In Arizona, Florida, and Texas, Hospitals Beds Are Rapidly Filling Up. In Houston, 273 patients all wait for a single available bed.
As the pandemic pushes U.S. hospitals in the South and West near capacity, the urgent need for available beds has stranded patients in emergency rooms, scrambled ambulances and forced patients to relocate hundreds of miles to relieve overcrowded wards.
In Arizona, hospitals are using a statewide transfer center to move 30 to 50 patients between hospitals each day, according to the director of the state’s Department of Health Services. In Florida, hospital giant HCA Healthcare Inc. isn’t accepting patients transferred from other overflowing hospitals. In Houston, the daily hunt for empty beds has left critically ill patients to wait hours or days in emergency rooms for vacancies.
A dozen Houston-area hospitals had a combined 273 patients holding in emergency rooms for an empty bed Tuesday, including about 40 in need of intensive care, said Darrell Pile, chief executive of the Southeast Texas Regional Advisory Council, which tracks bed availability and helps hospitals coordinate transfers. “This disaster beats all disasters,” he said.
In Laredo, Texas, a surge in new Covid-19 infections was overwhelming the city’s hospitals, which were running out of inpatient beds, medical equipment and health-care workers to treat patients, said Victor Treviño, Laredo’s Health Authority.
Emergency Actions
- Arizona requires hospitals that have capacity to accept patients from its state transfer coordination center, said Cara Christ, head of Arizona’s Department of Health Services.
- In Florida, HCA Healthcare said last week it would limit scheduled surgeries and cancel those that could safely be postponed.
- In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott halted surgery across four counties, including Harris County, which is home to Houston. Since then, intensive-care occupancy across the county’s hospitals has increased to 98% from 92%, SETRAC data show. Mr. Abbott later expanded the number of counties subject to the order.
Cases and Deaths
“Just Like The Flu” Except
This is just another one of those just like the flu “except” stories except for one thing: “Except” does not matter.
If any of these people die, please note that 100% of them would have died eventually anyway.
Besides, Texas is not as bad as New York. If and when Texas catches up to New York, that will not matter either because of rights.
What About Rights?
- The rights of people to infect others must be preserved.
- The rights of people to not be infected by others is nonexistent.
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Mish
This for a perspective:
Population Deaths
NY 19000000 32500
Tx 28000000 3600
FL 21000000 4500
GA 10000000 3100
AZ 7000000 3200
Speaking of hospitals’ ICUs filling up, 66 shot in Chicago this weekend. Many clogging up the suburban hospitals.
On the bright as a number of cases per million the US is still only in 4th place –the top 10 list, which are, in order: Chile, Kuwait, Peru, USA, Panama, Singapore, Sweden, Belarus, Brazi, Saudi Arabia, and Belgium
Granted the US seems to be doing everything to become #1…what’s this thing with you Americans aways wanting to be #1?
BTW I will never again criticize a horror movie where the blond girl with big breasts goes into the darkroom after her boyfriend has been killed…cleary that is America now, “let’s see how many of our citizen we can kill by being selfish and stupid (aka the dumb blond from above).
The only country in the world (ok with Britain and Sweden)!
We never did shut down. Planes kept flying and commuter trains kept running and many businesses that were not truly essential stayed open. Now we are out of control because we couldn’t properly modify behavior for 6 weeks and millions refuse to protect their neighbors and families by wearing masks.
True. I flew from California to Alaska in the middle of the shelter in place in cali, and some of the flight attendants didn’t even have masks. Got to the airport with my plane mates, and we scattered to the far corners of the state without so much as a how do you do.
Upholding your useful idiot status, you continue to believe that the healthy and low-risk populations should be boarded up, instead of the elderly and high-risk groups. Never in history have we been so stupid. Have you ever heard of leper colonies? You do not destroy your economy and society over a death rate, as reported in your post, of 0.0423%. Anyone that doesn’t understand how we’ve become so stupid, watch the interview with former KGB agent, Yuri Bezmenov – link to youtube.com.
This really kinda messes with the whole “keep government out of my life” motif, doesnt it? How can someone follow the libertarian path when so many other uncaring, irresponsible people follow the libertarian path with you, and end up killing you because you all have a paralyzing fear of losing your rights because of …. a piece of cloth?
You won’t be so glib about cloth when the toilet paper shortages return.
The southern states had 3 months since NY / NJ to set-up sanitarium wards which have been effective in the past, putting C19 patients in rooms is highly inefficient and leading to the shortages and spread within the hospitals – the continued stupidity of ALL levels of government/health provides is beyond comprehension.
Side note, talking to my ER doc friend the PNW is next – early interventions were effective at bending the curve but R0 rates are creeping back over 1, so the fall will be our turn, sadly.
The CDC says that the IFR is 0.26%. Covid deaths in NY are 0.167%. They are close to herd immunity there. Good for them. They will be able to end the craziness soon, although the Blue governor will try not to let that happen.
All current evidence points to no herd immunity … individual immunity, if any, is not long-lasting.
“The rights of people to infect others must be preserved.
The rights of people to not be infected by others is nonexistent. “
…
If I hear another covidmoron mention Sweden …
Swedes respected others rights.
No comparison to US.
Harris county still has capacity, the headline above makes out there is one bed with everyone waiting for it, which seems like misrepresentation
The waiting appears to be difficult organisation during surge
Yes, there is not only a bed shortage but more critically a staffing shortage. The national gaurd is being called up to help staff hospitals
Houston has more hospital beds per capita than most cities due to medical schools. The next 3 to 4 weeks are locked in to be horrible. Testing is falling apart due to inadequate supplies. Our economy is doomed until we make the necessary investments to control this virus. We cannot thrive economically with a raging virus that destroys our health systems and damages healthy people in unpredictable ways.
Oh well. So sorry. Buh-bye.
Get busy living or get busy dying.
Meanwhile in other news….
China’s economy returned to modest growth in the second quarter of 2020 and reverted from the first contraction on record in the first quarter this year, as COVID-19 eases and policymakers announced economic packages, official data showed Thursday.
The world’s second-largest economy grew by 3.2 percent in April-June from a year earlier, reversing a 6.8-percent decline in the first quarter…The poll [of economists] also forecast that China will be the only major economy to experience positive growth this year.
Can’t wait too see how many empty malls and cities they build, but at they they have growth.
It was a bolt from the blue that was predicted to happen some day.
It happened.
By now, it should be clear that it has morphed into a Trump/GOP-led, man-made disaster in the US.
The current Trump/GOP mode is minimize the appearance, cover-up and concealment.
Ignore the lump under the carpet.
You will note that there is almost no mention or discussion of the long-term effects on some people–which will be long-term high-cost tail on this epidemic.
They have to drum up additional profit centers for their insurance companies that own the politicians. This is the most direct route.
Have you made sure you have enough tin-foil?
How can possibly know what the long term effects are? What exactly is long term for you? 3-5 months?
…Acute kidney injury (AKI) is happening in about 15% of all hospitalized coronavirus patients, many of whom now need dialysis. If a patient ends up in the intensive care unit (ICU) their odds worsen—reports indicate that 20% and higher of intensive-care patients have lost kidney function. Hospitals weren’t prepared for this—causing shortages in some hot spots of dialysis equipment, supplies and nurses properly trained to administer dialysis in the ICU. A whole group of people with no previous history of kidney disease now face an acute kidney injury, which brings with it an increased risk for developing chronic kidney disease…..
In a study of patients who had Covid and recovered, and who then later had an echocardiography done, lasting heart damage was found in about 50% of the patients:
In patients who only had mild symptoms, there were 215 in the sample, of whom 98 had abnormalities detected, so 45% percent of the patients will “mild” symptoms had lasting effects on their heart.
Even patients that show no symptoms at all may have lung damage, though it is probably reversible:
In a study published in Nature, 57% of the Asymptomatic people who had a CT scan done showed “striped shadows” or “ground-glass opacities”, clear signs of inflammation in the lungs.
Nice try. What you posted is a survey. A survey is not a study ( read the notes on the bottom). You scour the internet looking for articles that fit your believed narrative then you post them as if they are fact.
All sides of the discussion “scour the internet looking for articles that fit your believed narrative”.
And BTW, the article identifies the “study” 6 times and not once calls it a “survey”.
It does however make it clear that none of the study’s findings are crystal clear indisputable facts … that its findings suggest that certain of the conclusions deducible from its results are more likely than others.
But you are free to dismiss anything you wish to dismiss … as everyone is free to dismiss anything that anyone else posts. But everyone would be wise to examine their own motives for dismissing what they dismiss and accepting what they accept.
The covidiots are getting more and more desperate.
Nope. We are relentless and will keep posting and digging away at the mainstream brick wall with our teaspoons until if finally collapses.
This is an alternative view from UK
I just include it for the polemic it represents. To actually disprove that there is not some kind of major manipulation occuring is I think beyond most people, we would need a detailed understanding of the care system. Even excess mortality is not a guarantee of what has occurred.
I don’t go as far as subscribing to the above, I just ask :
If this were really the case, would we be any the wiser too it ?
It is global, so no ? However if you consider that hospital community is both partly group think and closed environment , that medical profession is naturally cautious and often follows concensus ?
There is no point anyone now throwing down a myriad of reports to prove the contrary, because I don’t doubt that the virus has caused a certain destruction. I don’t doubt that it is dangerous. What is missing is a sense of proportionality, and what is missing is that many people have lost the sense of cynicism they usually have, probably because when it comes to human suffering they will automatically be called careless or insensitive for even considering from a critical viewpoint.
Wow, if you follow that to its ultimate source it is an anonymous store printed on a fringe conspiracy site called Bernicean
Well it’s not something the BBC or any site that does not want its credibility questioned will publish – because the anonymous format does not allow corroboration. Where it is published to me is irrelevant, the point is that it makes question what anyone knows about what is occuring – short answer is we don’t really.
Case in point – the number of people in the US who jump to conclusions on how the epidemic is being handled there. It isn’t conspiracy though, it is white supremacists, financial cartel and a self adulating president, so perfectly understandable unfringed , right ?
Suggest focusing on the content, not the source. As for the Bernician, sounds like he may have accomplished a lot more in life that you have.
The Bernician has performed more than 300 gigs on the stand-up comedy circuit; written and staged two critically acclaimed London plays; taught stand-up to a giggle of fledgling comics who went on to professional careers; co-produced and co-directed a critically acclaimed 35mm short film; and played supporting roles in mainstream and independent film and television productions; in addition to co-producing and marketing a #1 hit Danish action comedy and directing his debut feature film, Nefarious, which is slated for its long-awaited release in 2020.
The Bernician went on to draft the first legal argument by a lay advocate to be established as a point of UK law; as well as creating and publishing free online content that has had more than 1,000,000 downloads; whilst co-producing, editing and directing his second feature film, The Great British Mortgage Swindle, which was released in the UK on 10/11/2018. The Bernician is also a recalcitrant philosopher, a revisionist historian, the draftsman of the first Anarcho-National Treaty and a Great Charter for the 21st Century.
I think yesterday’s G7 numbers posted by Realist above tell a pretty compelling story and provide a sense of proportionality. The US has experienced over 25% of the worlds COVID cases despite representing less than 5% of the world population. The one thing that cannot be disputed is the highly politicized response to the virus within the US. The federal response to this epidemic has been an embarrassing failure and a complete disgrace.
Clear caveat : I am not for suffering and I take the presence of virus seriously.
In the world 140 million people are born each year, and there are 40 million fatalities. The world population is what, 8000 million ? So in terms of proportionality the current figures are “almost irrelevant” . 100 million fatalities is still “almost irrelevant”. Obviously that is not the idea, but you look at the response (including lack of response), and it is not proportional, it is not sensible. You can have an ultra strict sensible response, or you can have an ultra slack response where sense is made at large, but what we have now is both in conflict with each other, it is chaotic and seems manipulative. People are “supposed to” be being rational in their actions, that means balancing out the pros and cons, taking precaution where nescessary but relative to other nescessity. Instead it is almost an uncontrolled herd approach where no-one knows what to do because of the confusion. If you watch other countries it is the same as US, maybe with more poise, maybe with more relaxed attitude, slightly ahead or behind , but ultimately the same. Very few are acting coherently at or between the various levels.
Ha ha ha. Good try!
The USA is the 3rd largest county in the world in terms of population, so it is logical that we would have a high number of cases
I quoted percentages not absolute numbers. You really are clueless or perhaps you just choose to be.
Such painful waits for hospital beds were common in Ontario, pre-Covid-19.
Not sure I understand your point. Are you just criticizing the Canadian healthcare system or are you trying to minimize the impact and severity of the COVID outbreak?
I am not trying to minimize the severity of what is going on. I was pointing out that long wait times are not unprecedented. Personally, I myself have experienced long wait times in an ER. Typically a Canadian ER has patients in beds in the halls waiting for rooms. It has been an election issue here – link to cbc.ca
In Ontario, we have universal health care. It is the biggest line item in government spending for a province that was recognized as the most heavily indebted sub-sovereign in the world (Mish – It would be nice to see you analyse this against IL and CA). I won’t have to sell my home for a life saving medical procedure, but I may have to wait longer for an operation on cancer, than would be recommended.
You’re trying to claim that in pre-CV times you had to book ahead for emergency room service, or that critically ill people were held in the ER, or ICU patients had to wait in ambulances for up to 10 hours an open bed?
Or are you saying you had to wait a month or two for your optional knee-replacement surgery?
Not as bad as the former, but worse than the latter.
Long wait times to receive care is one of the principal arguments in the US against nationalized health cares.
No worries Mish. Everybody knows it will go away in the summer. The President said so.
😂 Yeah, and he’s got some really fine “offshore real estate” to sell you in Florida, too, right? 😉 (Of course, in the not-too-distant future, a lot of real estate in Florida will be offshore 🙄.)
He didn’t specify which summer.
IHME ICU data, raw death numbers, Kinsa’s “Observed” fever percentages, and Google’s “mobility” data pretty much sum up all informative data I’ve found available.
I ignore all “Covid 19” numbers. They are for statistics specialists and click-bait.
Comment went to a black hole. Frustration-plus.
link to covid19.healthdata.org
Click “Hospital resource use”. Then click “ICU beds”.
Those are just projections. If you want actual data, Texas and Calif. provide hard data on their websites (ie, link to txdshs.maps.arcgis.com)
IHME does projections, but label the projection parts of their graphs. For curiosity it might be fun to find out how their projections have panned out. I would assume not well. That’s no knock. I would assume anyone’s projections would not pan out.
The ArcGIS URL got a 404 when it includes the hash (“#0c…”) fragment and went to a sign-in for just the plain URL. So I created an arcGIS dev account but could still not log in for Texas.
My goodness! This has never happened before!!!!!
Hospitals Overflow as Flu Epidemic Spreads Unabated
Deaths continue to rise as this year’s record season worsens.
link to bloomberg.com
High flu activity pushing NJ hospitals to capacity
BY Brenda Flanagan, Senior Correspondent | January 23, 2018, 5PM EST
link to njtvonline.org
A severe flu season is stretching hospitals thin. That is a very bad omen
By HELEN BRANSWELL @HelenBranswell JANUARY 15, 2018
link to statnews.com
At least it is only infecting young people who don’t get sick \s@Jojo how is just relaying the latest news fear mongering? Inside dining is inherently dangerous activity during an outbreak because it is in an enclosed area with AC recirculating the air. You can’t wear a mask and eat at the same time.
I heard the virus causes brain damage in some people.
The most common neurological symptom is loss of smell and taste. Some recover, while others don’t. There are other symptoms such as confusion, etc, but they appear transitory. Reports from autopsies show no virus present in the brain, but do show some inflammation.
My daughter, a very healthy, fit 39 yr old person contracted the disease in early May. Finally mostly recovered by end of June but with taste and smell only now coming back and is also concerned with future potential problems. Friend of mine’s 57 yr old daughter also contracted in March but her entire family contracted with various symptoms but her daughter still does not have taste or smell back – and that really sucks!
Stop the constant fear mongering or there will be more of this!
‘I can’t keep doing this’: Small-business owners are giving up.
Gabriel Gordon shuttered his popular barbecue restaurant in California after the state saw a resurgence of coronavirus cases and imposed new restrictions.
By Emily Flitter
July 14, 2020
Good for the cows.
Good more cows for me and the dogs. My dog walked by a cow for the first time and stopped and did a double take. He was like heh………that thing smells like burger.
It’s important to remember that our economy was doomed anyway due to debt and Fed meddling. All the virus has done is accelerate the process.
It was incumbent upon business owners to ensure the necessary measures were put in place to reopen safely. They failed spectacularly.
Mish can’t give up the fear mongering. Once he joined street.com he must follow the script laid out for him.
Mish is stating the FACTS on the ground, developing everyday.
What’s your problem? Facts don’t compute with you?
You need to understand that this virus will not go away on its own despite your continued efforts to downplay the severity of this virus and your pooh poohing of the death count. From previous responses you have a callous view of the 137,000 deaths to date and the many more that can be expected. What you fail to understand is that the overall economy would not have fared any better even if we had kept non essential businesses open and allowed business as usual. Since the virus will not disappear on its own this outbreak needs to be managed carefully to flatten the curve otherwise our economy will sink significantly lower from its currently level.
How is reporting what’s going on with the virus fear mongering? So you’re saying none of what he said is happening? If hospitals are filling up I want to know about it. Maybe you should take a trip to Houston and report back to us your findings.
Ignoring the virus will not revive the economy. At least 50% of people are worried about it, regardless of views. Data is data and not fear mongering. Only thing which will revive the economy will be controlling the virus. Part of that is social distancing protocols and WEARING MASKS.
Actually, data is data completely masks what is going on. Data needs to be fashioned and interrogated and complemented before it tells you anything. Data is data is simply stating you do no wish to engage. Whenever people say things like rules are rules they are just saying shut up and obey.
You are the one that has encouraged everyone to not wear masks, and who has expressed pleasure when you have seen people walking and running close together, so that Covid can spread faster. You have absolutely no standing to complain about the logical and expected consequences of people doing exactly what you wanted them to do.
Of course businesses are going to close. Of course hospitals are going to be full. That’s what you wanted, and have been encouraging. I’m shocked to see you complaining at this juncture; I would have expected you to say “Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen.”
“…I would have expected you to say “Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen.” ”
Considering he doesn’t (or can’t) even read the articles he posts, I have a hard time ascribing much ability to plan as far ahead as you are assuming…
Hey! Are you Tengen’s brother or did you just change your ID?
BS! Businesses are only closing because politicians, with the aid of the police for enforcement are making them do so. If we let businesses and people do what they wanted to do, then the virus would have most likely ran its course already, some people would have passed on and we would all be in a more better place.
With or without shutdowns, business would have dropped. My state did not have lockdowns. I was not ordered to close. After being even in the first quarter, despite having bad weeks in the last half of March, I was down 54% in the second quarter. You are seriously deluded if you think that, had there not been a shut down, things would have been normal. Things can only be normal once the virus is controlled. Encouraging the continued spread simply means that it will be longer before things can be normal again, and that more businesses will close.
“I can’t keep doing this’: Small-business owners are giving up.”
…
Predictable since March. Unfortunately, we had to waste $3 trillion on a can kick of a few months. The $3 trillion would have come in mighty handy H2 to help those small businesses (and not the connected parasites who were first in line for CARES) in true need.
when did presenting facts become “fear – mongering” . ahh, to the privileged Fauntleroy robber-barrons of the USA … it’s $ over lives.
an american’s identity is $ … not your friend or lack thereof, not your art or enjoyment, but $.
don’t give me the economy and lives ruined jobless blah blah blah … you don’t really care about these restaurant owners going out of business. you just fear for yourself.
if really did care about someone or something other than $ , you’d address the constant battle and risk that health care workers have endured and will continue to endure for a while because Amurikans can’t be bothered to put on a mask and consider their fellow citizens like the rest of the world.
135,000 people are dead … that’s fear-mongering ?
135k dead? And? 3 million people die every year in the USA. Why don’t we shutdown the whole country until we can reach zero deaths each year?
As for “risk that health care workers have endured and will continue to endure for a while because Amurikans can’t be bothered to put on a mask and consider their fellow citizens like the rest of the world.”, that’s why they get the big bucks. And their not “heroes” and they don’t deserve any special treatment for simply doing the job they hired on to do.
That my friend is a completely idiotic argument.
It’s only idiotic because you and a few other bleeding hearts disagree with it. Ponder this:
“If a million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.”
— Anatole France
You act as if the only cost of Covid is the mortalities. It’s not. There are tremendous medical costs, tremendous economic costs (and the economic costs are at least as high without shutdowns as they are with them), and even that is still just the tip of the iceberg. What are the studies showing that even mild cases often have permanent lung and heart damage? What about the people who now need kidney dialysis? What about the “long termers” who never seem to recover? What about the latest news, that immunity is short term, and that reinfection can happen after four months, with the second infection being worse than the first?
There are tremendous costs being caused by Covid, and the costs of the moment are only the beginning. Because of our failure to control it, the costs in the US will be higher than the costs anywhere in the world. In retrospect, I expect that it will turn out that our failure to address this promptly and seriously will pose costs on the US that will burden it for years to come.
But those costs, even in the aggregate, do not justify shutting down the USA economy in whole or part. The reaction to this virus is far out of proportion to the damage it is doing or may do.
Hopefully, the politicians responsible for implementing the shutdowns will be voted out of office come Nov, teaching the replacement politicians that they should not do this in the future.
So give us a rundown on what you would do if you could make the decisions. What happens in Jojo land?
Time alone can answer that. I don’t believe that history will be kind to your projections. Historically, countries that deal aggressively with Pandemics, and which control them, have emerged stronger economically than those that let them fester. I believe that will happen this time, as well.
“135k dead? And? 3 million people die every year in the USA. Why don’t we shutdown the whole country until we can reach zero deaths each year?”
Monumentally stupid to disregard 135k dead cavalierly because people die of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and the like . Would you also suggest we stop all security checks on air travel once we get back to “normal”? What about retracting seat belt and airbag laws? Oh, and let’s eliminate all pollution controls.