Citizen reporters go out and do what the media won't! (empty hospitals)

hollydolly said:
I'm not being sarcastic AB...I'm taking you at your word that there's a huge excess of beds and ventilators, in the USA, and wondering why they wouldn't think to share them with countries like the UK or Italy or Spain who have very few...
Click to expand...

There's no excess of ventilators in the US. In fact the President has GM and Ford making them in auto plants because we'll have a shortage. We do have spots in the country that haven't been hit as hard as Ny and Mi and they may have some extra right now, but they will need them and more when the virus gets to their area. Even in NY there's a fight over whether the north part of the state should send excess vents to the harder hit south part, when eventually the north will need them and maybe not get them back.
 

garyt1957 said:
There's no excess of ventilators in the US. In fact the President has GM and Ford making them in auto plants because we'll have a shortage. We do have spots in the country that haven't been hit as hard as Ny and Mi and they may have some extra right now, but they will need them and more when the virus gets to their area. Even in NY there's a fight over whether the north part of the state should send excess vents to the harder hit south part, when eventually the north will need them and maybe not get them back.
Click to expand...
thanks Gary I did think it was odd that there would be surplus...
 
garyt1957 said:
People who are put on a ventilator only have a 40% chance of surviving. And yes, some hospitals in some areas aren't full,YET. The US is a big country and the virus is hitting different areas at different times.
Click to expand...
of course, as it is here even... and in Spain and Italy, and germany etc..... Northern Italy was almost flattened by Covid-19 for example before southern Italy was even touched by it...and none of these countries are as large as the USA so I can imagine

.. I always think of the USA as like being a whole Continent of countries (states) ... because one side to another can be as different as though they were totally different countries, like for example in Europe.. the only difference being that you all speak the same language and have the same leader..whereas here in Europe its loads of countries separated by borders just like ''states''..but everyone speaks a different language and has different leaders...
 

hollydolly said:
.. I always think of the USA as like being a whole Continent of countries (states) ... because one side to another can be as different as though they were totally different countries, like for example in Europe.. the only difference being that you all speak the same language and have the same leader..whereas here in Europe its loads of countries separated by borders just like ''states''..but everyone speaks a different language and has different leaders...
Click to expand...

Comparing folks from Boston, NY, MN, and the south sometimes I'm not sure we are speaking the same language
 
garyt1957 said:
People who are put on a ventilator only have a 40% chance of surviving. And yes, some hospitals in some areas aren't full,YET. The US is a big country and the virus is hitting different areas at different times.
Click to expand...
I was just commenting that there we are experiencing extremes in realities.

The more densely populated areas are where this is getting transmitted rapidly and that have horrific numbers. That means that it's real bad there, and it's always close to home. These people are truly suffering.

For many others (not to downplay it), it is a minor inconvenience. Small rural populations afford Social Distancing as the default way of life.

As of this moment...
NYC alone has nearly 79,000 confirmed cases. That's 20% of the confirmed cases in the entire nation!!! (I can't imagine.)
The next-highest state is NJ, with about 44,000 cases for the entire state.
There are 7 states with over 10,000 cases.
There are 20 states with under 1,000 cases.
The remaining 21 states are somewhere in between 1,000 and 10,000.

There are like-kind disparities within each state as well. There are counties in NY state that have only had 1 or 2 confirmed cases.
 
WhatInThe said:
Hospitalizations for the virus started dropping this week in NYC.

https://news.yahoo.com/usns-treat-covid-19-patients-154350465.html
Click to expand...
When you look at a from-day-one "New Cases" graph for there, it looks like a roller coaster, but the figures are still generally upward-trending, with each peak & valley mostly being higher than the preceding one. And due to the size of the population, each day's numbers are in the thousands. It truly boggles the mind.

I sure hope that declining admittance rate is the beginning of a permanent trend. Perhaps the severity is declining.
 
I watched the video. Since it came out many, many other people are showing in videos that that their area hospitals have very little going on. I happened to drive by my city of 40,000 population's only hospital and there were maybe a dozen cars and few people mid day on a Friday. That's kind of weird because it is normally very busy. My husband went by the main hospital in an adjoining county and said there wasn't anyone around there, either. Spooky, since the local media says we have 444 cases of Covid19 in the area. Something isn't adding up.
 
Duster said:
I watched the video. Since it came out many, many other people are showing in videos that that their area hospitals have very little going on. I happened to drive by my city of 40,000 population's only hospital and there were maybe a dozen cars and few people mid day on a Friday. That's kind of weird because it is normally very busy. My husband went by the main hospital in an adjoining county and said there wasn't anyone around there, either. Spooky, since the local media says we have 444 cases of Covid19 in the area. Something isn't adding up.
Click to expand...

Here where I live, the hospitals are not allowing visitors, or people other than the patient, even in the ER (except for one person with a child), and most volunteers are not allowed right now, which may account for a lot of the empty parking spaces. Also here doctors and clinics have cancelled all routine and non emergent appointments and procedures, which would account for more empty places. So it's not surprising that the parking lots may look much like they do in the middle of the night.

Staff and docs and nurses usually have other, protected parking, so they wouldn't be in the normal parking lot.
 
Butterfly said:
Here where I live, the hospitals are not allowing visitors, or people other than the patient, even in the ER (except for one person with a child), and most volunteers are not allowed right now, which may account for a lot of the empty parking spaces. Also here doctors and clinics have cancelled all routine and non emergent appointments and procedures, which would account for more empty places. So it's not surprising that the parking lots may look much like they do in the middle of the night.

Staff and docs and nurses usually have other, protected parking, so they wouldn't be in the normal parking lot.
Click to expand...
Exactly. Visitors account for probably 70% of the cars in a hospital lot at any time. Plus all the other reasons you mentioned. Let those video "reporters" go into the ICU and see what it looks like.
 
Duster said:
I watched the video. Since it came out many, many other people are showing in videos that that their area hospitals have very little going on. I happened to drive by my city of 40,000 population's only hospital and there were maybe a dozen cars and few people mid day on a Friday. That's kind of weird because it is normally very busy. My husband went by the main hospital in an adjoining county and said there wasn't anyone around there, either. Spooky, since the local media says we have 444 cases of Covid19 in the area. Something isn't adding up.
Click to expand...
The vast majority of people recover at home, just like any other flu.

There are some for whom this strain affects violently, but those 444 cases are not in the hospital.
 
At 6 am, a line of cars started forming in front of St. Francis hospital in New Haven for virus testing. The line was several blocks long by 6:30; the testing center doesn't open until 9 am. We need every resource.
 
There are a lot of people who are driving by their local hospitals and testing areas, and then they are reporting and posting pictures on both Facebook and Twitter. Most of them are saying the same thing, that the hospitals are empty. My friend in Idaho said that she has friends who work at the local hospital there, and they have been laid off, at least temporarily.
One person who was crying about being an ICU nurse on the news was found to be one of those crisis actors; which didn’t lend to the credibility of her tearful performance on the air.
 
Happyflowerlady said:
There are a lot of people who are driving by their local hospitals and testing areas, and then they are reporting and posting pictures on both Facebook and Twitter. Most of them are saying the same thing, that the hospitals are empty. My friend in Idaho said that she has friends who work at the local hospital there, and they have been laid off, at least temporarily.
One person who was crying about being an ICU nurse on the news was found to be one of those crisis actors; which didn’t lend to the credibility of her tearful performance on the air.
Click to expand...
Disbelief that this is or could become a crisis is precisely how it became a crisis. Just ask the Chinese, Italians, New Yorkers, and more. It may not be in the hospital where your friend's friends work (oh those mysterious friends of a friend), but that doesn't mean it won't arrive eventually - or that it isn't going to explode elsewhere.
 
Last edited:
Friday night my niece had to be taken to the hospital. She had something stuck in her throat and couldn't swallow. Her sister called the ER and let them know they were coming. When my niece, her sister and their brother got to the ER, only my niece with the problem was allowed into a 'triage trailer' outside the ER door. Then only my niece was taken into the hospital from a side door. No visitors were in the waiting room and my other niece and nephew had to wait outside in their car. So, yes, the parking lot was almost totally empty, the ER was empty and, according to my niece who went in, the nurse who tended to her was covered from head to toe. That's in Mobile, Alabama where today we have 249 cases and 8 reported deaths. It was, of course lower 5 days ago. This was around 9:00 Friday night. I have never seen the ER empty like that on a Friday night or any other night I've had to be there. She was processed, diagnosed, scoped, had obstruction removed and released in less than 3 hours. Usually it would take 3 hours just to get your turn to be triaged.
 
Gary, exactly. It is so easy to convey any message that one wants, by doctoring the "evidence." Even with medical personnel working around the clock, and with desperate shortages of needed equipment, it is possible to get a picture of a ventilator going unused for a few seconds, in between patients. And immediately start fomenting doubt about the media, etc.

There are people who actually believe that the earth is flat. And people who believe that the entire creation of the earth and all the life on it only took 6 days. Credulous people are out there, waiting to be preyed upon by the charletons.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top