COVID-19 roundup
Wednesday, Sep 22, 2021 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I asked the Illinois Hospital Association if any problems were being reported as a result of Sunday’s vaccination deadline for healthcare workers…
We are hearing from our members that more of their healthcare workers are stepping up to get vaccinated (many of them after getting educational materials and info from their hospitals).
Also, it’s important to note that about two dozen of the state’s largest hospital systems (representing about two thirds of hospitals) across the state had already announced/implemented their own mandatory vaccination policies over the summer, and many of these policies are more strict than the Governor’s mandate.
We did greatly appreciate that the Governor and IDPH extended the implementation deadline by two weeks (from Sept. 5 to Sept. 19) to give hospitals and health systems additional time to implement the requirements. That has been a great help.
My doctor’s nurse told me yesterday that she just got vaxed. Mandates work. The vast majority of people aren’t giving up their jobs, and that goes for AFSCME workers, too. Where are all those Downstate employees gonna find jobs that pay as well and have the same lifetime benefits and job protections that they’re getting now? And the tiny number of hardcores who do quit should’ve probably been weeded out anyway because I’m betting they have other, um, issues.
…Adding… I asked the Illinois Health Care Association the same question about nursing home staffing…
Anecdotally hearing there is some level of staff attrition, but it is much less than what some centers saw when they put one in place on their own prior to the EO. The Governor handled it well by applying it to all settings and allowing for some flexibility through a vigorous testing option. My association certainly appreciates the thoughtfulness he applied in how to do this, we believe it undoubtedly helped us avoid greater staffing losses.
* I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: It should be much easier to check this number on IDPH’s website…
* Decent overall trendline, but southern and western Illinois really need to pull their heads out of the sand…
* New daily deaths per 100,000 people…
* New daily cases per 100,000 people…
* NY Times…
Echoes of the pandemic’s early months are resounding through the halls of hospitals, with an average of more than 90,000 patients in the United States being treated daily for Covid. Once again, many hospitals have been slammed in the last two months, this time by the Delta variant, and have been reporting that intensive care units are overflowing, that patients have to be turned away and even that some patients have died while awaiting a spot in an acute or I.C.U. ward.
* The gullible never cease to amaze me…
A leading asthma patient group has issued a warning against a coronavirus treatment circulating on social media that is leading some people to post videos of themselves breathing in hydrogen peroxide through a nebulizer.
The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America called the practice “concerning and dangerous” in a Tuesday blog post, emphasizing that it will neither treat nor prevent the virus and is harmful to the lungs.
“DO NOT put hydrogen peroxide into your nebulizer and breathe it in. This is dangerous!” wrote the foundation in a brief blog post.
* More…
* COVID-19 update: 2,028 hospitalized, 38 more deaths, 3,561 new cases: The state’s current seven-day case positivity rate is at 3.2%
* ‘Post-Vax COVID’ Is a New Disease: Eventually we might all have to deal with COVID-19—but a shorter, gentler version, thanks to vaccines.
* ‘Disappointed’ Lightfoot admits CPS’ COVID testing, contact tracing falling short
* CTU leaders point to West Side school, renew call for COVID-19 safety measures
* After CVS Denies Bicyclist COVID Test, Some Urge Test Sites To Allow People Without Cars In Drive-Thrus: But Jen Walling, executive director at Illinois Environmental Council, said she waited in line for 30 minutes at a Walgreens in Edgewater before ultimately being turned away. Walling has to get regularly tested before going to the state capitol for her work as a lobbyist. “When I got to the front of the line, they refused to serve me,” Walling said. “It’s just a nasal swab — I easily could have done that on my bike. If the confirmation email had said no bicycles, I wouldn’t have gotten in line.”
* Rev. Jackson released from Shirley Ryan AbilityLab
- 618392DEMS - Wednesday, Sep 22, 21 @ 1:53 pm:
Bailey is really killing them in southeastern Illinois. The cult knows no bounds.
- Skeptic - Wednesday, Sep 22, 21 @ 1:53 pm:
“breathing in hydrogen peroxide through a nebulizer.” Remember when you were a kid and you spent a ton of effort to make it looked like you cleaned your room but didn’t and with less time and effort you could have … cleaned your room? Yeah, it’s like that.
- Suburban Mom - Wednesday, Sep 22, 21 @ 1:59 pm:
I’m a huge bicycle booster, but bikes in drive-thrus are really dangerous. They should definitely accommodate bicyclists at drive-up testing — mark out of parking spot for bikes with cones or even decorative planters — but bikes at drive-thru testing is dangerous for the bicyclists and a huge liability for whoever owns the building.
- Grandson of Man - Wednesday, Sep 22, 21 @ 2:06 pm:
What can justify mask/vaccine mandates and rules like vax or get tested regularly more than the people who don’t trust COVID vaccines and don’t believe in masks, but down unproven farm animal medicine and now huff household antiseptic? So glad to be living in Illinois and not some anti-mandate state.
- Pot calling kettle - Wednesday, Sep 22, 21 @ 2:06 pm:
==Bailey is really killing them in southeastern Illinois. The cult knows no bounds. ==
So much for being “pro-life;” these folks are pro-sickness and death. I hope we see some primary opposition come up on the right and some serious general election candidates on left, but I’m not holding my breath. (It would help if the Dems recruit and provide some actual support…)
- 618392DEMS - Wednesday, Sep 22, 21 @ 2:34 pm:
I know Devore has some sweet arm ink, I am pretty sure one of them is a skull abs snake, yes kids he’s a death eater, Bailey too I am afraid.
- KBS - Wednesday, Sep 22, 21 @ 2:35 pm:
I bike through drive-thrus all the time! It’s significantly less dangerous than biking in regular traffic, which is what we have to do in most places. (Cars are going very slowly and not trying to pass each other!) I’ve never understood the places that don’t allow it.
- 47th Ward - Wednesday, Sep 22, 21 @ 2:36 pm:
Was Devore referring to hospitals and health care workers when he said he wanted to bring them to their knees? Judging by the maps above, it’s working.
- Annon3 - Wednesday, Sep 22, 21 @ 2:42 pm:
“um, issues….”. new award for understatement of the year.
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Sep 22, 21 @ 2:53 pm:
===new award for understatement of the year===
Glad somebody noticed. lol
- NonAFSCMEStateEmployeeFromChatham - Wednesday, Sep 22, 21 @ 3:04 pm:
==southern and western Illinois really need to pull their heads out of the sand…==
The Southern Bloc and the Western Bloc (formerly known as Forgottonia). In addition to the Eastern Bloc.
- Groucho - Wednesday, Sep 22, 21 @ 3:06 pm:
Hydrogen Peroxide delivered via a nebulizer, darn, why didn’t all these scientist figure that one out?
- Candy Dogood - Wednesday, Sep 22, 21 @ 3:41 pm:
The impact for patients and care provides between zero beds available and beds available is about the same. Most hospitals are still full and the empty bed largely depends on when the count takes place. Someone is on the way to that bed and patients still have to wait to be transferred for other complicated care situations which cannot be well addressed in Southern Illinois.
It’s good to see improvement, but it’s not a meaningful change for the realities on the ground and this comes as other states and regions have started implementing their process for rationing or selecting who receives care with limited resources.
- Jibba - Wednesday, Sep 22, 21 @ 3:45 pm:
===Mandates work===
Indeed they do. More please, like air travel, all students that are eligible, etc.
- Dotnonymous - Wednesday, Sep 22, 21 @ 4:14 pm:
I should have become an elixir producer…100% pure…double back guarantee.
- Tommydanger - Wednesday, Sep 22, 21 @ 4:40 pm:
“…more of their healthcare workers are stepping up to get vaccinated (many of them after getting educational materials and info from their hospitals).”
Somehow I would have thought that healthcare workers would have been among the first to receive educational materials and info from their hospitals; certainly long before ‘get vaccinated or find a new job.’
They are literally on the front lines and should have received such information to educate patients and families.
- Occam - Wednesday, Sep 22, 21 @ 4:46 pm:
Only 440 students per day?
For a school district with an enrollment of about 350,000, that sounds really low.
- Juvenal - Wednesday, Sep 22, 21 @ 6:14 pm:
=== southern and western Illinois really need to pull their heads out of the sand ===
When I look at the nation, county-by-county maps, I really see these trends in our border counties as extensions of what is going on right across the state line in their media market and Metropolitan Statistical Area.
https://covid19.biglocalnews.org/county-maps/index.html#/
- Chambananon - Wednesday, Sep 22, 21 @ 6:14 pm:
“…more of their healthcare workers are stepping up to get vaccinated (many of them after getting educational materials and info from their hospitals).”
I’m gonna go out on a limb here and take a wild guess that the “educational materials and info” that finally moved the needle (pun intended) consisted of the statement “Get the vaccine or find a new line of work. And yes, we /can/ legally require this as a condition of ongoing employment, no matter what your cousin’s friend said they heard from a lawyer about ‘HIPPA’ on Facebook.”
- Suburban Mom - Wednesday, Sep 22, 21 @ 6:45 pm:
I did some bad math, and about 83 students/day are turning 12 in CPS. So 440 students/day means that students are getting shots at about 5 times the rate they’re becoming eligible for them, which is great (banned punctuation). I mean obviously it’d be better if everyone BUT those 83 students/day was already vaccinated, but I assume that “5 times as fast as students become eligible” is parents being able to get a day off and take their kids, and parents being much more motivated now that school has started.
- Candy Dogood - Wednesday, Sep 22, 21 @ 9:30 pm:
===Somehow I would have thought that healthcare workers would have been among the first to receive educational materials and info from their hospitals===
When the vaccine first became available hospitals were provided a specific number of doses to administrate to their staff. Based off of the number available the hospital systems I am familiar with first identified a pool of physicians and other staff to prioritize and then texted, emailed, or otherwise notified them of the option. If interested they would then be put on a list. As the vaccine became more available, the hospitals became less directly involved in administrating it to their staff through such an organized fashion.
At that time the vaccine also only had experimental approval and it would have been very difficult to mandate any employees to take it and the federal approval of the COVID-19 vaccines for the mandate is relatively recent in the overall timeline of our pandemic.
To think of it in these terms, the vaccine has only been available for about 9 months. The possibility of mandating as an employer policy has only been on the table for about three months. Early employer mandates weren’t really mandates, as the mandate was to be vaccinated or submit to regular testing. In under a years time we should expect all major employers to have some variation of a mandate policy at which point it will just become a question of whether or not employers will fire people who do not comply with their policy.
We’re also going to need to have a discussion about how expensive this pandemic has been for our country as the costs will be absorbed by governments and by private insurers and this stuff isn’t cheap. Traveling nurses can easily find contracts that pay them $4k a week which is more than what some internal medicine or family medicine doctors can expect to make during their first year.
And yet here we are, with people making terroristic threats over wearing a mask.