Posted on 05/31/2023 8:42:59 PM PDT by CFW
Bacterial infections associated with ventilators may have caused most of the deaths attributed to COVID-19 among intubated patients, according to a study funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases that reinforces ongoing scrutiny of early treatment protocols and official COVID death figures.
The findings could help explain why New York City, where ventilators were heavily used early in the pandemic, experienced a dramatic spike in COVID mortality even among non-elderly people that wasn't seen in areas with similar demographics and climate.
The Big Apple went so far as splitting ventilators between patients amid a perceived shortage despite the known risks of lung injury from single-user devices delivering too much or too little oxygen to each shared patient.
Northwestern University researchers used machine learning on medical record data to study the trajectory of nearly 600 "mechanically ventilated patients with severe pneumonia and respiratory failure" in the university hospital's ICU, The Journal of Clinical Investigation paper states. A third tested positive for SARS-CoV-2.
They found "high rates of ventilator-associated pneumonia" in the COVID patients, "suggesting that bacterial super-infections such as VAP may contribute to mortality" credited to COVID, whose "relatively low mortality rate" would be "offset by a greater risk of death attributable to unresolving VAP."
(Excerpt) Read more at justthenews.com ...
Very likely nobody actually died from Covid, they died from the protocols to create fear.
--- While it's not clear to what extent "standard therapy" for bacterial pneumonia could have reduced the purported COVID death rate, "sending patients home to do nothing – no corticosteroids, no antibiotics just in case it was bacterial – drove the COVID-19 death rate up far higher than it had to be," Lyons-Weiler wrote.
--- He attributed the "do nothing" approach to former NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, who spread alarm in spring 2020 that the U.S. didn't have enough ventilators to treat a predicted wave of life-threatening infections.
--- The Northwestern paper cites Fauci's 2008 paper on the "unexpectedly important" role of secondary bacterial infection in viral pneumonia deaths, based on autopsy samples from the 1918 influenza pandemic.
--- When asked about "treatment mistakes" early in the pandemic at a 2022 lecture at which Fauci received an award for "significant contributions to medicine," he conceded that "we very, very readily would put people on mechanical ventilation" but did not say it was a mistake.
--- They learned "through clinical experience it might've been better just to make sure we position [COVID patients] properly in the prone or supine position," he said. Intubating "so readily … might've actually caused more harm than good."
I read the 2008 paper. It shed light on much.
bttt
You too can publish your meta analysis, by paying the following as the JCI site shows.
From the "submit your manuscript" part of the American Society for Clinical Investigation's Journal:
THE JOURNAL OF CLINICAL INVESTIGATION
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Multiple hospital nurses said that Bellevue Hospital, in early 2020, took in large numbers of homeless and put them on ventilators without normal procedures, The homeless generally don’t have family or friends that will advocate for only appropriate treatment, so the nurses tried, and quit when they failed to save their patients from unnecessary ventilation.
Reason: Hospitals were paid $62,000 per patient placed on a ventilator attributed to Covid.
Need CMS links for that repayment amout info. please. If “homeless” (or over 65) then Medicaid or Medicare are paying for the services rendered....extra amounts indicated by the Kaiser FF link below. The amounts I see are similar to this: “There isn’t a Medicare diagnostic code specifically for COVID-19. Using payment rates for similar respiratory conditions, Kaiser estimated the average Medicare payment at $13,297 for a less severe hospitalization and $40,218 for hospitalization in which a patient is treated with a ventilator for at least 96 hours.” Doctors put people on vents, not nurses. Doctors (at least in my home state of CA) cannot/do not work for the hospital (they bill separately for services rendered)....so not much motivation to put “extra” people on vents. “End-of-your-finger” O2 monitors are about the 1st thing they hook you up with when you are an inpatient...those are easy to read/interpret...when you drop to ~80% O2 you are in the critical range and need a vent to stay alive. (88-90% blood O2 or so for regular supplemental oxygen).
https://www.yalemedicine.org/conditions/ards
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/23194-oxygen-therapy
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2208415
DRG Add-on During the emergency period, the legislation provides a 20% add-on to the DRG rate for patients with COVID-19. This add-on will apply to patients treated at rural and urban inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS) hospitals.
Expanded Option for Accelerated Payments It also expands the Medicare hospital accelerated payment program during an emergency. Specifically, in addition to IPPS hospitals, the bill expands the program to children's hospitals, cancer hospitals and critical access hospitals (CAHs). All eligible providers are able to request accelerated payments for inpatient services that cover a time period of up to six months. The amount of payment is up to 100% (or up to 125% for CAHs) of what the hospital would have otherwise received, up from 70% in the current program, and payment could be made periodically or as a lump sum. The bill also extends the timeframe for recoupment of the accelerated payment: hospitals will have up to 120 days until their claims are offset to recoup the funds, and at least 12 months before being required to pay any outstanding balance in full. Currently, the program requires full recoupment within 90 days of the accelerated payment being issued.
Source: https://www.aha.org/special-bulletin/2020-03-26-senate-passes-coronavirus-aid-relief-and-economic-security-cares-act
Additionally, as regards, "premium" payments as Covid patients were dosed with "protocol" defined drugs and defined ventilation, after having no advice for home care before requiring hospitalization:
Source: https://www.aha.org/advisory/2020-04-16-coronavirus-update-cms-releases-guidance-implementing-cares-act-provisions
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