A week ago, French intensive care beds were half full. Now, they are 70 percent occupied, with more than 3,500 coronavirus patients. When President Emmanuel Macron announced a second national lockdown last week — something he and other European leaders had sought mightily to avoid — he warned that “at this stage, we know that whatever we do, nearly 9,000 patients will be in intensive care by mid-November, which is almost the entirety of French capacities.”
— from an article by reporters Michael Birnbaum and Loveday Morris in the Washington Post, November 2, 2020
Last Friday, at the press conference hosted by San Juan Basin Public Health (SJBPH), a string of government officials shared their concerns that southwest Colorado will soon be seeing the surge in coronavirus cases that are showing up in other parts of Colorado, in other parts of the US, and on other parts of the world, as we head into winter.
Yesterday in Part One I quoted SJBPH Executive Director Liane Jollon:
“Currently, in the state of Colorado, we believe that one out of every 219 individuals is infectious at this time. So, activities that you got away with over the last couple of weeks and months, you’re not going to be able to get away with anymore.”
I have to smile at this particular comment, and Ms. Jollon’s use of the well-worn American idiom, “get away with something”. Here’s how the Free Dictionary defines the expression:
1. Escape the consequences or blame for, as in, Bill often cheats on exams but usually gets away with it.
2. Do anything one wishes. For example… He talks all day on the phone — the supervisor is letting him get away with murder.
I suppose I have been getting away with certain activities over the summer. Several times, I sat on the front porch with friends, not wearing masks. I’ve walked the dog on the River Walk, not wearing a mask. I don’t know what activities our Daily Post readers may have gotten away with, but whatever they were, we’re not going to be able to get away with them anymore, if we care about our community.
As the press conference continued, Archuleta School District (ASD) Superintendent Kym LaBlanc-Esparza expressed gratitude, on behalf of students and staff, that ASD has been able to offer in-person instruction for its students.
“Our students absolutely appreciate the interactability that they have, the relationships that they have with their teachers and their peers. And they are able to do that safely as long as our community continues to support us, making the right decisions following health orders. We would certainly implore folks to continue following the guidelines, because we feel incredibly fortunate that we have been able to operate — up to this point — K-8 four days a week, in person, and in fact our high school students will start fours days a week, beginning Monday. So, while [high school] has been ‘hybrid’ up until this point, they are very eager to engage in four days a week of in-person instruction; they’re ready to do that…”
Ms. LeBlanc-Esparza gave a quick laugh. “…and they don’t want to have to end that abruptly, right after we had started.”
“So we would encourage folks to work toward community wellness, in whatever way you can, because you are helping our schools.”
Of course, some people are suggesting that the COVID spikes showing up around the nation are due to doctors falsely claiming that “everybody” is dying of COVID.
A few quotes from President Donald Trump’s recent rally in Michigan:
“If you have a bad heart, and you’re ready to die, or if you have cancer, and you’re going to be dying soon, and you catch COVID — that happens — [American doctors] mark it down to COVID.
“You know, our doctors get more money if somebody dies of COVID. You know that, right? I mean, our doctors are very smart people. Our hospitals. So what they do is, they say, ‘I’m sorry, but everybody dies of COVID.’
“But in Germany, and in other places, if you have a heart attack or you have cancer, you’re terminally ill, you catch COVID — they say you died of cancer, or you died of heart attack. With [US doctors], when in doubt, choose COVID. It’s true. No, it’s true.”
As the crowd laughed, the President then pointed at the media cameras filming the speech. “Now, they’ll say, ‘It’s terrible, what he said.’ But that’s true…”
The President poses an interesting theory: that the current spike in COVID fatalities is at least partly due to “very smart” doctors and hospitals — hoping to increase their income — labeling excess deaths as ‘COVID’ when in fact, the deaths may have been due to other causes.
President Trump certainly has access to information that I do not have access to. According to an article on an ABC affiliate website based in California, dated July 30:
According to the US Department of Health and Human Services [HHS] which oversees the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, under the federal coronavirus aid relief bill known as the CARES Act, hospitals get an extra 20% in Medicare reimbursements on top of traditional rates due to the public health emergency.
That’s for COVID-19 related admissions, which can include deaths. The pay-out amount varies, according to a medicare spokesperson who said, “Medicare adjusts hospital payment based on geographic variation in local costs.”
We will note that the doctors and hospitals have admitted these patients based upon a COVID diagnosis… presumably, related to positive test results… and presumably, have been treating them in hopes of keeping them alive.
What the President neglected to mention, perhaps, is that his prime example of principled medical operations, Germany — where, according to the President, “if you have a heart attack or you have cancer, you’re terminally ill, you catch COVID, they say you died of cancer, or you died of heart attack” — this bastion of medical ethics, Germany, just announced a new month-long lock-down, starting yesterday, November 2. The country’s disease and control agency reported a record high of 14,964 new daily infections last Wednesday. Restaurants, bars, theaters and clubs have been closed in an effort to contain the new outbreaks. (Restaurants can still serve take-out meals.)
Apparently, Germany is not trying to get away with anything.