[quote]It could have been people hoarding alcohol in anticipation of the stores being shut down

^^^^
That is exactly what an alcoholic would say. A perfectly reasonable explanation. Of course that is possible, but few states shut down the liquor stores.

Always good to hear from PJW

Nothing has changed between last week and this week in Florida, but Governor DeHorseshit has magnanimously announced today that we can all get haircuts on Monday, except those in Miami-Dade or Broward counties.

The powerful sedatives necessary to save coronavirus patients may also lead to a difficult recovery

After a well-earned break following six weeks treating coronavirus patients in the University Medical Center ICU, Dr. Kyle Happel, a pulmonologist and critical care medicine specialist at LSU Health Sciences Center, can't help but "chart-stalk" some of his former charges.

"You're just dying to know if they're doing well, are they still alive,” said Happel.

Many of the people he treated were on ventilators, which means that a large percentage were likely to succumb to the disease. But for those that make it, a long recovery in the hospital is likely to become an even longer recovery at home due to the excessive time spent on narcotics and breathing machines.

During normal times, patients in the ICU might stay on a ventilator for three or four days. But it is not unusual for coronavirus patients to stay on ventilators for a week or two – or, in some cases, a month or longer. And those patients are requiring massive amounts of sedatives, painkillers and paralytic drugs.

Drug trials, fewer ventilators: here's how Louisiana’s coronavirus treatments have evolved
Drug trials, fewer ventilators: here's how Louisiana’s coronavirus treatments have evolved
“The amount of sedation required to help people is astronomical and unlike anything we’ve ever seen,” said an Ochsner ICU nurse with decades of experience, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak by her employer.

For patients who spend a month or more in the ICU on unprecedented doses of drugs, the physical and mental toll of coronavirus often results in delirium – and doctors worry about the long road to real recovery. Even if coronavirus doesn’t kill patients within weeks, they could live with the effects for years.

“A lot of these folks will not be able to return to the same level of daily functionality or daily living,” said Happel. “Many times they are not going to be the same people they were before. Some might require placement in long-term acute care or skilled nursing facilities. Some may require dialysis. In survivors, there will be significant morbidity.”

According to the largest mortality study of patients with coronavirus on ventilators, the majority who go on the ventilator do not come off. Among 98 ventilated patients in the U.K., only 33 were discharged.

Other studies are even more sobering. In a small study out of China, 19 of 22 ventilated patients died.

The ventilator itself is dangerous for patients. While it can be a life-saving measure, staying on it for too long can cause complications.

“I tend to think of the ventilator as a race,” said Happel. “It’s a race for you to get off before you develop a complication: lung injury or pneumonia.”

As coronavirus patients linger on ventilators, they develop a tolerance to the drugs that allow them to permit having a plastic tube down their throat.

Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid used as both a sedative and a pain manager, has been essential.

“We used metric tons of it,” said Happel.

Some hospitals, such as Our Lady of the Lake in Baton Rouge, relaxed maximum dosing allowances for nurses because so many patients were requiring higher levels of medication.

'It’s horrendous': Louisiana coronavirus patients' final moments are often without loved ones
'It’s horrendous': Louisiana coronavirus patients' final moments are often without loved ones
"Patients are on the ventilators longer than we typically have," said Bud O'Neal, the hospital's medical director of research.

And the longer time on ventilators leads to a patient becoming accustomed to the narcotics necessary for their treatment.

“All of the opiates – fentanyl, morphine, deltoid – patients can develop tolerance,” said O'Neal, who said the hospital is still treating patients that came in during the first wave in late March. “Sometimes we do have to continually go up on the patients.”

Doctors try to give patients the bare minimum of medication in the ICU, because the powerful opiates and other narcotics are addictive and are not meant to be used long-term.

The dependency can lead to withdrawal when patients are able to slowly come off the ventilator, another difficult battle.

In March, demand for sedatives, paralytics and pain drugs surged 73% nationwide, according to Vizient, Inc., which negotiates drug prices for hospitals throughout the country. With so many patients on ventilators, hospitals in Louisiana faced shortages, too.

When the Ochsner ICU nurse tried to get fentanyl from the pharmacy, she would get a message back: “It would say there is a critical shortage and they would give you alternatives.” Instead, she and her colleagues used a more potent form of fentanyl, then switched to Dilaudid, another opiate.

"Collaborative teams ... worked together to develop treatment protocols for multiple scenarios and equal alternatives for all medications needed," according to a statement from Ochsner Health emailed by the hospital's public relations team.

Beyond withdrawal, patients also have a much higher risk for post-intensive care syndrome, a series of health problems that follow a prolonged stay. One in three patients in the ICU experience delirium, making it difficult for them to eat, sleep, think or remember where they are. The effects of high levels of sedation for a long period of time may play out for years, said Dr. E. Wesley Ely, a pulmonologist and critical care physician at Vanderbilt Medical Center.

LINK: https://www.nola.com/news/coro...96-f3a3d514362c.html

quote:

posted 08.May.2020 16:16 Hide Post
I debated whether to start a new thread on the mental health effects of social distancing and the quarantine.
Thus far there has been little discussion beyond the frustration at the various pronouncements by Governors who seem enchanted with their own power.

A thread like this?

https://sigforum.com/eve/forums...0601935/m/7620097764

You are late to the party. Look several posts above at 4:35pm

quote:

They all want to bring the libtard shit they're running from with them.

That is happening all over. These asses leave places because of high taxes and other liberal crap and move to conservative states, yet they continue to push for more of the same and vote for leftist politicians in their new state. And...they all seem to run their mouth about needing to do things the way they were where they used to live. I told one guy at work a few years ago to just move the hell back where he came from if it was so great, because we don't give a damn how it was done there.

quote:

Originally posted by wcb6092:



It could have been people hoarding alcohol in anticipation of the stores being shut down

Nope nope. It’s me. I bought it and drank it.

More stupidity of releasing criminals: They were released again.

quote:

Prisoners released from facilities to limit COVID-19 spread arrested again for crimes

"After being arrested again, all three men are back on the streets because of COVID-19 concerns in jails and will have to face their new charges at a later date."
https://komonews.com/news/coro...ted-again-for-crimes

quote:

Fear equals control.

Control equals power.

Power equals money.

This is what I have been trying to convey to people. Major power grab. Most people just want to feel safe and are willing to give up their constitutionally protected rights to assuage their weaknesses. At some point we have to say fuck you if you are this stupid.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
I suspect working from home for some people involves enjoying their cocktails all day long.

Puzzled. You say that like it’s a bad thing?

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
A perfectly reasonable explanation. Of course that is possible, but few states shut down the liquor stores.

Nobody shut down bogroll stores either.


eta: just realized you’ve chosen to cross-post same phrases into other threads. Apologies to our brethren if this looks like a repeat but I’ll only post once. Unlike some other cut-and-pasters.

I have an interest in a home rehabilitation and building business. The last several weeks we have been covered up with new project bids. These projects range from $10k to $100k. I finally realized that a majority of these projects are individuals who are now working from home and have additional discretionary cash because they are not paying for daycare. Who saw that coming?

quote:

Nobody shut down bogroll stores either

^^^^^^^
I was not aware that there were establisments that exclusively sold toilet paper. Of course it could just be a Jackson thing.

Huge association of California churches are defying Newsom and also a very good interview with a Ca. Sheriff who refuses to enforce lockdown orders

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news...-problem/ar-BB13Oe7u

quote:

Originally posted by midwest guy:
I have an interest in a home rehabilitation and building business. The last several weeks we have been covered up with new project bids. These projects range from $10k to $100k. I finally realized that a majority of these projects are individuals who are now working from home and have additional discretionary cash because they are not paying for daycare. Who saw that coming?

I know a crew of painters and remodelers and they're busy working in empty office buildings and businesses that would otherwise be occupied, squeezing in work they've had a hard time getting to or previously only did on weekends.

I went out yesterday and bought the stuff I needed to buy to do what I wanted to do. Somehow I escaped being either arrested or fined for going out to acquire "non-essential" materials.

I Am Legend!

quote:

Originally posted by midwest guy:
I have an interest in a home rehabilitation and building business. The last several weeks we have been covered up with new project bids. These projects range from $10k to $100k. I finally realized that a majority of these projects are individuals who are now working from home and have additional discretionary cash because they are not paying for daycare. Who saw that coming?

You’d better enjoy it while it lasts.

quote:

Originally posted by Rightwire:
Michigan just got 2 more weeks added to our sentence.

How Many Lives Will Politicians Sacrifice In The Name Of Fighting COVID-19?

During the current coronavirus lockdown, I’d pay good money to see just one public official be asked:

“How many lives are you willing to sacrifice to prevent one coronavirus death?”

Thomas Sowell has repeatedly written that in a world of scarcity there are no solutions, only tradeoffs. The lockdown debate has thus far focused on that tradeoff as one between saving lives versus a temporary blip in the economy.

As Tom Woods wrote recently, “We heard it from Andrew Cuomo, governor of New York, and plenty of people since then: if we save even one life with all these draconian measures, it will have been worthwhile.”

But there’s so much more to it than that.

The lockdown itself is costing lives, perhaps more so than the virus itself.

Opponents of the lockdowns do themselves a disservice in focusing almost exclusively on the importance of “reopening the economy,” as if financial self-interest were the only reason to lift stay-at-home orders and risk an acceleration of COVID-19 spread and deaths.

As Heather Mac Donald wrote in this recent American Greatness piece,

“The focus on saving ‘just one life’ from the coronavirus, as Cuomo put it in March, to the exclusion of all other considerations likely will prove a catastrophic failure of policymaking.”

“The devastation to individuals’ ability to flourish or even survive may soon become irreversible,” she added.

Indeed, the lockdown itself poses significant health risks of its own, including countless deaths. The public has been bombarded with constantly changing models purporting to show the massive amount of coronavirus hospitalizations and deaths that will ensure should lockdown restrictions be lifted.

But where are the models projecting the deaths and suffering resulting from the lockdown itself? Why are our rulers so intent upon keeping those tradeoffs from entering the public debate over the lockdown?

Research has clearly shown a positive correlation between increased unemployment and suicide rates. A study published by The Lancet found that “the relative risk of suicide associated with unemployment was elevated by about 20–30%” in their study period.

The study further attributed roughly forty-five thousand suicides per year worldwide to the mental and psychological toll of unemployment.

The hope for many laid-off workers is that their unemployment will be temporary, but there remains great uncertainty about just how long this will last. The longer this economic shutdown and its consequences last, the more suicides there will be.

Loss of life from substance abuse will also increase. As the substance abuse rehab clinic Recovery Ways notes, “One study from 2017 found that every time unemployment rises by one percentage point in a given county, the rate of opioid deaths increases by 3.6 percent and the rate of emergency room visits increases by seven percent.”

And in a very bitter case of irony, the anxiety and stress caused by the reaction to fight the spread of the coronavirus can actually weaken the immune system and make people more vulnerable to contagion. As reported at Healthline.com:

But if you repeatedly feel anxious and stressed or it lasts a long time, your body never gets the signal to return to normal functioning. This can weaken your immune system, leaving you more vulnerable to viral infections and frequent illnesses. Also, your regular vaccines may not work as well if you have anxiety.

Also accompanying the global economic crisis triggered by the coronavirus lockdowns will be mass starvation. Although the US will suffer increased deaths from the economic hardships, the pain felt globally will be far more severe.

An April 16 Reuters article highlighted a UN report warning that

economic hardship experienced by families as a result of the global economic downturn could result in hundreds of thousands of additional child deaths in 2020, reversing the last 2 to 3 years of progress in reducing infant mortality within a single year.

Warning of a “pandemic of starvation, illiteracy and poverty” resulting from the government lockdowns, this April 22 New York Times article noted that in third world nations, “Polio eradication campaigns are being suspended. The same is true of vitamin A distribution, which saves children’s lives and prevents blindness. School feeding programs have often been shut down along with schools.”

In Bangladesh, the article noted a survey that found that “Four in 10 respondents had three days’ worth of food at home or less.”

The mass hysteria and panic is also leading many people with serious health issues to dangerously avoid hospitals because of unwarranted fear of infection. Such avoidance can lead to serious and sometimes irreversible illnesses that were entirely preventable.

Moreover, as a Stanford doctor wrote in this article in The Hill, “People are dying because other medical care is not getting done due to hypothetical projections.”

“Most states and many hospitals abruptly stopped ‘nonessential’ procedures and surgery,” the doctor wrote. “That prevented diagnoses of life-threatening diseases, like cancer screening, biopsies of tumors now undiscovered and potentially deadly brain aneurysms.”

“Cancer patients deferred chemotherapy. An estimated 80 percent of brain surgery cases were skipped. Acute stroke and heart attack patients missed their only chances for treatment, some dying and many now facing permanent disability,” he continued.

Tom Woods further pointed out an article in the UK’s Sunday Express that concluded that “increased cancer fatalities will result from the redeployment of health resources caused by COVID hysteria.”

According to Richard Sullivan, a professor of cancer and global health at King’s College London and director of its Institute of Cancer Policy, “The number of deaths due to the disruption of cancer services is likely to outweigh the number of deaths from the coronavirus itself.”

The government’s response to the threat of the coronavirus has been unprecedented. The question of whether or not the response has been warranted has boiled down to saving lives versus “restarting” the economy. Many opponents of the near universal lockdowns have been accused of wanting people to die just to save a few points in their Wall Street portfolios.

This is absurd.

The lockdown is costing lives. A lot of them. The economic fallout will cause more waves of deaths, especially among poorer nations. Preventable deaths and health problems are spiking, because scarce medical resources are being reserved for predicted waves of COVID-19 cases that largely aren’t materializing.

In a recent tweet, libertarian podcaster and comedian Dave Smith posed the question that needs to be asked but is thus far being ignored:

Sadly, it’s beginning to look more and more like our rulers don’t even want to publicly acknowledge these tradeoffs, or that they ever will.

Nothing in life is free; there are always tradeoffs. That includes the coronavirus lockdown. Saving “just one life” from the coronavirus is not costless. Unfortunately, the true nature of these costs is being ignored and reduced to mere temporary economic inconvenience.

As Woods concluded, “It isn’t just that we want to go out and get a haircut, as these geniuses keep saying. It’s that we’re against destruction.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/heal...me-fighting-covid-19