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Arkansas is down to 8 open ICU beds as hospitals swell with covid patients

  

Category:  News & Politics

Via:  tessylo  •  3 years ago  •  21 comments

By:   Jonathan Edwards, The Washington Post

Arkansas is down to 8 open ICU beds as hospitals swell with covid patients

S E E D E D   C O N T E N T




Arkansas is down to 8 open ICU beds as hospitals swell with covid patients









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A nurse checks on a patient in the covid-19 intensive care unit at NEA Baptist Memorial Hospital in Jonesboro, Ark., on Aug. 4. (Houston Cofield/Bloomberg News)






Jonathan Edwards

Tue, August 10, 2021, 7:43 AM





A week after saying he regretted banning mask mandates, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson had grim news Monday: Coronavirus patients were packing into hospitals in record numbers, leaving a mere eight intensive care unit beds free in the state of 3 million people.




The Republican governor announced on Twitter that 1,376 coronavirus patients were hospitalized across the state, an increase of 103 people since Sunday. Both figures were records, and Hutchinson called them "very startling numbers."

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The highly infectious delta variant continues to rip through Arkansas and the rest of the country. The South, with a higher share of its population unvaccinated, has been especially hard hit.


Arkansas's spike in hospitalizations comes as vaccinations there lag compared to the rest of the country. Less than 38 percent of Arkansans are fully vaccinated, compared to 50 percent of the U.S. as a whole, according to a Washington Post analysis.


Hutchinson connected the two occurrences and said that more inoculations would ease the pressure on the health care system.

"Vaccinations reduce hospitalizations," he said.

Hutchinson's update came a week after the governor said he wished he hadn't signed a bill into law this past spring banning local officials from requiring people to wear masks during the pandemic. In March, as the number of coronavirus infections fell, Arkansas lawmakers let a mask mandate expire. About a month later, the ban against such mandates came across Hutchinson's desk.

Now, the governor has called on state lawmakers to consider reversing the ban during a special session so school districts can require students to wear face coverings when they head back to their classrooms later this month.

"In hindsight, I wish that it had not become law," he said at an Aug. 3 news conference.

Since then, the number of new infections has kept rising, jumping 21 percent in the state while deaths rose by 40 percent, according to The Post's coronavirus analysis. The resurging infection rates have health care workers in Arkansas and other states burned out, leading some to quit their jobs, The Post reported last week.

Hutchinson's reversal on mask mandates contrasts with other conservatives who have continued fighting government-led mandates to stem the virus's spread, which has been fueled by the ascendant delta variant. On Monday, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said on Fox News that officials should pass no mandates requiring people to wear masks or get vaccinated.

"Democrats . . . do not respect your liberty, they do not respect your right to make your choices," Cruz said.

"There should be no mandates," he added, "zero concerning covid."

On Sunday, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., called on people to "resist" measures to stop the virus's spread, including what he called the Centers for Disease Control's "anti-science mask mandates."

"We don't have to accept the mandates, lockdowns and harmful policies of the petty tyrants and bureaucrats. We can simply say no, not again," he said in a Twitter video. "They can't arrest all of us. They can't keep all of your kids home from school. They can't keep every government building closed."

Last week, President Biden denounced governors who had banned businesses and universities from requiring vaccines or rebuffed the CDC's masking recommendations. He pleaded with them to help or get out of the way, before specifically calling out Govs. Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott of Florida and Texas, both Republicans.

DeSantis recently signed an executive order barring schools from requiring masks while Abbott has prohibited local governments and state agencies from mandating vaccines.

"Their decisions are not good for their constituents," Biden said.

DeSantis has since doubled down, and on Monday threatened to withhold the pay of school officials who require students to wear masks.









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Tessylo
Professor Principal
1  seeder  Tessylo    3 years ago

Hutchinson's update came a week after the governor said he wished he hadn't signed a bill into law this past spring banning local officials from requiring people to wear masks during the pandemic. In March, as the number of coronavirus infections fell, Arkansas lawmakers let a mask mandate expire. About a month later, the ban against such mandates came across Hutchinson's desk.

Now, the governor has called on state lawmakers to consider reversing the ban during a special session so school districts can require students to wear face coverings when they head back to their classrooms later this month.

"In hindsight, I wish that it had not become law," he said at an Aug. 3 news conference.

Since then, the number of new infections has kept rising, jumping 21 percent in the state while deaths rose by 40 percent, according to The Post's coronavirus analysis. The resurging infection rates have health care workers in Arkansas and other states burned out, leading some to quit their jobs, The Post reported last week.

Hutchinson's reversal on mask mandates contrasts with other conservatives who have continued fighting government-led mandates to stem the virus's spread, which has been fueled by the ascendant delta variant. On Monday, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said on Fox News that officials should pass no mandates requiring people to wear masks or get vaccinated.

"Democrats . . . do not respect your liberty, they do not respect your right to make your choices," Cruz said.

"There should be no mandates," he added, "zero concerning covid."

On Sunday, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., called on people to "resist" measures to stop the virus's spread, including what he called the Centers for Disease Control's "anti-science mask mandates."

"We don't have to accept the mandates, lockdowns and harmful policies of the petty tyrants and bureaucrats. We can simply say no, not again," he said in a Twitter video. "They can't arrest all of us. They can't keep all of your kids home from school. They can't keep every government building closed."

Last week, President Biden denounced governors who had banned businesses and universities from requiring vaccines or rebuffed the CDC's masking recommendations. He pleaded with them to help or get out of the way, before specifically calling out Govs. Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott of Florida and Texas, both Republicans.

DeSantis recently signed an executive order barring schools from requiring masks while Abbott has prohibited local governments and state agencies from mandating vaccines.

"Their decisions are not good for their constituents," Biden said.

 
 
 
Tessylo
Professor Principal
2  seeder  Tessylo    3 years ago

Another goddamned shithead republican reversing his ignorance now.  Too little too late you asshole.  

 
 
 
Trout Giggles
Professor Principal
3  Trout Giggles    3 years ago
DeSantis has since doubled down, and on Monday threatened to withhold the pay of school officials who require students to wear masks.

This is what I heard on the news this morning and caused me to call him an asshole.

Do these idiots want everyone to get sick? How many deaths are enough for them to say "we have to do something"?

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
3.1  Kavika   replied to  Trout Giggles @3    3 years ago

He did threaten that and a number of superintendents have told him to shove it and are going ahead with requiring masks for schools.

 
 
 
Trout Giggles
Professor Principal
3.1.1  Trout Giggles  replied to  Kavika @3.1    3 years ago

Good!

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
4  JohnRussell    3 years ago

Why would people risk serious illness instead of doing a simple thing like getting a vaccination or wearing a mask?  It is inexplicable. 

 
 
 
Trout Giggles
Professor Principal
4.1  Trout Giggles  replied to  JohnRussell @4    3 years ago

Don't tell me what to do, John!!!!!!!!!!!

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
4.1.1  JohnRussell  replied to  Trout Giggles @4.1    3 years ago

jrSmiley_24_smiley_image.gif

 
 
 
Gordy327
Professor Guide
4.2  Gordy327  replied to  JohnRussell @4    3 years ago

Because people are stupid John. That's what it comes down to. And we're seeing the consequence of such stupidity.

 
 
 
Ender
Professor Principal
6  Ender    3 years ago
BATON ROUGE, La. —

More than 3,000 Louisiana children tested positive for the coronavirus in just a few days' time.

Gov. John Bel Edwards updated the state Friday in a news conference.

According to Edwards, more than 6,000 Louisiana children now have COVID-19.

Yea! Back to school!

 
 
 
Tacos!
Professor Guide
7  Tacos!    3 years ago
Hutchinson connected the two occurrences and said that more inoculations would ease the pressure on the health care system.

Not right now, they won’t. In a few months, if a few million people get shots, and after vaccinations take effect, all of which takes 5-6 weeks? Sure. But lack of pushing the vaccine has fucked your people and they will going on being fucked for a while. Nice job, asshole.

 
 
 
Ed-NavDoc
Professor Quiet
8  Ed-NavDoc    3 years ago

Sounds like states need to seriously reconsider the value and need for military field hospitals. Those are valuable resources that are going to waste not being used

 
 
 
Trout Giggles
Professor Principal
8.1  Trout Giggles  replied to  Ed-NavDoc @8    3 years ago

That is a great idea. We also have hospital ships that could be used. One could be docked at Mobile and Pensacola. Close to where the pandemic is having the worst effects. And not just those 2 places. Those are the two that come to mind quickly

 
 
 
Ed-NavDoc
Professor Quiet
8.1.1  Ed-NavDoc  replied to  Trout Giggles @8.1    3 years ago

One of the two Navy hospital ships was docked at a pier in NYC during the beginning stages of the pandemic and it was barely used because the local hospitals would not send patients to them for some reason, so the Navy pulled it out and had it return to it's home port.

 
 
 
Jasper2529
Professor Quiet
8.1.2  Jasper2529  replied to  Trout Giggles @8.1    3 years ago
We also have hospital ships that could be used. One could be docked at Mobile and Pensacola. Close to where the pandemic is having the worst effects. And not just those 2 places. Those are the two that come to mind quickly

Hospital ships are a great idea! I remember when the USNS Mercy and Comfort were sent to CA and NY in March 2020 but their governors never used them. I hope Arkansas will, instead of putting their Covid-positive patients in nursing homes that aren't equipped to handle very ill patients. 

 
 
 
Tessylo
Professor Principal
8.1.3  seeder  Tessylo  replied to  Jasper2529 @8.1.2    3 years ago

Who said they'd be put into nursing homes?

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
8.1.4  Kavika   replied to  Trout Giggles @8.1    3 years ago

Both the Comfort and the Mercy were barely used for a number of reasons and it wasn't that NY or CA didn't want to send Covid patients there. 

If they are going to be used again then the mission and parameters have to be changed to meet the real requirements of the city of state needing them. 

There is an excellent article on this but it's behind a paywall so no use posting the link. 

I'm aware that Arkansas is in a real problem/danger area as is FL. the number of cases and deaths keeps rising with no end in sight.  FL has numerous ports on both the Gulf and Atlantic side that the ships could be of great value if we keep heading in the direction we have been for the last couple of weeks.

 
 
 
Jasper2529
Professor Quiet
8.1.5  Jasper2529  replied to  Tessylo @8.1.3    3 years ago
Who said they'd be put into nursing homes?

Not I.

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
8.1.6  JohnRussell  replied to  Kavika @8.1.4    3 years ago

....The Comfort was sent to New York to relieve pressure on city hospitals   by treating people with ailments other than Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus.

President Trump left a nine-day sequester in the White House last week to travel to Norfolk, Va., to personally see off the ship as it set sail for New York, saying it would play a “critical role.” The ship’s arrival on Monday was cheered as one of the few bright moments in a grim time for the city.

But the reality has been different. A tangle of military protocols and bureaucratic hurdles has prevented the Comfort from accepting many patients at all.

On top of its strict rules preventing people infected with the virus from coming on board, the Navy is also refusing to treat a host of other conditions. Guidelines disseminated to hospitals included a list of 49 medical conditions that would exclude a patient from admittance to the ship.

Ambulances cannot take patients directly to the Comfort; they must first deliver patients to a city hospital for a lengthy evaluation — including a test for the virus — and then pick them up again for transport to the ship.

At a morning briefing on Thursday, officials said three patients had been moved to the Comfort. After The New York Times published an article with that number, Elizabeth Baker, a spokeswoman for the Navy, said the number had increased to 20 by late in the day. “We’re bringing them on as fast as we can bring them on,” she said.

The next day, on Friday, Ms. Baker said the Comfort would begin screening patients for the coronavirus on site by taking their temperature and giving them a short questionnaire, to relieve the burden on hospitals.

Hospital leaders said they had been exasperated by the delays.

USNS Comfort Hospital Ship Was Supposed to Aid New York. It Has 3 Patients. - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
8.1.7  JohnRussell  replied to  JohnRussell @8.1.6    3 years ago
Capt. Patrick Amersbach, the commanding officer of the medical personnel aboard the Comfort, said at a news conference that, for now, his orders were to accept only patients who had tested negative for the virus. If ordered to accept coronavirus patients, he said, the ship could be reconfigured to make that happen.

“If our mission shifts, we do what we can to meet that mission,” he said.

From the outset, readying the hospital ship for use in a pandemic proved a challenge. The Comfort was built to operate in battlefield conditions, and its physicians accustomed to treating young, otherwise healthy soldiers suffering from injuries related to gunshots and bomb blasts. Most people who are hospitalized with Covid-19 are older and infected with a novel pathogen that even the world’s top medical researchers do not fully understand.

Any outbreak on board could quickly spread and disable the ship’s operations. As a precaution, the ship’s crew isolated for two weeks before embarking on their mission to New York. They must remain onboard for the duration of their mission in New York.
 
 
 
Trout Giggles
Professor Principal
8.1.8  Trout Giggles  replied to  Kavika @8.1.4    3 years ago
If they are going to be used again then the mission and parameters have to be changed to meet the real requirements of the city of state needing them. 

That was something I was unaware of. Arkansas has a huge river port, but I don't know if you could get a hospital ship up the Arkansas River

 
 

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