfizer and Moderna, so it baffles me that doctors call it nonsense. It's also been observed in multiple independent studies, but I'll focus on Moderna and Pfizer since it came straight from their mouths.

Moderna self-reported auto-immune side effects in their study here:
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2209367

They still concluded that the vax was safe and effective (despite a 36.8% efficacy which fails to meet the EUA-minimum 50%), stating that "adverse events were mainly low-grade and transient, and no new safety concerns were identified."

Weasel wording, btw. Yes, most side effects are usually low-grade and transient. But they reported side effects that were both high grade and permanent too. So, they didn't lie - but they also used selective wording to hide more serious maters. And how do they get around those serious matters? By saying no new safety concerns were identified. That's because their side effects were in line with those previously reported and Pfizer. FDA already approved EUA and distribution for a vax with a historic side effect profile, so there was precedent to ignore the side effects observed by Moderna. And this is why you can't just read summary paragraphs.

Speaking of Pfizer's previous reports...

Pfizer vaccine disclosures also listed autoimmune disorders as side effects. Pfizer self-reported 1,050 vax-related autoimmune disorder side effects in their 3-month vaccine trial. This accounted for 2.5% of all side effects that Pfizer "highly correlated" to vaccine; the median report latency was < 24 hours after receiving the vaccine.

FDA knew this by the way, though they did not force vax manufacturers to include a single one of the 42,000 observed side effects in the vaccine disclosure documents when they distributed the vax. Did you ever see a list of side effects when you saw all of the "safe and effective" commercials? Nope. EUA drugs are not required to include side effect disclosures. That's why a commercial for blood pressure medicine will have a screen filled with fine print but the vax commercials did not.

In your doctor friends' defense, though, this Pfizer vax data was originally hidden to the public until March 2022 when a US District Court forced the FDA to release the data. Still, medical professionals have a responsibility to research this stuff before they definitively claim it to be nonsense; that is how misinformation is spread and how vaccine mandates cause undue harm on a population. In my experience, most practicing doctors do very little research and just follow public health guidance. This is dangerous when public health hid and misled medical communitie

I sent this to one of them and they think it's funny. These people work at medical research centers. They have spent hundreds of hours studying the data, reading the full reports, and comparing that against their clinical experience. What you cited doesn't appear to even reference autoimmune effects. Nevertheless, in large trials like these, there will be a certain subset of the population that already experiences autoimmune issues. No study has reported causal autoimmune effects associated with vaccination, though there have been studies showing the weird immunological effects of Covid itself. If you DM me, I'd be happy to give you the contact information of the doctor who provides my information. I doubt, however, that you'd be able to find a physician who thinks the vaccines are a bad idea who is willing to talk to me about it.

 

[sixstar]

I'll DM you. I'm always challenging my positions on things and would be very interested in chatting with your contacts about their perspective, especially if they are in the medical research field.

The Moderna study lists the adverse events in the appendix, not in the body. You'll see them there. The AEs are easier to find in the Pfizer disclosures.

I work in research myself, and the "can't prove causality" argument is universal to all human experience. It's why researchers speak in correlates rather than causality. So, while I agree that no data will prove causality, I will counter that a < 24 hour window between vax and initial autoimmune disorder symptom onset (with no previous history) conveys a very high correlation - wording shared by the Pfizer disclosures.

 

[ulukinatme]

Man, this has been a rough December. My mother in law is in the hospital with a sepsis and staph infection in her heart. My wife's uncle is on a ventilator with covid and about a week away from pulling the plug.
Now my son has covid so we can't visit mother in law now, who is probably about 50/50 at this point. What a mess.

Prayers for your family.

 

[sixstar]

Come get your pre-Christmas propaganda booster:
“Anti-vaccine activism, which I actually call anti-science aggression, has now become a major killing force globally."



Why is it that the people that call detractors "anti-science" never want to analyze and debate the data?

Imagine if these propagandists acknowledged natural methods to health, you know: good diet, vitamins, exercise. But nope: vaccine or death. That's the message. Inject that into your veins.

 

[GoIrish41]

So

Man, this has been a rough December. My mother in law is in the hospital with a sepsis and staph infection in her heart. My wife's uncle is on a ventilator with covid and about a week away from pulling the plug.
Now my son has covid so we can't visit mother in law now, who is probably about 50/50 at this point. What a mess.

Sorry to hear, man. Hope thinks work out.

 

[ulukinatme]

 

[sixstar]

Oh, more fear mongering shot propaganda. The study goes on to conclude that auto insurance providers should consider higher insurance rates on unvaccinated people. Lol.

The garbage study also showed a high correlation between getting a booster and having a fall that resulted in injury. Where's the article saying that vaccinated people are at higher risk of stair accidents?

And some people still can't see it.

 

[Bluto]

Imagine if these propagandists acknowledged natural methods to health, you know: good diet, vitamins, exercise. But nope: vaccine or death. That's the message. Inject that into your veins.

Uh, hate to burst your bubble but the bolded is what every doctor I’ve ever been to talks about.

 

[IRISHDODGER]

Uh, hate to burst your bubble but the bolded is what every doctor I’ve ever been to talks about.

Good for you. I can imagine most family docs & internists end up cynical after trying to convince their patients to diet & exercise yet the patient insists on being a glutton and just wants a pill to fix everything. Invest in the latest Type II diabetes agents because NOT having diabetes will be the exception to the rule.

 

[Bluto]

Good for you. I can imagine most family docs & internists end up cynical after trying to convince their patients to diet & exercise yet the patient insists on being a glutton and just wants a pill to fix everything. Invest in the latest Type II diabetes agents because NOT having diabetes will be the exception to the rule.

If I’m being real the main reason I exercise and eat healthy is so I can keep drinking beer. Lol.