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I couldn't embed the video, so you must go to the link to watch it.
Additional material, by Midnight Rider of Infidel Bloggers Alliance, dated April 4, 2020: A MESSAGE FROM THE BUNKER: 274,000 Americans infected with Covid Out of 330,000,000 Americans total = .08% --- Not .08 or 8% but 8 one hundredths of one percent.
You might find the comments to the above interesting, too. In those comments, I expressed my own concerns about the definition of the term "recovery":
Mr. AOW is "recovered" from his stroke of 2009. His recovery looks like this: basically paralyzed on his left side (he was left handed), hospital bed in the living room, bedside potty in the living room, needs help with just about every ADL you can think of, totally disabled.Addendum below the fold: inside intensive care unit at University College Hospital in London (8 minute video):
Would you call the above a real recovery?
Inside intensive care at University College Hospital in London as medics treat patients with coronavirus. Special report by @BBCFergusWalsh and Adam Walker. An extraordinary and very powerful report. @paulroyall #bbcnewssix #bbcnewsten pic.twitter.com/ErJD22abKT
— sophieraworth (@sophieraworth) April 6, 2020
Out of four children my mother tasked me with a DNR and was explicit. One day I got a phone call (ten years ago) that she had fifteen minutes to live, or we could do brain surgery as a result of a stroke. Mindful of her wishes I asked about
ReplyDeleteher 'recovery'. The brain surgeon said she had a good chance of a decent recovery. At 4am on the way to her bedside I said 'do it'. They put a stent in her brain. A week later the stent failed and she was stroking again. At her bedside I asked her, do you want another brain surgery. Do you want to live? Because she was compromised it was a difficult question. She answered as long as I can draw flowers and help little kids I want to live. Boil my mom down in a crucible and that is her. We did the surgery with great angst. The issue is that she has never drawn a flower since then and never helped little kids. My burden, did I do the right thing. Again, a very personal question. The grey area comes from the fact that I asked her permission, after she had turned over that responsibility to me. Love, love, love … more love. To accept such a responsibility; I may never know if I failed her or successfully supported her. Then throw in the unknown. The "what ifs". PEACE.
KP, FWIW you understood your mother's wishes and did your best to enact them: that's all anyone could do, and all your mother expected. She chose you because she valued your judgement but she knew your human limits, and she knew that there would always be big "unknowns" to navigate. Peace x
DeleteNo KP, you didn't fail her.
DeleteNo one had accurate foreknowledge. This is Epimetheus (after thought) talking. We would have all done as you did. It's what being a decent, loving human being does.
DeleteKP, That is tough. I thank God I have never had to go through what you did.
DeleteMy Dad, a tough and clear-minded working class man not given to self-doubt or retrospective what-ifs had to make the decision for his mom.
It was more clear cut than your situation. Her kidneys were failing, she was old and "ready to go." She had discussed it all with my dad and her doctor and was explicit: When her kidneys failed, no dialysis.
Hospice care to a quick end, and that is what happened, but my Dad surprised me after by second guessing himself. He was at her side in the hospice as she faded away, and he could have said the word and they would have put her on dialysis and kept her going.
My grandma was a fiery backwoods granny, and I eased his mind asking him to imagine her scolding him for not doing what she had asked.
KP,
DeleteYou did the best that you knew to do. That's all that any of us can do.
I had to make a similar decision for my dad. But Dad had made it as easy for me as possible, and both his primary care doctor and I knew those wishes: her had lived independently and absolutely forbade that I should make a decision which would result in his not being able to come home. Dad passed less than 36 hours after I conferred with the doctor.
Whenever you ask an "expert" for advice, you should ask whether the expert has skin-in-the-game. Even doctors opinions, like Fauci's, can't be trusted if they have no skin-in-the-game. That's why he's willing to shut down the economy indefinitely. His job is secure. He'll be paid. He's not likely to get the virus, and his family is safely ensconced in the protective isolation of the elites. He's not directly treating COVID19 patients. He has no skin-in-the-game.
ReplyDeleteOn Skin in the game...
DeleteMost doctors have skin-in-the-game because they'll be sued if the patient has a bad outcome. Can Dr. Fauci be sued if he's wrong? What penalty does he pay if he's wrong (other than get fired like every other bureaucrat that Trump has fired)? And if he did get fired, would he, a septegenarian (born Dec 1940), face any other penalty than "retirement"?
DeleteOn the other hand, sometimes advice is more reliable for being dispassionate. But in the case of pandemic response, everybody in the world has skin in the game.
DeleteFauci reminds me of the administrative government at the end of "Things To Come". Yes, detached.
DeleteWhen Trump lets Fauci declare when the crisis is over ("not one more death"), he has ceded his authority to him. And lost my vote.
Yes, Jez, social distance in the form of detachment free from the clouding emotions of irrational fear or hope can be useful. But on the Enterprise, Mr. Spock is always the 2nd officer. A rational fear is very useful. And when it comes to the economy, Dr. Fauci is "fearless". DJT, thank heaven, is NOT.
DeleteHow much money is DJT Trump losing every day this shut-down continues? I hope it's a TON! That'll bring it's end all the sooner.... providing no one bails him out.
DeleteEr-r-r... And THAT is why this Congressional bailout should NEVER have passed, either. The decision-makers have foreclosed the reasons driving any rational solutions or compromise with the bureacratic expert non-skin-in-the-game idiots making the decisions. Their "fears" have been entirely laid to rest.
:) I can imagine that Trump aspires to a Kirk-ian leadership style!
Delete...up until the day that the Borg assiliated him through Congressional fiat.
Delete+++ For Farmer
DeleteIts easy to say "shut it all down" when you don't have to suffer the consequences.
Those who want to "open up the economy" are putting skin in the game. They risk the near certainty that THEY will be exposed to, and catch, the virus. It's not the "best" investment from the standpoint of ergocity, but in a few months, there may not be any other options. This quarantine is unsustainable.
ReplyDeleteWhat would "recovery" mean? Let's hope it's NOT a centrally controlled command economy. Those presidential war-powers need relinquishing, and "bailouts" will likely never restore all those small business' that the quarantine decimated.
DeleteWe are sailing in uncharted territory.
DeletePray for the captain, because the crew is not to be trusted.
This is not a quarantine. A quarantine is when you put the people who are ill in isolation to prevent them from infecting society. It works. We are putting society in isolation to protect them from... From what? Everyone is in isolation, so what is out there that we are isolating from?
DeleteA quarantine ends when those in are found to be no longer ill. So, when do we end this mess? How odd that no one has said when it ends. No one has said what has to happen to allow it to end.
Well, illness and death has to stop, but if they haven't already stopped then what we are doing clearly isn't working, right? So how do they stop if we are "isolating" and they're still happening?
So if this theory "works" and we stop the virus by isolating "until we get a vaccine or until herd immunity" happens." What happens if it's like Aids and we never gets a vaccine? How do we get "herd immunity" if we isolated to be sure no one gets infected?
This whole thing makes no sense, but not one person in the media questions any of it.
Fauci said, when the last person dies, or something like that.
DeleteThe media is complicit, they will not question it.
When does Trump arise and say enough?
It was never meant to "stop" the virus, it is only to slow down the infection rate so hospitals and medical personnel aren't overwhelmed to the point where they cease to function.
DeleteFJ,
Deletein a few months, there may not be any other options. This quarantine is unsustainable.
That's my view as well.
As Anne Morrow Lindbergh wrote in North to the Orient:
"Life rests on a razor's edge."
I read those words well over two decades ago, but have never forgotten them -- and their ring of truth.
More about North to the Orient HERE.
Jayhawk asked... "A quarantine ends when those in are found to be no longer ill. So, when do we end this mess? How odd that no one has said when it ends. No one has said what has to happen to allow it to end."
DeleteIt's an interesting question.
The medical people would answer, I think, that when we know where the continuing pockets of the virus are, and they are isolated, we can begin to open up areas of the country that are essentially virus free.
But for this to happen, we need to dramatically ramp up our testing, as South Korea did. That's the only way to conclusively know when it will be best to open up again.
But alas, we're not pushing testing anymore.
Warren: It seems we hit that point.
DeleteThe population of South Korea is roughly 15% of that of the US. I should think this makes a difference when it comes to such things as testing everyone ... and of course, being tested yesterday doesn’t mean that one is unlikely to contract the virus today. Let common sense prevail. My problem is that there is no credible information suggesting that hospitals in the US are overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients. We have seen that assertion by the major “news” elements, but when they begin using film footage of Italian hospitals, and touting them as evidence of massive infections in New York, then there are understandable questions about the veracity of what we are hearing on the news. Meanwhile, “citizen reporters” are filming hospital lines, waiting rooms, and ER facilities ... videos that show no evidence of overwhelming numbers of people seeking medical treatment for COVID-like symptoms. Meanwhile, USNHS Comfort is a 1,000-bed hospital ship. In total, there are twenty patients on board. Again, if New York hospitals are overwhelmed .... why so few patients aboard ship?
Delete"we need to dramatically ramp up our testing, as South Korea did. That's the only way to conclusively know when it will be best to open up again."
DeleteThere is an alternative approach, to open up gradually while keeping a watchful eye on rates of infection as we do so. In Britain, we'll probably pursue a hybrid of these two.
Depending on how you define the "end of isolation," this could go on for a pretty long time (around a year, perhaps?). But it won't be like it is today for more than 2 or 3 months in total, IMO.
Not an expert. :)
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteWe're all entitled to our opinions, regardless of how foolish they make us sound.
DeleteEd,
DeleteSure.
But not when such a "person" barges in and befouls the place.
I'm leaving this up so everyone can see why "this one" is banned from this blog.
DeleteIt's not because of his thoughtful erudite prose.
We're all entitled to our opinions, regardless of how foolish they make us sound.
DeleteYes, Ed ... we are all entitled to our opinions but polite convention suggests that we are not entitled to express them in someone else's home. If This One wishes to pursue his or her opinion publicly, then let him or her do it on his or her own blog. Otherwise,This Oneis simply being a rude bore and an ass.
DeleteMustang,
DeleteUp votes.
Ed,
DeleteWe're all entitled to our opinions, regardless of how foolish they make us sound.
It depends.
Calling the blog owner names like that -- only worse -- here in my own house is what got "This One" kicked out of here in the first place.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteLiar.
DeleteI lost two relatives already. The virus is an unimaginable challenge. Its time for the chicoms to close the wet markets
DeleteSeriously close those markets
it's a good idea, that. There are lots of regulations I wish the Chinese would adopt.
DeleteSorry to hear about your relatives.
The Idiot Genius's on the left say that we should stay in our houses like hermits until the virus is all gone even if it takes two years. Brilliant plan. There will be NO viruses left likely, but also, no economy. And no America.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea. what a brilliant bunch of Imbeciles. .
I only ridicule ridiculous people who richly deserve to be castigated and humiliated for their incessant rude violations of Common Sense, Common Decency, And that’s why I feel as I do towards the Progressives on these boards.
ReplyDeleteIn other words I give fools, depraved people, and Progressives what they have rightfully earned by being so assertively stupid and obnoxious! So if the shoe fits, wear it!
My friend Patrick Colbeck, former rocket scientist and gubernatorial candidate for Michigan wrote the following on FB.
ReplyDeletefacebook.com/notes/patrick-colbeck/looking-for-a-rational-data-driven-policy-solution-to-covid-19/907262986385263
Ed,
DeleteI'll take a look at that. Thanks.
EVERYONE HERE SHOULD TAKE A FEW MOMENTS TO READ THIS ESSAY (dated April 3, 2020):
ReplyDeleteConservative Pundits Weren’t the Only Ones to Get the Pandemic Wrong.
Opening sentence:
Media figures on both sides of the aisle failed to appreciate the extent of the threat until it was too late.
Please read THE REST.
Those of us in healthcare got it. We had been through it before with Ebola and in 2009 H1N1...... but no one of any consequence was asked. Instead political operatives hiding in medical cloth told lies... up until this very moment as an example "masks".... now we should look like cowboys and girls??
DeleteNot even surgical masks for us let alone N95's?
Bunkerville,
DeleteQuite amazing, isn't it?
I don't have any other printable comment.
Addendum now in the body of the blog post (8 minute video): inside intensive care unit at University College Hospital in London.
ReplyDeleteSobering ...
DeleteOn the bright side... we have a push-up challenge going on at the Silverfiddle Haus. I've been doing a hundred a day going on my third week now. I'm over 1500 push-ups since they closed everything down.
ReplyDeleteAlso, my banjo fundamentals are getting much better and I've knocked the rust off me old fiddle.
When life gives you lemons, throw them back in life's sarcastic face!
Good on the pushups, mate.
DeleteMy piano is the best it's been for over 15 years! Pretty fun thinking of new practice drills. Think I'll join you in the pushups. Been doing aerobics with the family, but I miss resistance training.
DeleteSo sorry to hear of your daily chores with Mr AOW. So many of us have no idea how good we have it. He's so lucky to have you. Damn Sam....
ReplyDeleteYou deserve Sainthood. Honestly.
Kid,
DeleteI don't think that I deserve Sainthood. But I've been at this for 10.5 years.
On the plus side, Mr. AOW has been declared compos mentis; that took a couple of years, and those years were the most difficult. And I've had a good support system until quite recently; we lost two members of our support system: Mr. AOW's best friend Steve had a massive stroke, and Patricia passed away.
You'll still get my vote AOW.
DeleteLast comment from Kid. Google gets confused who I am too often.
Delete