Posted on 12/10/2020 4:30:04 PM PST by lightman
A record-run of COVID-19 deaths and research showing substantial virus spread in places such as restaurants and gyms are behind new restrictions aimed at slowing the disease which killed nearly 1,100 in the past week in Pennsylvania.
“This surge is a completely different animal than we talked about this spring,” said Dr. Chris DeFlitch, an emergency room doctor at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. “The number of patients, the variety of patients, the number of patients who are at home positive, the number of patients that are in hospitals and ICU positive, is significant.”
DeFlitch was among several doctors and experts who spoke Thursday as Gov. Tom Wolf announced new restrictions. New restrictions include suspending indoor dining, closing venues including casinos, gyms, and movie theaters, suspending school sports and extracurricular activities, and limiting outdoor events to 50 people.
They came on a day Pennsylvania set a new record for deaths, with 248 reported Thursday, pushing the state’s total past 12,010. Moreover, the state registered another day of nearly 12,000 new infections, one of the highest totals so far.
Wolf and others cited assorted studies to back up the mitigation measures.
For example, a JP Morgan analysis of spending by about 30 million of its credit card holders linked higher restaurant spending to a rise in new infections three weeks later.
Another study, from Stanford University, used cellphone data from 10 U.S. cities to conclude that restaurants, gyms, cafes, churches and other crowded indoor venues accounted for about 8 in 10 new infections during a three-month period early in the pandemic.
Another, from Yale University, found that closing businesses including restaurants and gyms and limiting outdoor gatherings lowered the death rate.
“The data regarding virus spread indoors is well-studied and clear. In closed spaces, in areas where people are less than six feet apart, and in areas of poor ventilation of outside, fresh air, time and time again we see virus transmission,” said Meda Higa, a virologist at York College.
Higa said places where people sing or cheer, such as sporting events, or where they breathe heavily, such as at gyms, are known to spread COVID-19.
Meanwhile, hospital leaders said front-line staff is barely hanging on.
At Geisinger, the volume of COVID-19 patients has tripled during the past six weeks, and the current spike is more than double that of Pennsylvania’s first surge during the spring, said Dr. Jaewon Ryu, the CEO.
Ryu said the positive test rate at Geisinger has been fluctuating between 23% and 26%, compared to less than 3% during summer.
Geisinger has cut back non-emergency care by up to 50% on some days, but still has few available beds, he said, with the situation threatening care for non-COVID-19 patients.
“If you look at most of our campuses, we’re operating pretty close to 100% of capacity at this point, which makes it very difficult and challenging to still be able to accommodate all those other care needs outside of COVID,” Ryu said.
Another cause for concern, Ryu said, is that the age of hospitalized patients is dropping, with 35-40% of recent patients being under 65, and about half of those under 50, with only 10-20% having come from nursing homes.
“I think the prevailing theme, over the last couple of weeks, has been this feeling like they’re just bailing water. But there’s still a big hole at the bottom of the boat, and somehow we have to figure out how to increase the number of buckets we have to bail — but more importantly, how to decrease the amount of water in these boats,” he said.
Wolf said, “We need to slow the spread right now in order to save lives. If we don’t we’re all going to be in big trouble … Our health care workers, above all, are really, really tired, and we want to make sure we keep them from being overwhelmed.”
Wolf said it’s not the government, but rather COVID-19 that is shutting down businesses. He said the restrictions are needed to curb the sickness and death and to prevent the health care system from being overwhelmed.
He said he supports government help for restaurants and other businesses, saying he holds out hope for the relief package being negotiated in U.S. Congress, and is open to proposals from Pennsylvania lawmakers.
“I know this pandemic has been hard on businesses throughout the Commonwealth, and it has been crushing for restaurants and bars,” he said. “Unfortunately, COVID-19, that virus, thrives in places where people gather together. It spreads most easily when people are spending time together, talking, talking with each other, talking without masks on.”
“I think the prevailing theme, over the last couple of weeks, has been this feeling like they're just bailing water. But there's still a big hole at the bottom of the boat, and somehow we have to figure out how to increase the number of buckets we have to bail — but more importantly, how to decrease the amount of water in these boats,”Dr. Jaewon Ryu, the CEO of Geisinger, said on Dec. 10, 2020.
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A conveniently timed diversion from the SCOTUS case...
What a stinking pant load, blaming restaurants and gyms and no mention of the rioting looting and burning. we know who the ememy is
My god,this country is rapidly sinking and America will die by its own stupid people!
Winston thought. “By making him suffer”, he said.
“Exactly. By making him suffer. Obedience is not enough. Unless he is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own?
George Orwell, 1984
These economy and sanity destroying “useless mandates” haven’t worked and never will. Otherwise, we’d be done with this by now. There are other parameters and unconstitutional reasons behind these questionable “mandates.” It doesn’t take much thought to see why blue states and their deep state overseers are attempting to send us into a year of sitting in our home “concentration” camps while the elites do whatever they please.
meanwhile, in Australia, much was made last week about an AMERICAN STRAIN:
7 Dec: The West Australian: WA Premier Mark McGowan opens State to NSW and Victoria despite hotel worker’s positive test
by Peter Law and Charlotte Elton
WA’s border reopening plans were plunged into doubt last week when a Sydney hotel quarantine worker tested positive to COVID-19.
Genome sequencing found the cleaner caught an ***American strain of the virus, likely from airline crew who were quarantining at the hotel...
https://thewest.com.au/news/coronavirus/wa-premier-mark-mcgowan-opens-state-to-nsw-and-victoria-despite-hotel-workers-positive-test-ng-b881741036z
7 Dec: 9News Australia: Western Australia to reopen its borders to NSW and Victoria, with arrivals no longer required to quarantine
By Kate Kachor
There were concerns a NSW hotel worker who tested positive to coronavirus last week would jeopardise the WA border reopening...
However, Mr McGowan said it was a positive sign the worker’s COVID-19 was from an ***American strain of the virus and not locally acquired...
https://www.9news.com.au/national/coronavirus-wa-wa-premier-says-state-will-reopen-its-borders-to-nsw-and-victoria/b65f56c0-0f6a-44fd-86fc-346d2a5ce13b
Populations are being seeded.
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