Italy no longer intubating those over 60 years old (75+, retirees, friends)
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The US, according to this evening's statistics, has a the largest number of cases world wide.
World wide cases are over 500,000 now total.
US has some 82,300-some cases, Italy only had 80,200-some. China was in the middle at 81,000-some cases.
Tomorrow the numbers will be higher here.
These are only the cases that have tested positive. My NY governor said they are seeking out the positives, to get them help but to help stop the spread.
The morgue in NYC hospital s are full, so they brought in refrigerated tractor trailers to shove the dead into. There is no where else to put the bodies.
My county in upstate jumped from 10 cases yesterday to 14 today, but the whole state of NY still has half the cases of the country.
Cuomo said he'd move people with the virus to upstate hospitals, perhaps. Our county leaders say "we will take care of our own first before we take care of NYC people". He's setting the county up for failure. The county has also tightened travel restrictions. The threat of tickets and up to $500 fine is bantered about.
Yesterday NY had 30,000+ cases, the governor pointed out that the next state was NJ, with about 3,000, then California with 2,000. He used those statistics to point out we need a larger share of ventilators.
Those numbers have drastically gone up, of course, as that was yesterday.
I don't have to go out til next Tuesday for PT and pharmacy pick up. I sorry most at the pharmacy of picking it up. Why? Because sick people go to pharmacy looking for relief of symptoms.
The ones who died in the county were 80+. They died in 2 days.
Be sure you have your wills and trusts in order, and someone to watch/take in your pets!
Stop the spread, STAY HOME.
LOCKDOWN IS NO FUN, but neither is suffering through or dying of is not fun either!
If we had nationalized Physician Assisted Suicide, like they have in Canada, and more liberalized, you might have any number of volunteers to die in nursing homes, in lieu of those with the Virus who want to live. I worked in Nursing homes for 17 years, and even with Physician Assisted Suicide, many who would like to die, can't, because they're not qualified, as you must be 6 months terminal and OK'd by 2 Dr.'s
I took care of one man, 62YO, left paralyzed, bedridden from a stroke, who wanted to die, but, he doesn't qualify. And how many are out there like him, would choose death, but are not qualified. So instead of no longer intubating those with the virus, to save hospital space/equipment/money, ask around at some of these nursing homes, those not qualifying, if they wish to end it.
In nursing homes today, if you tell a healthcare worker you want to die, you're Legal 2000'd to a Psych ward (that happened to one of my favorite patients who really wanted to die) to knock some sense into you.
Now this post may not even be relevant to what's going on in say, Italy, or if it comes to that in the U.S.
Fair point. The same folks would like to triage the older people out of life or give up on it to save the economy are the ones who oppose the right to life as it offends their moral sensibilities. Go figure!
I appreciate your kind wishes and sincerely thank you for them. I wish you and everyone reading the same.
I do think you misunderstood my point and about me. It is completely understandable on internet. But, I will point it out for clarification -
I do not watch any television, CNN or otherwise. Get my news from good quality outlets - The Atlantic, New Yorker, New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian, South China Morning post (a recent addition) and scientific outlets like Medcram, etc. I am surrounded by my loving wife - and neither of us is panicked. We are in the late 50s, in above average shape (climbed to Mount Everest base camp about 15 months ago doing better than the average hiker), and climb the mountain nearby with elevation difference of 2500 ft 2 to 5 times a week). None of that makes us invulnerable to this virus or another, but we have no reason to be panicked and are not. I volunteer to shop for groceries for older and more vulnerable people in our building. Do we fear it nonetheless - absolutely, but panicked - not yet
My point was broader. I believe that the politicians suggesting that bringing the economy back up and if some old folks die in the process - that's fine (I am paraphrasing not too carefully what I read) or the old people need to sacrifice (or, in essence - we need to sacrifice some old people) to hold up the economy, etc. are heartless and thoughtless. I have no respect for them. If and when we run up against the capacity and cannot save people - so be it. But, to not strive the utmost to minimize that situation so that we can bring up the economy, I do not agree. That is not a cost I am willing to pay.
Thank you for being so kind. And, yes, writing isn't the best way to communicate.
(And just FYI, I subscribe to all the medias you mentioned, except South China Morning -- love The Atlantic especially. They are doing a great job during this pandemic. Calm, hitting-the-nail-on-the-head articles.)
You did a fine job: what was said was that old people should sacrifice themselves for the sake of the economy. And I can't believe that a politician (Lt. Gov. of Texas, as someone corrected me yesterday) actually said that -- on national TV, yet! It still just boggles my mind.
And you and your wife are still young. Well, relatively young. And you sound healthy. If you get the virus, I'm sure you will be fine. If I remember correctly, some doctor on the news said that 80%+, of those who get the virus, are doing just fine at home. Some people don't even know they have it.
As for "that is not a cost I am willing to pay" -- what do you suggest that we (much older people than you and your wife) do about something that is already happening? A hospital administrator/physician said that it's already happening in her hospital in The Midwest. She said (can't remember verbatim at this point) that "difficult choices are having to be made" and that "we have to look at who has the best chance of surviving and who have the most days in front of them." Cuomo of NY said this is keeping him up at night (and I believe him).
I'm going to go back to my points, which I think are pretty good: stay home as much as possible, get our affairs in order, and enjoy this time, as much as possible, at home alone or with our spouse and/or children. We have zero control over this virus and over the medical treatment we get -- or don't get -- if we get the virus.
I don't care if you disagree with me and I am certainly not laughing at you or myself or anyone else: We Americans are rather a 'sad lot'. The middle class and the lower middle class, which constitute the bulk of Americans. We say, "Well, I'm not accept this or that" -- when, in reality, we have no control over most of our lives. We little worker bees exist, primarily in the eyes of the government and corporations and just about anyone who employs us, solely to make the rich richer and to pay the bulk of federal income taxes. We get up every morning and go to work -- even though wages have been flat for the past 50 years (give or take), even though defined-benefit pension plans are pretty much a thing of the past, and even though our medical care has gone downhill over the past few decades. (As I was writing the above, I was thinking, "I haven't had good medical care in the last 30 years" [and it's so bad to me now that I don't even bother going to the doctor, and I know, for a fact, that a lot of my peers -- 70+ -- don't see one either, unless they absolutely have to]. So in the middle of this useless tome of mine -- LOL -- I looked up "managed care" -- yup, it came into being in the late 1980s -- about 30+ years ago.) For 30 years, I dutifully went to work at the same place Monday through Fridays, with basically the same people. Like a good little American; and I never cheated on my taxes. My only consolation is that I loved what I did (most of the time), and I loved my coworkers (most of the time); and I got paid extremely well for what I did; and I had great benefits (for instance, with vacation, sick leave and holidays, I didn't have to work 9 weeks out of every year -- not many working Americans have those benefits).
The primary reason I went to work every day was because my only alternative was to be homeless, and, for me, that wasn't a great alternative.
Anyway, while we're worrying about this virus and how it affects us physically/medically, my concern is the aftermath. And not just the economic recovery. We don't have a lot of 'rights' right now, and I can't help but wonder, at times, how many will be restored as this virus dies down. We have a man in power right now who wants to be president until the day he dies and who thinks he has unlimited powers -- AND his approval ratings are going up. I shudder to think about what could happen in November (there are no good candidates, period), the next four years after that, and even the election after that. I think it was The Atlantic that had a great article just on this very topic.
So while you say you won't accept this or that -- tell me what the alternatives are. For those of us who are not one of the 1%.
Ok, I'm done. LOL And if you don't read this tome of mine, I really don't blame you. :-)
You did a fine job: what was said was that old people should sacrifice themselves for the sake of the economy. And I can't believe that a politician (Lt. Gov. of Texas, as someone corrected me yesterday) actually said that -- on national TV, yet! It still just boggles my mind.
No. That is NOT what was said, and this has been pointed out, already.
Why do you insist on continuing to repeat this fiction?
If we had nationalized Physician Assisted Suicide, like they have in Canada, and more liberalized, you might have any number of volunteers to die in nursing homes, in lieu of those with the Virus who want to live. I worked in Nursing homes for 17 years, and even with Physician Assisted Suicide, many who would like to die, can't, because they're not qualified, as you must be 6 months terminal and OK'd by 2 Dr.'s
I took care of one man, 62YO, left paralyzed, bedridden from a stroke, who wanted to die, but, he doesn't qualify. And how many are out there like him, would choose death, but are not qualified. So instead of no longer intubating those with the virus, to save hospital space/equipment/money, ask around at some of these nursing homes, those not qualifying, if they wish to end it.
In nursing homes today, if you tell a healthcare worker you want to die, you're Legal 2000'd to a Psych ward (that happened to one of my favorite patients who really wanted to die) to knock some sense into you.
Now this post may not even be relevant to what's going on in say, Italy, or if it comes to that in the U.S.
It's a great post.
My geriatrician, who retired about 18 months ago, was a firm believer in P-A Suicide. He also firmly believed that everyone, 75+, should be able to have P-A Suicide for any reason whatsoever (and he was a conservative). He said that, yes, we are living longer but not better. That modern medical care will prolong our dying but not our lives. And that for many people, life is not all that great after 75-80. Since I am living in my third 55+ retirement community in the last 10+ years, I agree with him totally. My peers, for the most part, are in their apartments and watching TV, 24/7. Some volunteer a little. Some play golf. Some drive their adult children crazy by invading their lives, in hopes of warding off loneliness. That's about it.
While I was just now researching the name of that doctor who publicly said that he wanted to commit suicide at age 75 because life is not all that worth living after 75, I came across this. And I am telling you that it's pretty much spot on:
I am not suicidal. I am still enthralled by life and everything in it, from amoebas to zebras. But when I can't drive and/or can't read and/or can't take care of myself -- I don't want to continue living. I'm just not all that afraid of death. I am terrified, thought, of dementia or having a sharp mind in a non-functioning body.
If we had nationalized Physician Assisted Suicide, like they have in Canada, and more liberalized, you might have any number of volunteers to die in nursing homes, in lieu of those with the Virus who want to live. I worked in Nursing homes for 17 years, and even with Physician Assisted Suicide, many who would like to die, can't, because they're not qualified, as you must be 6 months terminal and OK'd by 2 Dr.'s
I took care of one man, 62YO, left paralyzed, bedridden from a stroke, who wanted to die, but, he doesn't qualify. And how many are out there like him, would choose death, but are not qualified. So instead of no longer intubating those with the virus, to save hospital space/equipment/money, ask around at some of these nursing homes, those not qualifying, if they wish to end it.
In nursing homes today, if you tell a healthcare worker you want to die, you're Legal 2000'd to a Psych ward (that happened to one of my favorite patients who really wanted to die) to knock some sense into you.
Now this post may not even be relevant to what's going on in say, Italy, or if it comes to that in the U.S.
No one said anything about "panicking and being in a frenzy". You are manufacturing things, Fran66.
Speak for yourself and no one else.
How am I "manufacturing" things? You failed to mention that.
Watch the interviews of the average US citizen on the news. The worst one, so far, for me, was the young nurse who quit her job for the safety of her family.
Come to my state (New Mexico) -- the FB page for The Gov and the FB page for The Mayor of Albuquerque -- and read the comments from the residents of NM. Our governor activated the Emergency Alert System for out state -- we are supposed to get them on our phones, radios, TVs -- three times a day. You can imagine how calm that made everyone. I come from 57 years in coastal Southern CA -- I'd rather be there right now; and I never thought I'd say that.
As I posted before, I had to stop daily phone calls with my long-time friend/phone buddy because he was making me so nervous.
People are in grocery stores 'stocking up' so much that there is little on the shelves.
I've been in my Costco twice in the past two weeks, and I was afraid because I thought fights were going to break out. Even today, people are lining up outside Costco two and a half hours before it opens.
I have a friend in San Diego, CA, and the police were called to her Costco while he was there a week ago, because of a fight.
I've been told, by Costco management, that is now standard procedure to have a policeman and patrol car outside every Costco in The US. Not a security guard -- a city police person in a city police patrol car. I don't know that for a fact -- I haven't been to every Costco in The US -- but I do know that there is always one outside my Costco.
I blame the president, for acting like this is no big deal, and I blame CNN (which I tend to like, but less and less as time goes by) for trying to scare the H out of us -- while telling us to stay at home, wash our hands, and calm down.
So unless I'm making all this up, 'panic' and 'frenzy' aren't my imagination.
Not Italy, not socialized medicine. The United States of America.
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