There is no longer any excuse, with few exceptions.
“…CLOTH MASK MATERIALS CAN ALSO REDUCE WEARERS’ EXPOSURE…”
“Adopting universal masking policies can HELP AVERT FUTURE LOCKDOWNS…”
“The prevention benefit of masking is derived from the combination of source control and PERSONAL PROTECTION FOR THE MASK WEARER.”
“An economic analysis using U.S. data found that, given these effects, increasing universal masking… could prevent the need for lockdowns and reduce associated losses of up to $1 trillion or about 5% of gross domestic product.”
Thanks for this, @Dale. We are experiencing a huge opposition to masks at our church currently, and I’ve forwarded it to one of the leadership to use in his pro-mask argument.
In Australia, the current advice from the Federal Government is that the majority of people won’t benefit from wearing a surgical mask and if you’re well, you don’t need one.
The only exception is in some parts of Victoria.
I have only seen one person with a mask.
Australia and New Zealand are doing awfully well right now, aren’t they? Unfortunately this can shoot up terribly fast. That is the pattern we have seen in many different countries.
The United States is doing so badly, I have started to look for reasons why. One site attributes this to the decisive action taken by other countries while America fumbled with poor leadership and a bloated but inefficient medical system. In my own cynicism as a citizen of this country, the coronavirus looks to me to be just another way that American medical industry can suck even more money from the people (it is a gold mine to them), so why should they do so much to put a stop to it.
Another site shows how world opinion of the US has plummeted to an all time low, ranking the US far lower than any other country including China.
But mostly I put it down to a difference in priorities which puts public health and safety on the bottom of the list. We see this in the lack of gun control and the frequency of mass shootings. It is difficult to find a country anywhere in the world which can compare to this (unless you include countries in the middle of a civil war employing terrorism like Yemen).
Actually, major losses occurred. The moneymaker of all, elective ortho surgeries, was canceled;, all routine preventive care (which were not moneymaker but are my bread and butter); all routine cardiac surgeries were canceled for months. I know many executives and doctors who took significant pay cuts in order to avoid layoffs in the healthcare systems, and some of lost their jobs, from physicians to many others. It is likely going to be a death blow to some small hospitals. This is anticipated to happen again soon–perhaps worse this time. It is a major threat to viability. Here is one article which puts things rather well
The above is from June, with the worst of the shutdown. There was some respite for a few months when the economy opened up again with masks, but it’s likely to all go away again. I really worry about
I agree that we should focus on prevention. Thanks.
Sorry to hear that Randy. I guess some people just have to be on the front line in order to appreciate the magnitude of what is going on. Many more of us can imagine it well enough. Thank you for all you do for us.
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Klax
(The only thing that matters is faith expressed in love.)
10
Oh to be in England. Oh I am! Thank GOD! Some idio…syncratic preacher nearly got himself arrested here today. For ‘the greater good’ including his pay cheque.
You are too kind. It seems none of us really knows the struggles the others go through. I can’t imagine the difficulties others are going through. You and I both know folks who are losing their businesses.
I agree with you that there is fault to be found with the medical system, but not only in the USA, because I have seen plenty of evidence that they don’t want’ people in control of their health. They want people feeling helpless and needing medical treatments. It is a several trillions of dollars industry worldwide and it wouldn’t be that without people unable to help themselves. Posting any information that points to a nocebo effect and how a person can gain control over their health gets your posts hidden or deleted. And on this site too. Why is that? Indeed in all of the big pharma funded cancer sites I have been banned for using the words “spontaneous remission”.
I don’t think that leadership was to blame for the high numbers in the USA. After all they sent thousands to nursing facilities and caused a huge number of deaths. I wrote about that here Corona, False Alarm? Questions about a Book - #10 by Ani99 That has near doubled the number of deaths.
I blame the media too. In the USA there is a massive number of media horror stories, where as in China for instance there are only a very small number of media stories on covid 19. People who are terrified can become badly affected as the numbers show. In China the number of deaths are low compared to the number of people. In Australia there has been a big media coverage but most Australians don’t believe the media stories, so it has less effect.
How much of the gun control is contributing to the high number of mass shootings? I don’t think that owing a gun causes people to want to go out and shoot people. On the other hand I suspect that at least some of the mass shooting that appear as random may be contrived. I say that because I see psychiatrists become prominent in the media calling the killers mentally ill and thus branding everyone with a mental illness as potentially dangerous. Why do that?
How do hospitals lose out if the beds are full? Do the elective surgeries and cardiac surgeries etc., make more money? I can understand that the doctors are out of pocket but the hospitals?
Yes, the elective orthopedic surgeries and others like them lose. But if the hospitals are full then how do the hospitals lose out. Who pays for the caring of COVID patients? Do the hospitals carry the tab? Surely they are getting paid to look after patients.
Hospitals get paid a little more for a Covid patient by Medicare (which is what most elderly and therefore high risk patients would have for health coverage), but the resource usage for Covid patients is so huge that the hospital actually loses money on them. Elective surgeries are where they make their money, and in the beginning those surgeries were completely canceled. My area still has them going on, but I imagine the hardest hit areas are probably canceling them again.
Staffing is a huge issue. My local hospital system has plenty of beds and plenty of vents (now that the goal is to avoid the vent unless it’s absolutely necessary, we have a huge surplus of vents), but when the cases rise and hospitalizations follow, more hospital staff get exposed. So you now have a reduction in available staff (they’re either sick or quarantined due to exposure) with a huge increase in need for staff. Covid cases require more attention in the ICU than a typical ICU patient, and they stay longer than, say, a flu patient.
I would echo what Randy and Boscopup said. The medical field has taken a beating from Covid, though hospitals have probably had less impact from it than other institutions. I rent to several doctors, and they have had to cut hours, lay off employees, and several docs I know have been laid off by the hospital groups they work for due to fewer visits. Tele-health visits pay quite a bit less than real visits, and some specialties like dermatology and surgical specialties fine little use for them.
Also, Covid has affected the poor and disadvantaged more, and hospitals have to absorb those costs.
This may be too political, but it should be pointed out. Making masks and COVID a political issue was the worst thing that President Trump could have done.
“An Associated Press analysis reveals that in 376 counties with the highest number of new cases per capita, the overwhelming majority — 93% of those counties — went for Trump, a rate above other less severely hit areas.”