Wow, it’s getting really scary in Texas - and everywhere else!

[NW-Bound]

Ditto in Washington. Maskless Idaho wants to send their excess patients here.

Poor people without masks!

I'll say it is cheaper and faster to send them some masks, and let them stay where they are. We no longer have a shortage of masks, do we?

 

[retire-early]

Ditto in Washington. Maskless Idaho wants to send their excess patients here.

If I was Washington state, I'd keep that excess capacity for its own residents. It may need it.

.

 

[timo2]

That is the problem. Here is MN bordered by N and S Dakota, Iowa and Wisconsin we had decent numbers but they are now rising to join the above hotspots, it's inevitable.

That's the problem NM has with Texas. El Paso is in bad shape and the whole Permian Basin oil field area of West Texas is high and runs into NM. The oil field workers appear to be carrying the virus back and forth between States. But IIRC Texas no longer allow NM covid patients into TX hospitals, because they need them for themselves.

 

[timo2]

Well one thing I did to try and protect ourselves is to install a UVC light
in the furnace return duct. When the grandkids come over I have the blower on. What you see in the picture is visible light not the UV which does the killing.
Oldmike

We added a couple appropriately sized room HEPA filters (Winix brand). Our house is a modern air-tight, so we have been able to notice the improvement in air quality anyway. While searching for what to by, I ran across this article: from the MD Anderson web page

"Can air purifiers protect you from COVID-19?......... We spoke with Tim Peglow, our assistant vice president of Patient Care and Patient Facilities, for guidance. Here’s what he had to say about air purifiers and COVID-19."

https://www.mdanderson.org/cancerwi...-from-coronavirus-covid-19.h00-159385101.html

 

[audreyh1]

That's the problem NM has with Texas. El Paso is in bad shape and the whole Permian Basin oil field area of West Texas is high and runs into NM. The oil field workers appear to be carrying the virus back and forth between States. But IIRC Texas no longer allow NM covid patients into TX hospitals, because they need them for themselves.

I know for a while that El Paso was sending some patients to San Antonio which is 550 miles away! Probably still are.

 

[audreyh1]

Wow, things are really getting scary in Montana!

From a Wall Street article yesterday: https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-19-surge-strains-hospitals-once-again-11605100312

Montana, where Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations per 100,000 people in October were among the highest in the U.S., ranks among states with the fewest ICU beds per 100,000 people, according to data from the Covid Tracking Project and federal agencies.
.....
Rural hospitals aren’t equipped for the sickest patients and must send them to larger hospitals, which are now also grappling with the surge.

In the Billings Clinic’s 290-bed flagship hospital, the ICU was at 167% occupancy Tuesday and its emergency room wasn’t accepting ambulances, a spokesman said.

Unfortunately, I don’t think the situation is going to get better any time soon.

 

[timo2]

Wow, things are really getting scary in Montana!

From a recent Wall Street article:

Unfortunately, I don’t think the situation is going to get better any time soon.

Billings is like a lot of primary cities in rural states: Many older ranchers and farmers move to the big city when they retire or sell. That means these rural hub cities have a large very vulnerable population.

 

[REWahoo]

I know for a while that El Paso was sending some patients to San Antonio which is 550 miles away! Probably still are.

I understand they have been flown to hospitals in several TX cities. Last I heard there were more than 40 of them in SA.

 

[travelover]

Poor people without masks!

I'll say it is cheaper and faster to send them some masks, and let them stay where they are. We no longer have a shortage of masks, do we?

Here is what is going on. https://abc7ny.com/idaho-coronavirus-mask-mandate-covid-hoax-repeals/7271802/

BOISE, Idaho -- Moments after hearing an Idaho hospital was overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients and looking at sending people as far away as Seattle for care, members of a regional health department board voted Thursday to repeal a local mask mandate.

 

[NW-Bound]

Here is what is going on. https://abc7ny.com/idaho-coronavirus-mask-mandate-covid-hoax-repeals/7271802/

From the above link:

Board member Walt Kirby said he was giving up on the idea of controlling the spread of coronavirus.

"I personally do not care whether anybody wears a mask or not. If they want to be dumb enough to walk around and expose themselves and others, that's fine with me," Kirby said. "Nobody's wearing the damned mask anyway. ... I'm sitting back and watching them catch it and die. Hopefully I'll live through it."

Still, send them more masks.

When people are crying for medical help, send some more.

 

[Sanstar]

I understand they have been flown to hospitals in several TX cities. Last I heard there were more than 40 of them in SA.

The San Antonio mayor and/or county judge provide a CV update every night around 6:15 PM. Last report was 61 hospitalized patients transported from El Paso.

 

[audreyh1]

Here is what is going on. https://abc7ny.com/idaho-coronavirus-mask-mandate-covid-hoax-repeals/7271802/

We have met the enemy and he is us?

 

[cbo111]

A friend in Tulsa, Ok, just told me that there are no ICU beds available in the city. The beds are filled with covid patients, and projected to get much worse. Still no mask mandates.

 

[Car-Guy]

We have met the enemy and he is us?

I skimmed the article and it made me think about the current rules here.

I honestly don't know what the rules are in Texas "at this time". Here in the rural parts of East and Central Texas today it "looks" like there are none with regards to mask, capacities, social distancing, etc.... The rules were changing so often, I quit trying to keep up... From the looks of things everything is open at 100%, and the wearing of masks is optional... All the restaurants are open.. Some still have every other table closed, others do not. Stores quit offering masks at the door but still have signs posted... Clearly some people either can't read or just don't care. No enforcement... I'm not sure how it is in the big cities and I'm not going there to find out. No wonder why we were the first state to have a million documented cases..

 

[audreyh1]

I’m pretty sure Texas remains under a statewide mask mandate. There may be exceptions for counties with super low case counts. Few exceptions for individuals. Sizes of gatherings are still limited. They may have opened up restaurants to a larger % capacity (to 75% from 50%) and I think they allowed bars to reopen but to 25% capacity. Except for El Paso and the TX Panhandle, the rest of the state is not on fire like many sections of the country are at present, but of course due the the high population the raw numbers still add up. The summer experience was very bad throughout most of the state, so perhaps people take precautions more seriously now.

 

[timo2]

California just passed 1 million cases

https://www.latimes.com/california/...s-california-hits-1-million-coronavirus-cases

 

[Freedom56]

It amazes me how ignorant public officials can be. The virus will ignore these idiots and jump from host to host.

 

[retire-early]

It amazes me how ignorant public officials can be. The virus will ignore these idiots and jump from host to host.

Some public officials are ignorant.
Some aren't but are afraid of being voted out because of the actions they take. How sad or pathetic is that?

Survival of the fittest. Adapting or refusal to adapt. There are consequences.


.

 

[audreyh1]

It amazes me how ignorant public officials can be. The virus will ignore these idiots and jump from host to host.

Yeah, this really got me:

Another [regional health department board] member, Allen Banks, denied COVID-19 exists.

"Something's making these people sick, and I'm pretty sure that it's not coronavirus, so the question that you should be asking is, 'What's making them sick?'" he told the medical professionals who testified.

 

[NW-Bound]

Another [regional health department board] member, Allen Banks, denied COVID-19 exists.

"Something's making these people sick, and I'm pretty sure that it's not coronavirus, so the question that you should be asking is, 'What's making them sick?'" he told the medical professionals who testified.

Is he an elected official? If so, people deserve guys they elect.

I repeat, send them lots of masks if they ask for medical help.

 

[retire-early]

They're appointed by the county commissioner and no medical experience necessary.
And apparently, no common sense required either.

I am more of the mind of Walt Kirby quoted in that article.

 

[audreyh1]

Is he an elected official? If so, people deserve guys they elect.

I repeat, send them lots of masks if they ask for medical help.

No. In Idaho, health department board members are appointed by the county commissioner, and no medical experience is required. I assume the county commissioner is an elected official.

 

[retire-early]

At the rate they're going, they don't need the family gatherings at Thanksgiving to make things really bad.

We are going back to one grocery shopping trip a week.

We plan on making one more trip on Monday to Walmart and Target to buy some gift cards for a Christmas toy drive for a local non-profit that we had already committed to.

.

 

[audreyh1]

They're appointed by the county commissioner and no medical experience necessary.
And apparently, no common sense required either.

I am more of the mind of Walt Kirby quoted in that article.

I don’t see the point of throwing out existing restrictions when things are the worst and ignoring what your front line medical professionals are begging for. That is more than just throwing up your hands and giving up. OK - we’re in a terrible situation so let’s just throw all caution to the wind - i.e. make it even worse?

 

[Chuckanut]

Ditto in Washington. Maskless Idaho wants to send their excess patients here.

I have friends (former Seattlites) who have some choice words for how people in Idaho are handling the virus.

Of course, this is what the natives complain about. People from State A move to State B and then complain because the people in State B don't act like the people in State A.