Author: James A. Bacon
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Another COVID-19 Symptom: Incivility
by Kerry Dougherty It’s not just the lockdowns that are getting to some of us. The closed gyms, restaurants and beaches. It’s the incivility. It’s the venom and hostility directed at anyone who dares to question the state shutdowns or suggest they’ve gone too far or gone on long enough. Or – God forbid –…
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COVID-19 Update: Hospitalizations Are Leveling Off
According to this morning’s data dump (unadjusted for vagaries in reporting), 63 patients with COVID-19 were admitted to Virginia hospitals yesterday while 62 were discharged. Meanwhile the number of patients in ICUs and on ventilators continued their long-term decline — further evidence that Governor Ralph Northam did the right thing yesterday when he announced that…
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Free the Young, Protect the Elderly
by James A. Bacon We can all be thankful that Governor Ralph Northam has ended the ban on elective medical procedures. At least one sector of Virginia’s economy, healthcare, can start the struggle back to normalcy. Hopefully, hospitals will staunch losses that have ran up to $200 million or more, 30,000 furloughed and laid-off healthcare…
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Parole Board Frees Another Killer
by Kerry Dougherty Last week we told you about Debra Scribner, the woman convicted of first degree murder in 2012 and released from prison earlier this month thanks to Gov. Ralph Northam’s let-em-all-out parole board. This lucky lady served just eight years of her 23-year, 6-months sentence. She’s now back at her home on the…
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Northam to Let Elective-Procedures Ban Lapse
Governor Ralph Northam will let hospitals and dentist offices resume service to patients who need elective procedures starting Friday. Speaking at a press conference earlier today, he said he would not renew his public health order issued in an effort to save personal protective equipment (PPEs) and bed capacity for an anticipated spike in COVID-19…
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Has COVID-19 Testing Become an End in Itself?
by James A. Bacon Virginia ranks near the bottom of the U.S. states and territories in tests per million population. Its rate of testing is on a par with Guam’s. So reports the Washington Post today (finally getting around to noticing the exact same point that contributor James Sherlock made a week ago on this…
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COVID-19 Update: More Patients in Hospitals
No day at Bacon’s Rebellion would be complete without our statistical update courtesy of John Butcher. No question, the population of COVID-19 patients in hospitals is on a consistent upward paragraph. See my previous post for a discussion of why that might be the case. — JAB
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Hospitals Are Keeping COVID-19 Patients Longer. Why?
by James A. Bacon In my daily update of COVID-19 statistics reported by the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) and the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association (VHHA), I abandoned some time ago the use of “confirmed cases” as a useful indicator of the progress of the epidemic through the general population. I turned instead to…
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Masks and Common Sense
by Kerry Dougherty Have you ever longed to commit a crime, but hesitated because you feared being caught on a security camera? You’re in luck. This pandemic couldn’t have come at a better time. Just don a ballcap and some sort of mask — surgical, or better yet, a bandana — and your fears of…
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Statewide Elective-Surgery Ban is Medical Malpractice
by James A. Bacon The Carilion Medical Center in Roanoke is the largest hospital in Virginia west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was staffed for 663 beds in 2018, according to Virginia Health Information, and it admitted roughly 40,000 patients a year. Twelve days ago, reeling from the drastic decline in admissions caused by…
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COVID-19 Update: Is the Hospitalization Rate Stable or Rising?
by James A. Bacon New COVID-19 hospitalizations in reported in Virginia yesterday shot up to a high of 139, but the spike came after a month-long low of 12 the previous day. It is reasonable to conclude that what we’re seeing is an artifact of data collection and reporting, not a reflection of the real…
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A Pulse Oximeter for Every Virginia Home?
by Verhaal Kenner Imagine you have mild or modest COVID-19 symptoms and are told to stay at home. How would you know if the infection had gotten worse and you needed to head to the hospital? Doctors have been seeing what some are calling “happy hypoxics” -– individuals “appearing comfortable” with modest symptoms but suffering…
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Why the Secrecy about Hospital Beds and COVID?
by Kerry Dougherty Anyone remember why the country is locked down? I do. With images of Italy’s collapsing healthcare system and Italian death panels doling out beds and ventilators in early March, we were told we had to take radical steps so that American hospitals would not be similarly overwhelmed by the COVID-19 virus. “Fifteen…
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COVID-19 Update: Pick Your Data to Support Your Narrative
COVID-19 data has been published today that can either calm you or alarm you, depending upon your inclination — or your support for or against Governor Ralph Northam’s economic lockdown measures. On the positive side, the chart above, taken from Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association data, indicates that COVID-19 still is not straining the capacity…