Free Republic

It had been another grueling weekend for doctors and staff battling to save COVID patients at Beaumont Hospital in Troy. People gasping for breath, some dying. Patients’ panic mixed with bewilderment and grief. Dr. Matthew Trunsky had slogged through plenty of these shifts since the pandemic began last year: rushing from room to room, ordering up drug cocktails, reviewing charts, trying to communicate with patients through a mask and face shield over the din of breathing machines, and having to tell families their loved one was about to die. But a series of troubling interactions this past weekend triggered something...

As the coronavirus death toll climbs in Michigan — 540 as of Saturday (04 April 20) — another grim number will never be known: The dead who go uncounted as casualties of the worst pandemic in a century.“I don’t know if our fatalities would be twice as many or 10 times as high, and we won’t know until we have ready access to tests,” said Dr. Russell Faust, medical director of Oakland County’s health division. Because of a nationwide shortage of tests, there are few efforts to test the dead for coronavirus, especially for those who are elderly or have underlying conditions. The...