Venting and ventilators
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said he does not plan to implement measures that threaten businesses and trusts citizens to protect themselves amid an increase in COVID-19 cases.
Kemp said he will not implement policies that "divide the vaccinated from the unvaccinated or the masked from the unmasked."
Kemp said he is authorizing the deployment of about 200 National Guard troops to testing sites and hospitals. Deployment of the 200 troops will begin Jan. 3 (2022)
meanwhile...
OTC tests are not available
As of Tuesday (12/28/21) afternoon, 25 Atlanta-area emergency rooms were turning away ambulances, while only six ERs at hospitals caring for adults were receiving them, according to state data. Among those turning away emergency medical transports were the flagship hospitals of three of the area’s four major hospital systems: Emory, Piedmont and Northside.
ATL, GA: Grady Hospital reports 800% increase in cases since the beginning of December
As of Wednesday (12/29/21) afternoon, 19,124 PCR and antigen positives were reported by the Georgia Department of Public Health. This shatters the previous record set on Jan. 8 of 13,296.
24,000 new COVID-19 cases identified through both PCR and antigen tests on Thursday(12/30/21)
Georgia remains the 6th lowest state for fully vaccinated individuals with just over 54% of those eligible having been fully vaccinated.
***I deliberately chose Atlanta's Fox "News" station to gather this information from. Normally, I avoid using Fox as any sort of news source. Given that this information was the same as the other station's information I thought it would be less chance of some dumb fuck yelling "Fake News" coming from a Fox station. No, I don't provide links as this is quoted verbatim and any curious sort can easily source it by scrolling and doing a basic search. Further, I don't want to provide any additional "clicks" for anything Fox because I don't want any revenue generated for the assholes at FoxNews.
meanwhile...
My sister who contracted Covid in August, 2021,
was placed on a ventilator in ICU the first of September,
spent 100 days in ICU, where she received 4 chest tubes for drainage, and had a collapsed lung,
was finally put on a trach tube while remaining on a ventilator
before she was transferred to a specialty recovery hospital in Atlanta where they've reduced her dependence on the ventilator for over 12 hours each day,
was transferred to Grady Hospital (referenced above) to have the final chest tube removed,
where there were delays (several days we believe) until they were able to perform the procedure,
and where she remains last we knew because they are trying to find her space at a recovery center.
All the info I receive is second hand from my father who receives the info from an unreliable source, my BIL whose emails are sketchy, short on details, and weekly at best.
My thoughts: If they find themselves complaining about the situation, they have only themselves to blame for rejecting the science and the vaccines, not following safety protocols (1), and going to a church which doesn't follow safety protocols for meeting (2).
(1) Yes, we saw that picture posted on the church website with two of you sharing a meal with a group of people huddled around a table which seemed to have appetizers for everyone to share during the fucking pandemic and after the vaccines were available, but had been rejected by you.
(2) I kid you not, the church had a prayer for my sister where everyone huddled together, not six feet apart, with everyone unmasked. Desperate for news, I watched it on their facebook page.
Further thoughts: Tired of driving to Atlanta, tired of waiting for a room, tired of waiting???Blame yourselves and your fellow anti-vaxxers for overloading the healthcare system because you rejected science, believed crazy and easily disproven vax conspiracies, and, while I'm at it, voting Republican.
What really scares me: Medical care is being delayed for non-Covid patients. My husband drives over 120 miles every day to get to work. In April, 2020, a month into the Covid-19 pandemic he was in a car accident. He totaled the car and was hospitalized for 4 days. When he returned home, our household of three quarantined for two weeks.
My son was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis, an autoimmune disease, in January, 2021. His diagnosis was delayed for more than 4 months and he lost over 60 pounds. He was unable to get in to see the doctors he needed, had testing delayed, and outpatient procedures delayed. In June, 2021, my son was then diagnosed with Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis, a life threatening liver disease. Due to the severity of Covid, my son's doctor put him on a weening regimen from his auto immune suppressant drugs SO that he could get the Covid vaccine and have a proper immune system response. It was that fucking important!! Because of stupidity and selfishness, these anti-vax, anti-science nut-jobs are overloading our healthcare system.
SELFISH AND HYPOCRITICAL AND CRUEL: The actions of these anti-science, anti-vaccine, pro-virus people are selfish because they obviously don't give a damn about others. Curiously many of them are RWNJ who are also Bible spouting types who claim to be pro-life. I call bullshit on this. So much for Love thy neighbor and Do unto others. Such blatant wanton hypocrisy from folks who scream murder over something that doesn't have lungs or even a real heartbeat at six weeks because there isn't a heart, it's a fucking electrical impulse registering and mislabeled a heart beat. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that these anti-science folks fell once again for more BS.
For a year and half I watched as my son suffered through sheer hell. When the PSC diagnosis was given, it broke me. It left me grieving for his pain, and the loss of his well being, and the very real possibility that he would have a shorter life, one of pain and difficulty. What I suffered, what our family went through, what my son has had to deal with, and the diagnosis he lives with is devastating. When my sister was hospitalized, it came just weeks after my Dad lost one of his best friends to a 6 week ICU ventilation due to Covid. To come on the heels of that loss, this avoidable tragedy was cruel beyond belief. Yes, I worried about my sister, but I was really more upset for the hell that my father was going through. It was a hell that I had been experiencing. I knew my Dad's pain. I understood his desperation, his fear, the horror of loss. The choice my sister and her family made, to reject the vaccine, was not only stupid and hypocritical, but incredibly cruel and heartless.
