Nearly two months after COVID spike began, few Midwestern hospitals facing feared surge of patients

Just the News ^ | October 30, 2020 | Daniel Payne

[CheshireTheCat]

Nearly two months after COVID-19 cases began surging in the Midwest, most hospitals there appear to be handling the spike without major issues.

Some hospitals in the region are nearing capacity, but none appear to be receiving a crushing wave of COVID patients after around seven weeks of sharply increasing positive tests.

Hospitalization rates have for several months been one of the key metrics by which public health experts and commentators assess the state of the pandemic in the U.S. Global fears of overburdened medical systems began in March as the world witnessed parts of Italy's healthcare system strain and nearly break under a massive influx of COVID-19 patients.

In the U.S. and in other countries earlier in the year, health care administrators worked aggressively to add surge capacity in hospitals and medical facilities, hoping to avoid the chaos witnessed in certain Italian regions and in other parts of Europe.

Many leaders, meanwhile — including a majority of U.S. governors — announced an open-ended moratorium on what were deemed "non-essential" medical procedures, including cancer screenings and other early interventions, in an effort to ensure hospital space would be free for the expected influx of COVID patients.

In Midwest, nearly eight weeks of spiking cases haven't overwhelmed hospitals

Concerns about a crush of COVID patients were raised anew in early September, when many Midwestern states began seeing significant rises in the numbers of confirmed coronavirus infections.

Yet state-level data indicate that, with the exception of some facilities, most hospitals in that region remain below capacity, even as average COVID cases have soared far above the numbers seen over the summer...

[CheshireTheCat]

My understanding was always that hospitals had to be at about 80% capacity to not fall in the red financially. A lot of the hospitals discussed in the article are not even at 70%.

[Slyfox]

The PCR test cannot distinguish the DNA between COVID and past flu shot viruses in your body, so these "new cases" may actually be the regular cold and flu season getting into gear.

Oh yeah, about 4 months ago the hospitals stopped testing for flu.

[metmom]

The media very deceitfully went from reporting number of deaths to number of cases, likely hoping nobody would notice the subtle change.

So people are still panicking over what has now become a relatively harmless virus.

And now there are treatments available, which were not known back in March.

The virus is always going to be with us at this point. It’s not going away, but I refuse to live in perpetual lock down.

[hardspunned]

Not enough PPE, what about ventilators, God I’m sick to death if this crap.

[Slyfox]

I agree. The Wu-Flu has a 99.8% survival rate. To beef up the numbers they had to add a bunch of other disease deaths. If they took those deaths away I wonder if it would be really 99.9% and statistically not worth the political effort and the hysterical media.

[metmom]

I’m sure of it.

[lastchance]

I agree with Dr. Zelenko. Hospitalizations would go down if treatment protocols were given when a person starts having symptoms (especially if exposure is suspected) rather than waiting for positive test results.

[BookmanTheJanitor]

Actual question? Are some states only allowing hospitals to deliver the required treatment/drugs for COVID?

[DoodleBob]

That's because not all cases are infections (that's a separate kettle of fish) but, more importantly, WHO is getting infected in this 'surge' aren't the at-risk lot but healthy, young folks.

Unfortunately, the Nebraska, Iowa, and North Dakota COVID sites aren't too good with fresh data; they just give aggregate data. But using that data for Iowa (which has the best disclosure of these three states), 45% of the 145M cases are from people 18-40 years old. Of this cluster, only 11% have a confirmed pre-existing condition. Perhaps not surprisingly, this 'young' group accounts for only ONE PERCENT of the 1,706 fatalities in Iowa attributed to COVID as of today (and 28% of those fatalities have a pre-existing condition).

By contrast, those from 61-80 and 80+ make up 14% and 5% of cases, respectively, but 43% and 33% have a pre-existing condition, respectively. And, surprise surprise....they make up 40% and 50% of all of Iowa's COVID fatalities, of which 65% and 66% had a pre-existing condition, respectively.

In other words, if the 'surge' reflects this total case data, the young ones are where the case surge is occurring, but they're not taxing the system nor are they dying. The elderly with comorbidities are the ones dying.

[gas_dr]

This is not true. Please refrain from posting inaccurate statements

[Datom69]

This is not true. Please refrain from posting inaccurate statements

---

Fine now tell my why. Otherwise your statement is meaningless.

[gas_dr]

First of all CoVId is an RNA virus. It is not a DNA virus. The structure of rna and dna are vastly different including base nucleus acids.

Secondly influenza is not corona virus. And corona virus is not influenzas. The genetic sequences are very distinct. What you have proffered is like saying a rhino is the same as a pineapple. They are not even close to being identical

The chance of PCU equating influenza and coronavirus is roughly the chance of confusing Angelina Jolie for Hilary Clinton.

[Datom69]

Thank You

[PIF]

Read some where that the actual number of deaths in the US due SOLELY to covid is just over 11,000

[Diogenesis]

YOU cannot yell “FIRE” in a theatre,
... but the MSM can lie and yell “NOVEL EBOLA is here”,
for a year, as deaths from car crashes, accidents,
cancer, infections are all shifted to fake CORONVIRUS
at $37,000 a pop.

[Slyfox]

Please tell me what you know about the PCR test.

[gas_dr]

PCR takes a sample of genetic material and rapidly replicates it such that a small amount becomes detectable. The question surrounds this test is how many augment cycles are run. If you run 40 cycles and get a positive the question is was there a enough virus to cause an illness. Additionally there may be dead virus which why we see clinically positives up to 90 days post infection.

There can be no false positive with the PCR because the genetic sequence is either there are not. The question is is there enough virus to cause an infection.

[Slyfox]

Riddle me this. Say you’ve taken flu shots over the last few years and each one of them have similar DNA/RNA as the COVID. How does the PCR distinguish between the flu shots and the COVID?

[gas_dr]

Because the exact genome is mapped of each. And they are two very distinct viruses. It’s like saying that Italian and English use roughly the same alphabet so how can you tell the difference. The generic sequence is both viruses are unique.

[Slyfox]

The guy who developed the PCR test and won a Nobel for his effort was adamant that the test should not be used to diagnose disease as it was not designed to do that. So, why are they using the wrong test to find COVID? Answer: they have nothing else.