Oh Gosh, things are getting bad, kids are dying in hospitals and kids in schools are getting scared. What to do, what to do?
AZ Republic missed an opportunity there to call the Bullhead City school board “bullheaded”.
Bull-something, at any rate.
I.C.U. beds, where hospitals’ critically ill patients are treated, are filling up across Southern states, and Alabama is one of the first to run out. The Alabama Hospital Association said on Wednesday night that there were “negative 29” I.C.U. beds available in the state, meaning there were more than two dozen people being forced to wait in emergency rooms for an open I.C.U. bed.
212,162,969 total cases
4,436,906 dead
189,793,091 recovered
In the US:
38,519,294 total cases
644,840 dead
30,463,056 recovered
Yesterday’s numbers for comparison:
Arizona is back to where we were in February. Happily, its mostly the anti-vaxers who are dying now.
The user comments at that link are a hoot!
Not just funny, but literate, witty, and intelligent.
The greatest and highest form of Freedom is, in practice, indistinguishable from Disaster.
Good enough for me and my survivalist friend Bobby McGee
Intubated in Mobile, Waiting for a room
I was feeling near as faded as my jeans
Bobbi flagged a doctor down, just before my Doom
They hooked me up to an oxygen machine
Is life so dear, or health so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of masks and vaccines? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty and give me death!
Those people would fit in well over here at the SDMB.
…Day Five of Lockdown Level 4 in New Zealand, and trending in twitter is:
#spreadyourlegs
For context:
We are easily amused.
212,596,471 total cases
4,444,657 dead
190,212,020 recovered
In the US:
38,545,144 total cases
645,058 dead
30,472,804 recovered
Yesterday’s numbers for comparison:
The FDA has given Pfizer’s vaccine full approval:
It will be interesting to see if this has any effect on vaccination rates. Although people who distrust the CDC and authority in general probably don’t trust the FDA either.
This morning, 75+ doctors walked out of a South Florida hospital in protest over the number of unvaccinated COVID patients.
Someone commented above about the possibility of a Sturgis spike, but the evidence so far has been absent.
But apparently if you look at the records for the county Sturgis is in, there appears to be a definite spike:
NYC is requiring all public school employees be vaccinated–no testing option, no exemptions–by September 27th. The United Federation of Teachers says details must be negotiated:
“While the city is asserting its legal authority to establish this mandate, there are many implementation details, including provisions for medical exceptions, that by law must be negotiated with the UFT and other unions, and if necessary, resolved by arbitration.”
I’ve always been pro-union, but a verified threat to public health should not be subject to negotiations. I wonder what the consequences would be if the city refuses negotiation on this. I can’t imagine the majority of Florida UFT members would strike over this issue, since the majority has been vaccinated and the Delta variant is more dangerous than its predecessor.
On the Johns Hopkins site, seven-day-average new cases have hit record highs in
Puerto Rico (1215)
Hawaii (813)
Alabama (4549)
Florida (37,685)
Florida is record high, and still shooting up.
There are bright spots. Over the weekend every state was in the red or pink (with rates of cases increasing), but now quite a bit of the map is green or blue. Mississippi, Louisiana, the Carolinas, and elsewhere have retreated from their highs. Even the Dakotas don’t look so bad (although if you look at the county map, the one containing Sturgis is shooting upwards. But Johns Hopkins doesn’t give that data.)
On the chart of countries, the US appears to have crested and is going down, but we’ll have to wait and see if that’s just a burp in the trend.
Kids ages 12 to 19 are leading other age groups in Florida in the rate at which they test positive for COVID-19 — a sobering data point that comes as Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) fights tooth and nail against school mask mandates.
Children in that age group who are tested have a positivity rate of 25 percent, per the Tampa Bay Times. And kids 12 and younger have a rate of 23 percent.
The disturbing numbers come amid DeSantis and Florida state officials’ relentless attacks on school districts that have bucked the governor’s ban on requiring students and school staff to wear masks without an opt-out option except for those with medical conditions.
…
Whelp, we made the national news today.
More from the article:
“We need your help, grace and kindness,” the staff of CHI Health Medical Center said on Facebook. They are reeling “from the extraordinary onslaught of new cases and hospitalizations.”
Oregon is among a handful of states, including Florida, Arkansas and Louisiana, that have more people hospitalized with COVID-19 than ever before.
“This is really a dire situation,” said Jeff Absalon, chief physician executive for St. Charles Health System in Bend. National Guard troops were deployed to the mountain town’s hospital last week to assist medical workers.
No shortage of dummies vaccine-hesitant in Oregon.
Yeah, that’s the problem. The densely-populated areas like the Portland metro area took it seriously last year, and the rural areas skated by with low transmission because of that lack of density. If anything, it made them feel like they had nothing to fear, so when delta came on the scene, it spread easily.
Exactly. We watched the very same thing happen here in Lane County. Eugene metro took it seriously. Rural areas surrounding, not so much.