We have NEVER run out of beds for non-flu related illnesses because our hospital was overrun with flu patients. There has been the occasional very temporary diversion situation that has always resolved within our own city.
Come back and talk to us about how similarly the flu has impacted our hospital systems when we have 500K dead (not even counting numbers hospitalized or merely seen in ER) from ONE contagious illness in a year’s time. I cannot believe we are actually having this conversation.
I know, it’s discouraging. When I told the friend I quoted above about this conversation, she replied, “They obviously haven’t been near a hospital.”
Maine now has more hospitalized COVID patients than at any time previously.
I just think of mobile morgues. How often have we had them lined up in several communities all over the country for one illness? The thought of mobile morgues makes me shudder.
Edit - just found out another reluctant acquaintance here is in the ER for breathing issues. I wonder how many in my area understand that 1 in every 250 people in my locality have already died from covid. And it’s still climbing by the day.
I wonder why ME hospitalization rates are so high. I thought they were doing pretty well with vaccinations. Today’s number for MA is 636 hospitalized state wide vs. close to 4000 in spring 2020, and 2500 during the surge last winter.
It’s the rural counties with low vaccination rates.
question.
i’m confused any more on how this all works.
can vaxxed people carry the virus just as easily or as much as unvaxxed people? I know vaxxed people dont shed as much virus, or have as much potential to have as harsh of cases, right?
(my 80 yr old vaxxed mom just invited her great nephew unvaxxed out to visit for a week. UGH.) I’m trying to figure out what the difference is or severity of this is. Can anyone explain these details? truly appreciated it.
Not sure what you’re asking, but this article from today seems to confirm that yes, they can spread it. Not sure how it compares to nonvaxxed. Even though your mom is vaxxed, she is still at risk due to her age since most of the serious breakthrough cases are in older folks. Can she have him test before and when he arrives? Is there somewhere else he can stay? Or is it her nephew that you are more concerned about? Perhaps both should be tested.
My relative said they have Covid patients on vents covered with plastic in corridors of the hospital because they have so so many Covid patients with low VAX rate rural communities. When the docs have to do a procedure they put on something akin to a space suit, much more coverage than when they are in hospitals with lower covid rates.
From what I recall, vaccinated people did not carry and shed the virus until Delta came along. That’s one reason why President Biden felt we could have the freedom of removing our masks this summer: case counts were lower, people were getting vaccinated, vaccinated wouldn’t transmit the virus. There were rumblings of a more worrisome, possibly aggressive variant overseas, called the delta variant. Once it started spreading in the US, we were able to see that it was much more easily transmissible and that even the vaccinated could transmit the virus. They could still carry the same amount of virus and still shed it to a lesser degree. Frankly, it is so contagious that surgical masks should still be worn, but probably N95 is what you really need with this variant.
I would not enter the healthcare field for any reason. It’s not my talent. But as an economist, I see that this is a matter of labor supply. Henry Ford understood how to find good talent and plenty of it - he doubled the factory wage.
I just had time to read the Time article you linked. His hospital system is not listed in there (nor any near him), so I doubt his memory is incorrect. The article also didn’t seem to show as much overwhelmingness as one sees now IMO. Using recovery rooms for treatment and having to put a tent into operation for up to 40 people a couple of times can be outside of norm as the article says (vs happening all the time, every year), but that doesn’t mean it’s the same as what many systems are seeing now.
I’ll stick with believing those who have BTDT for both time periods (like my guy) when they say now is much worse.
Had Henry Ford been alive today, he’d likely have succumbed to COVID because of his age and pre-existing heart disease before being able to implement his worker’s wage hikes.
Covid is definitey worse than the flu!
This is quite surprising - haven’t seen your state’s historical hospitalization data, but avg weekly deaths are only about a fourth of what they were in January. That’s better than what the country is doing generally. Maine also has a little under 2/3 of its ventilators available. Of course, not every Covid (or non-Covid) patient needs to be vented - but still, it suggests that Maine must be doing a fabulous job caring for its Covid patients.
What’s interesting is that Maine is about 2/3rds vaxed. That’s 2/3 of total population. 18-64 is 80% vaxed. 65+ is 99.9% vaxed. Those are great numbers! So if Covid patients are at a higher-than-ever presence in the hospital - particularly in comparison to Pre-Vax 2020, that means a combination of several things may be at play: 1) VE has really diminished either due to Delta or timing of shot; 2) many Maine residents/Covid patients are elderly or immunocompromised (Maine’s median age is well above the US so this wouldn’t surprise me) or 3) people have changed their behavior once they were vaccinated, thus increasing their risk of infection.
Or a combination of the 3. Edited to say you mentioned “combination”. Sorry I missed that.
Hmm. Have our other contemporary entrepreneur-moguls succumbed? Henry lived to age 83 which was a ripe old age in those days! He was very much against smoking, so that probably helped. And his wife lived to be the same age!
Assuming like elsewhere that most of those hospitalized are unvaxxed in Maine, it really shows how Covid is hitting that group.
We had more prayer requests from church for those not doing well in hospitals today.
I can’t help but wonder just how long it’s going to take to go through the masses who chose not to vaccinate - thus helping everyone be able to get back to normal.
Many opted to help our odds by getting vaxed. Others preferred to take their chances both now and with whatever lingering body effects there are in the future. Once this wave is past though, then are we at the critical end? Covid might be out there forever, but at this level once people are either vaxxed or have immunity from Covid itself (or didn’t make it)?
Agreed at 158 I suspect he would have been vulnerable😀
Oh I think now is definitely worse. It won’t end! Flu at least has a “season.” Also, some years aren’t bad at all.
Here’s a great example of how Covid is both over-staying its welcome AND proving to be a non-stop attraction despite potential bigger, deeper and longer-standing problems. I’m part of a social media sight on the south side of Chicago, and apparently - according to the posters - the ER’s throughout the city are just packed right now with incredible wait-times. Word of mouth is that this is true all over the city. A physician weighed in: 12 hour shift, no time to eat etc. Sounds horrible. But when you look at the city’s hospital bed and ICU capacity (as a proxy for what’s going on at the ER), Covid cases are only taking up about 25% of what they did during the initial outbreak, and about 1/3 of the fall/early winter surge (a time when things were locked down throughout the city). So if people are crowding the ER, it’s for other reasons. Chicago has some pretty awful non-Covid stats (gun violence, poverty, etc) so it shouldn’t be surprising that the ER’s are full. There are apparently also staffing shortages at that hospital (they mentioned nursing and paramedic) and that will stress the remaining personnel. Covid is an easy target because AA and Latinx vax rates are relatively low. But there are worse problems than Covid in that city, unfortunately.
From the Maine CDC:
<<< Stat of the day: 214. That’s the number of people hospitalized in Maine w/ COVID19 right now–another dark record.
73 of those are in an ICU and 33, on a ventilator.
It continues to be the case that most are not fully vaccinated: 90+% in the ICU 65-75% overall.>>>
It was in a prison (typically a high density living environment; this prison had two to ten person cells without doors). The CDC report is here:
“Among 172 infected persons, four (2%) were hospitalized for COVID-19, including three (8%) of 39 unvaccinated patients, and one (1%) of 129 fully vaccinated patients (p = 0.04). One (3%) of the unvaccinated hospitalized patients required endotracheal intubation and mechanical ventilation and died in the hospital (Table 1).”