COVID19 UPDATES - Nursing home deaths soar past 3,300 in alarming surge plus MORE

Nursing home deaths soar past 3,300 in alarming surge


Posted on April 13, 2020

By Associated Press
April 12, 2020 | 9:04pm
https://nypost.com/2020/04/12/nursing-home-deaths-soar-past-3300-in-alarming-surge/
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A patient is evacuated from the Magnolia Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Riverside, California.AP Photo/Chris Carlson, File
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NEW YORK — More than 3,300 deaths nationwide have been linked to coronavirus outbreaks in nursing homes and long-term care facilities, an alarming rise in just the past two weeks, according to the latest count by The Associated Press.
Because the federal government has not been releasing a count of its own, the AP has kept its own running tally based on media reports and state health departments. The latest count of at least 3,323 deaths is up from about 450 deaths just 10 days ago.
But the true toll among the 1 million mostly frail and elderly people who live in such facilities is likely much higher, experts say, because most state counts don’t include those who died without ever being tested for COVID-19.
Outbreaks in just the past few weeks have included one at a nursing home in suburban Richmond, Virginia, that has killed 42 and infected more than 100, another at a nursing home in central Indiana that has killed 24 and infected 16, and one at a veteran’s home in Holyoke, Mass., that has killed 37, infected 76 and prompted a federal investigation. This comes weeks after an outbreak at a nursing home in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland that has so far claimed 43 lives.
And those are just the outbreaks we know about. Most states provide only total numbers of nursing home deaths and don’t give details of specific outbreaks. Notable among them is the nation’s leader, New York, which accounts for 1,880 nursing home deaths out of about 96,000 total residents but has so far declined to detail specific outbreaks, citing privacy concerns.
Experts say nursing home deaths may keep climbing because of chronic staffing shortages that have been made worse by the coronavirus crisis, a shortage of protective supplies and a continued lack of available testing.
And the deaths have skyrocketed despite steps taken by the federal government in mid-March to bar visitors, cease all group activities, and require that every worker be screened for fever or respiratory symptoms at every shift.

SEE ALSO

Staff no-shows, deaths hit California nursing homes amid coronavirus outbreak

But an AP report earlier this month found that infections were continuing to find their way into nursing homes because such screenings didn’t catch people who were infected but asymptomatic. Several large outbreaks were blamed on such spreaders, including infected health workers who worked at several different nursing home facilities.
This past week, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that regulates nursing homes issued recommendations urging nursing homes to use separate staffing teams for residents, and to designate separate facilities within nursing homes to keep COVID-19 positive residents away from those who have tested negative.
Dr. Deborah Birx, who leads the White House coronavirus response, suggested this past week that as more COVID-19 tests become available, nursing homes should be a top priority.
“We need to really ensure that nursing homes have sentinel surveillance. And what do I mean by that? That we’re actively testing in nursing homes, both the residents and the workers, at all times,” Birx said.

https://theextinctionchronicles.wordpress.com/2020/04/13/nursing-home-deaths-soar-past-3300-in-alarming-surge/

Thanks to: https://theextinctionchronicles.wordpress.com

https://youtu.be/gwk8SQNojVA

The LA Sheriff Who Released 4,276 Inmates Now Fears a Crime Wave…

Posted on April 13, 2020 by sundance 

This story is so far beyond predictable that the light from where predictable exists wouldn’t catch up for a year….  The LA Sheriff released the inmates fearing the Wuhan virus, now he worries he may have put the public at risk….. you just can’t make this up.  Save the criminals, destroy the community.

“We were faced with a choice, if we left the jail system overpopulated, the pandemic would have swept through easily.”

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/04/13/the-la-sheriff-who-released-4276-inmates-now-fears-a-crime-wave/

Thanks to: https://theconservativetreehouse.com

Doctors STOP Using Ventilators; Data Shows They Could Be Killing Patients
Date: April 13, 2020Author: Nwo Report

‘80% or more of coronavirus patients placed on the machines in New York City have died…’

(Liberty Headlines) As health officials around the world push to get more ventilators to treat coronavirus patients, some doctors are moving away from using the breathing machines when they can.
The reason: Some hospitals have reported unusually high death rates for coronavirus patients on ventilators, and some doctors worry that the machines could be harming certain patients.
The evolving treatments highlight the fact that doctors are still learning the best way to manage a virus that emerged only months ago. They are relying on anecdotal, real-time data amid a crush of patients and shortages of basic supplies.
Mechanical ventilators push oxygen into patients whose lungs are failing. Using the machines involves sedating a patient and sticking a tube into the throat. Deaths in such sick patients are common, no matter the reason they need the breathing help.
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Generally speaking, 40% to 50% of patients with severe respiratory distress die while on ventilators, experts say. But 80% or more of coronavirus patients placed on the machines in New York City have died, state and city officials say.
Higher-than-normal death rates also have been reported elsewhere in the U.S., said Dr. Albert Rizzo, the American Lung Association’s chief medical officer.
Similar reports have emerged from China and the United Kingdom. One U.K. report put the figure at 66%. A very small study in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the disease first emerged, said 86% died.

The reason is not clear. It may have to do with what kind of shape the patients were in before they were infected. Or it could be related to how sick they had become by the time they were put on the machines, some experts said.
But some health professionals have wondered whether ventilators might actually make matters worse in certain patients, perhaps by igniting or worsening a harmful immune system reaction.

That’s speculation. But experts do say ventilators can be damaging to a patient over time, as high-pressure oxygen is forced into the tiny air sacs in a patient’s lungs.
“We know that mechanical ventilation is not benign,” said Dr. Eddy Fan, an expert on respiratory treatment at Toronto General Hospital. “One of the most important findings in the last few decades is that medical ventilation can worsen lung injury — so we have to be careful how we use it.”
The dangers can be eased by limiting the amount of pressure and the size of breaths delivered by the machine, Fan said.
But some doctors say they’re trying to keep patients off ventilators as long as possible, and turning to other techniques instead.
Only a few weeks ago in New York City, coronavirus patients who came in quite sick were routinely placed on ventilators to keep them breathing, said Dr. Joseph Habboushe, an emergency medicine doctor who works in Manhattan hospitals.
But increasingly, physicians are trying other measures first. One is having patients lie in different positions — including on their stomachs — to allow different parts of the lung to aerate better.
Another is giving patients more oxygen through nose tubes or other devices.
Some doctors are experimenting with adding nitric oxide to the mix, to help improve blood flow and oxygen to the least damaged parts of the lungs.
“If we’re able to make them better without intubating them, they are more likely to have a better outcome — we think,” Habboushe said.
He said those decisions are separate from worries that there are not enough ventilators available. But that is a concern as well, Habboushe added.
There are widespread reports that coronavirus patients tend to be on ventilators much longer than other kinds of patients, said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious diseases expert at Vanderbilt University.
Experts say that patients with bacterial pneumonia, for example, may be on a ventilator for no more than a day or two.
But it’s been common for coronavirus patients to have been on a ventilator “seven days, 10 days, 15 days, and they’re passing away,” said New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, when asked about ventilator death rates during a news briefing on Wednesday.
That’s one reason for worries that ventilators could grow in short supply. Experts worry that as cases mount, doctors will be forced to make terrible decisions about who lives and who dies because they won’t have enough machines for every patient who needs one.
New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker said Wednesday that officials are looking into other possible therapies that can be given earlier, but added “that’s all experimental.”
The new virus is a member of the coronavirus family that can cause colds as well as more serious illnesses. Health officials say it spreads mainly from droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes. There is no proven drug treatment or vaccine against it.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press.

https://nworeport.me/2020/04/13/doctors-stop-using-ventilators-data-shows-they-could-be-killing-patients/

Thanks to: https://nworeport.me

https://youtu.be/N2CjhQpgz74

How Long has the Chinese Coronavirus Really Been in America?
Date: April 14, 2020Author: Nwo Report 




Source: Brian C.Joondeph, MD
Buried behind news headlines screaming about social distancing, ventilators, and death counts is the timeline and origins of the Chinese coronavirus in America. At the daily task force briefings, media dimwits seek only to play “gotcha” with the president, begging him to take responsibility for anything and everything and quibbling over which governor asked for how many ventilators and when.
Yet they are surprisingly incurious over the origins of this virus and when it first appeared in the U.S. The basketball player and scarf lady (Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx) are happy to use models to look forward, but hopefully can take a look backward, too.
It’s hard to know where we are going if we don’t know where we have been. The forward models having been changing faster than spring weather. In mid-March, without social distancing and other measures, per the IHME model, the U.S. was looking at 2.2 million deaths.
The IHME model reduced its death projection in early April to 100,000 to 240,000 even assuming social distancing measures in place. At the time of this writing, the model now projects only 60,415 deaths, only 3% of original predictions. What changed? Social distancing was in already in place when the death predictions dropped by a factor of four.
Not to minimize any deaths, but in perspective, this is the fatality count for a bad flu season. 61,000 died in the 2017-18 flu season.
Models can also look backward, which as any gambler knows, is a much better way to win than looking forward. What do the models say about when the Wuhan virus first appeared in America?

YouTube screen grab
The New York Times reports, that through analyzing viral genomes, “The coronavirus began to circulate in the New York area by mid-February.” If was circulating at that time, it’s logical to assume that it first appeared weeks or months before that, perhaps in December or January.
The early cases may have been attributed to the flu. Even sick flu patients can wind up in an ICU on a ventilator. In December or January, American physicians would not have known of COVID-19 and there certainly weren’t any tests for it. Our local ICUs had some nasty flu cases in December and January, many requiring extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), typically reserved for the sickest of the sick patients.
California noticed the same. From Patch on January 10:

So far this flu season, California health officials have identified 19 outbreaks since the start of the flu season on Sept. 29. Through Jan. 4, 70 people have died from the flu statewide, according to state officials.
Influenza activity began increasing in early November in California, which was a few weeks earlier than other recent seasons. Influenza activity in California continues to increase. Since influenza is unpredictable, we do not know how long the high level of activity will last and what the overall severity level of the season might ultimately be.

How many of those cases were from the coronavirus? Without an awareness of that flu strain or a test, we may never know. But the “anecdotal evidence,” so despised by the basketball player, logic suggests that the Chinese virus may have arrived in California last fall.
Fortunately, President Trump instituted a travel ban on Jan. 31 restricting entry into the U.S. of those who were recently in China. Italy didn’t lock down cities until late February with Trump banning travelers from Europe on March 11.
The China travel ban may have helped California, but not New York, as genomic analysis revealed that most of the New York cases came via Europe, not directly from China.
In my home state of Colorado, “Health officials now believe the new coronavirus was circulating in Colorado as early as mid-January, about six weeks before the state even had the ability to test people for the disease.” These individuals, if extremely sick, might test negative for influenza and other known viruses, yet might still have a rough course just as the current COVID-19 patients are experiencing.
Again, if cases were circulating in the U.S. in mid-January, first cases were a month or two earlier, some symptomatic, some asymptomatic, but all below the radar.
Where were these first patients coming from? U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports, “Some 14,000 people flew into the U.S. from China each day — almost 5 million for that year.” Let me repeat, 14,000 people each day.
This was likely higher during the Christmas holidays with American students studying in China, and vice versa, returning home in December, then back to school in January. How many of these young people were asymptomatic carriers, bringing the Wuhan virus to parents, grandparents, and their professors?
Interestingly New York was hit much harder than California despite the stay-at-home order for California March 19 versus March 22 in New York, only a three-day difference. It is likely infected individuals arrived in California first, due to its proximity to China, unlike New York where infected patients arrived via China through Europe.
But New York also had an early and deadly flu season. As reported in late December,

State health officials said the total number of confirmed cases this season in New York is 8,253 with one official saying there are “more cases at this point in time than the past three flu seasons.

California had a flatter case curve compared to New York. Perhaps warmer winter weather and a lower population density in most of California compared to New York City slowed the spread, allowing natural herd immunity to develop.
Tracing back further, when did cases first appear in China? According to medical journal The Lancet, the first case in Wuhan was identified on December 1, 2019. From one case to, “A cluster of pneumonia cases with an unknown cause occurred in Wuhan starting on Dec. 21, 2019.”
If the first case was noted on Dec. 1, there were likely cases in the month or two before, asymptomatic, mild, or severe, but attributed to the flu, not a virus yet unknown.
Peeling the onion back further, did this virus originate in a wet market or a level 4 biosecurity lab, coincidently located in Wuhan? Did this virus develop naturally or was it engineered? If it came from a lab, was it released accidentally or deliberately? Interesting questions without answers.
The Epoch Times tries to answer these questions via a documentary video on the origins of the Wuhan coronavirus. Will China answer those questions? President Trump should invite President Xi to a task force briefing and see if any intrepid journalists ask these questions rather than blow smoke up his derriere. Don’t hold your breath. Communist governments have a propensity to control the news, just as the Soviets did following the Chernobyl disaster.
It appears that this virus first developed last fall, much earlier than reported, and was promptly brought to the U.S. via some of the 14,000 passengers from China to the U.S. each day. Flu cases began appearing in the U.S. in late fall and early winter, worse in number and severity than in typical seasons.
Although a rapid influenza test exists, there can be false positives and false negatives. No one can be certain how many of these cases might have been coronavirus rather than influenza.
Some were getting extremely sick and dying, others recovering, much like we are seeing now, but today we have a name for it, unlike last fall. Have the models factored in such an early origin for the virus? Probably not, which is why the models are continuously downgraded, each more in line with some of the U.S. population already being infected beginning late last fall.
China, working with the World Health Organization, downplayed or suppressed news from China, leaving the rest of the world to play catch up. Fear mongering from the media and inaccurate models not reflecting the early origins of coronavirus lead to most of the world shutting down their economies for weeks or months.
Perhaps the smart set got it wrong. Let’s see if any curious journalists ask the basketball player or scarf lady if the Chinese coronavirus was already here late last fall. Or will the silent war continue?

https://nworeport.me/2020/04/14/how-long-has-the-chinese-coronavirus-really-been-in-america/

Thanks to: https://nworeport.me