Stephan: Montana is another state hospital system on the verge of collapse. In the Red states all over the country, the incompetent response to Covid on the part of the governors and legislatures, coupled with the Trump stimulated anti-vaxxer death cult movement is pushing health care in those state to the edge of collapse.
At one level this was completely predictable and what one would expect with a Jonestown-like cult committed to mass suicide. Their deaths' are completely voluntary even sought. But the effect this is having on people who require hospitalization for other reasons it is cruel and thoughtless.
Providence St. Patrick hospital in Missoula, Montana Credit: William Campbell/Corbis/Getty
A month ago, fearing the worst, Montana’s medical community sounded the alarm, urging residents to get vaccinated and mask up as the Delta variant of COVID-19 began to spread. Now it appears the worst is arriving.
This week, hospitals from Billings to Missoula are instituting or preparing to institute a “crisis standard of care” under which medical services and supplies are rationed. While case numbers are still slightly lower than they were last winter during the virus’ previous peak, hospitals are being overwhelmed with COVID patients, many of them unvaccinated.
“It is really dire,” said Dr. James McKay, chief physician executive for Providence Montana, which oversees St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula and St. Joseph Medical Center in Polson. “It has never been this bad.”
According to the New York Times, the number of cases in Montana has jumped 55% in the last two weeks, the largest spike in the nation during that time. On Friday, the state reports 1,209 new cases in Montana and more than 9,500 active cases. Hot spots include Flathead, Missoula and […]
Stephan: To be frank, I don't see how anyone capable of rational thought can vote Republican. And maybe they don't and that's the point. We have about a third of the American population incapable of rational thought, to a point they are willing to commit suicide over their toxic fantasies. And they elect people like themselves. Can democracy survive with a population like that? I'm not sure but we are going to find out.
Anti-vaxxer demonstrators Credit: Joseph Prezioso/Getty
A Republican lawmaker in New Hampshire who went to battle with the state’s top health official last week and ultimately voted to table $27 million in federal vaccine aid has since doubled down on his coronavirus misinformation, suggesting the jab might contain something that would make it possible for the government to “control us.”
“They want everybody to get the shot. Why? Are they getting paid off by Big Pharma?” state Rep. Ken Weyler said in an interview with New Hampshire Public Radio published Wednesday. “Is there something in the shot that’s going to help them control us? There’s lots of things I’m reading that make me very suspicious.”
Hours after the interview was published, New Hampshire House Democratic Leader Renny Cushing and a ranking Democratic member of the House Finance Committee, Rep. Mary Jane Wallner, issued a letter to state House Speaker Sherman Packard, urging him to remove Weyler from his leadership role on the committee and “replace him with a member who respects science and the employees of state departments.”
Stephan: It seems to me that most are just tired of Covid, and don't want to talk about it or think about it at any depth beyond wearing, or not wearing, their mask. But whether people want to focus on it or not 2,000 people a day are dying of Covid, and 90+% of them were unvaccinated. Alaska has now gone into crisis care mode, which means if you live in Alaska, and you are in a car wreck, you may or may not be able to get care. If you need kidney dialysis you probably won't be able to get care. We are watching the American health care system collapse because of the selfishness and stupidity of the anti-vaxxers who are the ones crowding other people out of the hospitals in their area.
An Anchorage Fire Department ambulance arrives at the emergency department entrance at Providence Alaska Medical Center on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. Credit: Loren Holmes / ADN
Alaska is activating crisis standards of care for the entire state, a drastic step that signals staff shortages and influx of COVID-19 patients could make it impossible for some hospitals to treat everyone.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy and top Alaska Department of Health and Social Services officials announced the decision Wednesday, as Alaska’s new single-day cases hit another record with the highly infectious delta variant continuing to drive surging infections and hospitalizations.
The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services enabled crisis standards of care Wednesday through a new addendum to the state’s existing COVID-19 public health order, officials announced at a press briefing.
Commissioner of Health and Social Services Adam Crum said in a statement that the addendum gives a health care framework for providers who will continue […]
Stephan: When you don't support the integrity required in a democracy, you look for ways to get around it. That's what the Texas legislature and governor are doing with the Vigilante Law. You may already have heard about this, but I am doing it not to break news, but to show what Texas has done to jurisprudence in the United States. Even if Ben Stilley is doing this lawsuit to get attention, he says he expects to lose, the fact that he can do it is the point I want to make.
Texas Vigilante Oscar Stilley Credit: Courtesy of Oscar Stilley
Oscar Stilley, a 58-year-old Arkansas man, got up early on Monday morning and decided to sue Dr. Alan Braid, the San Antonio doctor who‘s openly defied Texas’ state ban on most abortions.
“I was cranky,” Stilley joked. “So I filed a lawsuit.”
It is possibly the first lawsuit in the country to be tied to the new statute, SB 8, which prohibits abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detectable—about six weeks into a pregnancy. The law is enforceable by private citizens, who can take medical providers or anyone else who “abets” an abortion in violation of the ban to court to try and collect a bounty of up to $10,000.
“That’s a fine payday,” said Stilley, but the cash is only part of why he filed the complaint against Braid.
Stilley said he’s been watching the saga unfold from his home in Arkansas. “I know what the proponents of this law are doing,” he explained. “They’re trying to inject uncertainty so that the doctors are going to say, ‘Oh, my goodness, this could […]
Stephan: I think calibration is very important. And here is one calibration as to how deranged is the thinking of the anti-vaxer, anti-masker MAGAt crowd. I had to read the story twice it seemed so improbable that anyone would behave in this way. But it's true.
Coshen, Indiana Credit:PXHERE
GOSHEN, INDIANA — Health officials are frustrated after a northern Indiana county council rejected a $3 million federal grant following vocal opposition from residents tying it to a litany of COVID-19 complaints.
The Elkhart County health department had sought the grant to hire staff members to provide education on chronic diseases to Black, Hispanic and Amish residents over a three-year period. The county council’s 6-0 vote on Sept. 11 against accepting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant, however, had some health leaders saying the council was swayed by what they view as false information and conspiracy theories.
Dr. Dan Nafziger, Goshen Health’s chief medical officer, said the county doesn’t have enough healthcare workers to meet the community needs.
“It is incredibly disappointing to see this effort prevented because people distrust the federal government or connect what they don’t like about the pandemic with this grant,” Nafzinger said. “On a daily basis we have patients filling beds in our hospitals because they didn’t understand how to keep themselves healthy.”
County Health Officer Dr. Bethany Wait said the […]
