Covid-19

[smileyy]

Inslee (WA gov) talks about opening the economy only when frequent rapid testing and contact tracing is available, which I agree with. That's going to be a while due to the testing clusterfun we've seen.

It's not like we made this virus go away. We just kept hospitals from being overwhelmed and bought time to learn about treatment and work on a vaccine.

[GoMuskies]

Inslee (WA gov) talks about opening the economy only when frequent rapid testing and contact tracing is available, which I agree with. That's going to be a while due to the testing clusterfun we've seen.

We can't afford to wait that long. Maybe to "fully" open, but some things need to reopen earlier.

[smileyy]

I can only hope you're right re: number of deaths that will (won't) occur in that scenario.

[xu82]

We can't afford to wait that long. Maybe to "fully" open, but some things need to reopen earlier.

It will certainly have to be a gradual process, and it will be interesting to see who manages that the best. I’m guessing our clown of a Governor in Georgia (who just recently learned asymptomatic people could spread the virus...”that’s a game changer!”) will find a way to horribly botch this up.



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[Xville]

I hereby declare that daycares are the first things that should be opened up.

[noteggs]

I don’t want to put words in smileyy’s mouth but what I got out of that comment is that it does not seem right that a decisions are being made whether to save a life because they might lose money. This actually already happens on a fairly regular basis unfortunately. In Ohio, Medicaid (and Medicare to a lesser degree) does not reimburse to nearly the same level as commercial insurance. So it is not unheard of for hospitals to divert Medicaid patients to other hospitals so their beds have a patient that they will see more cash flow. Should someone receive better health care because they have more money? That’s a tough question to answer....

Yes healthcare reimbursements are lower with governmental healthcare and this is because the government being the government. However, what does this have to do with nonprofit vs for profit hospitals? Isn’t that what his post alluded to? Are you suggesting “for profit” is restricting care to those individuals because the government pays for them and has less reimbursement? Or hospitals in general? Just curious...

I mean both systems started losing revenues (reimbursements) because of Obamacare with the expansion of Medicaid. Now if you look at the operating expenses that went to uncompensated care (man is that going to balloon after all this is said and done), they’re basically the same for both. In reality, both systems are basically looking to have more revenue than expenses. As you’re aware, the quality of care has absolutely nothing to do with the decisions the “for profit” hospitals make only those services being offered. Other words, if it doesn’t make financial sense to have some type of organ transplant unit, they won’t offer as a service and patient will need to go to non profit to have it done.

IMO, the words “for profit hospitals” is becoming the new bogeyman. Just like when Marx used the word “Capitalists” to describe the free enterprise.

[xavierj]

I can only hope you're right re: number of deaths that will (won't) occur in that scenario.

If people are not idiots we will be fine. Should never have shut down in the first place. Practice healthy habits, don't pick your nose, don't lick counter tops, wash your hands, cover your mouth, don't go to work if not feeling well, stop hugging and shaking hands and don't go out and party after work. If need be wear masks and gloves at work. Limit travel and hotel stays. It can't be that difficult. If you are older and have any health issues, stay home. And people are not just sitting at home in most states any way and the numbers are not crazy. I mean we have like 250 hospitalizations in KY. That doesn't sound like a crisis where the hospitals are overwhelmed.

[Masterofreality]

Today's "Let's do a Reality Check" Report for Ohio:

Today's Model Projection of new Cases per Day: 1,600 (Projected peak day Sunday at 1,607 per model)
Today's Actual new reported Cases: 623 Including 79 new “assumed/probable
Highest Daily Total Increase in cases since report began on 3/9: 623 today with highest number of “assumed cases” ever
(Only 4 other days over 400-4/15 with 511, 4/4 with 427, 4/6 with 407 and 4/3 with 410)
Actual TOTAL Hospitalizations: 2,331 (up 94 from yesterday) since reporting began a month ago
Actual TOTAL ICU admits: 707 since reporting began a month ago (up 30 from yesterday)
Total Ohio Hospital Beds: 34,000
Total Ohio ICU Beds : 2,500
New Stat Ohio Population; 11.7 million

Same questions as before...Whether there is enough testing or not, Where are the Hospitalizations and ICU admissions- even with this new increase in Cases? Where the hell is the flood overrun? There is certainly no under reporting of Hospitalizations.
I thought we were told a couple of weeks ago that today was the projected peak, then moved to Sunday, yet even with the expanded case definition, how come we are still a 1,000 less cases per day than the peak projection in Ohio?

Amy Acton stands up there with such a sincere look, and I don't doubt her sincerity, but this iish has to end. All of her projections have been wrong, wrong and wrong. Same as before, precautions, masks sanitization, sure, but open this sucker back up.

[smileyy]

Problem is, people are idiots and that affects not just them but the people around them.

[Xville]

Looks like DeWine and some other governors are looking to get the economy revved back up (slowly) starting May 1. Good news. See you all at the downtown casino for a craps game at 12:01 am on May 1!

No such luck in kentucky with mr. Andy look at me beshear at the helm. The love affair some people have with him in this state is psychotic.