Tag: COVID-19
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Blame COPN for Looming Bed Shortages
by James Sherlock The hospital bed shortages cited by Jim Bacon in his post, “Not Nearly Enough Hospital Beds,“ is a direct outcome of how the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) has administered Virginia’s Certificate of Public Need law. Virginia’s scarcity of physicians and nurses also can be traceable in part to COPN’s denial of…
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Doctors and Nurses Need Child Care to Fight Coronavirus
by Hans Bader Last week, several governors correctly closed their states’ schools to slow the spread of coronavirus. The draconian actions were needed to keep hospitals from being overwhelmed in the coming weeks as the number of coronavirus cases grows exponentially. But closing the schools will place heavy burdens on many parents who have to…
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Northam Shuts Down Schools. What’s Next?
By DJ Rippert Early Spring Break. Last Thursday Virginia Governor Northam somewhat suddenly decided to shut down all K-12 schools starting the next day. The shutdown is for “at least two weeks.” The question of how to manage continuing free and reduced price meals during the shutdown has been left up to the individual school districts.…
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A Source of Doctors, Nurses for COVID-19 Response
by James Sherlock This morning, March 15, I sent an email to Dr. Dan Carey, Virginia Secretary of Health and Human Resources, to the Medical Society of Virginia and to the Medical Society of Northern Virginia. I offered a concept for significantly and quickly increasing the number of medical personnel available for COVID-19 response in…
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Final Day of Quarantine
by Philip Shucet Since the beginning of the year I’ve driven through fifteen states from Florida to Iowa and have been around tens-of-thousands of people to photograph political rallies. Coronavirus cases have been confirmed in every one of those states. On Monday, March 9, I came down with chills and a fever of over 101.…
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Not Nearly Enough Hospital Beds
by James A. Bacon On Friday, the VDH reported on its COVID-19 page that 30 individuals had been identified as having contracted the coronavirus and 10 had been hospitalized. As of Saturday, VDH was stating that the number of cases had increased to 41, but it no longer provided the number of hospitalizations. The website…
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A Military Man Ponders COVID-19
by James C. Sherlock We can’t click our heels like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz to avoid the consequences of COVID-19. We have to do the hard work of reducing the spread and working intelligently with what we have. Two military axioms apply directly: Surprise attacks are come-as-you-are events. Operational plans seldom survive the…
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Northam Declares State of Emergency
by DJ Rippert Danger! Danger! Yesterday, Governor Ralph Northam declared that the Old Dominion was in a state of emergency due to the Coronavirus. Northam exercised these emergency powers five days after the first Coronavirus case was confirmed in the state. The online Patch newspaper from McLean reports that “a statement from the governor says…
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Coronavirus: New Rules of Non-Engagement
by Kerry Dougherty On Wednesday morning I did something I almost never do as a professional blogger: I put on pantyhose. Too much information? Sorry. Trying to lighten the mood a little. The occasion that demanded such finery was the annual Virginia Beach Mayor’s “State of the City” address, an event loaded with Chamber of…
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Governor Northam, Close the Schools
by Hans Bader Coronavirus is spreading rapidly. If the number of people with the disease continues to grow exponentially, it will overwhelm the healthcare system within a month. Hospitals will be so packed with patients that hospitals will run out of ventilators needed to keep seriously ill patients alive, and intensive care units will be…
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About that High Emergency Preparedness Rating…
by James A. Bacon It is entirely appropriate during a crisis like the COVID-19 epidemic for elected officials to urge calm. Panic often leads to counter-productive behavior. At the same time, it is important not to instill a sense of false confidence, which could engender complacency. Finding the right balance is difficult. Governor Ralph Northam…
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Are Hospitals Prepared for the COVID-19 Contagion?
by James A. Bacon In my previous post, I laid out the case that Virginia potentially faces a severe shortage of hospital capacity should the COVID-19 pandemic spread in the Old Dominion at the geometric rate of increase as seen in other countries. I estimated that the Richmond region’s acute-care hospitals have only 1,400 un-utilized…
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More Bad News on Coronavirus
All I need is the air that I breathe. Recent research indicates that the coronavirus can live in air for 3 hours post aerosolization. The Hill reports that, “A study awaiting peer review from scientists at Princeton University, the University of California-Los Angeles and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) posted online Wednesday indicated that…
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Does Virginia Have Enough Hospital Beds?
by James A. Bacon Now that the COVID-19 virus has arrived in Virginia, key institutions are reacting. Several universities are extending their spring breaks; others are shifting to online classes. Event organizers are cancelling their events, from book fairs to health fairs. Major employers are telling employees to work remotely. Jails are suspending visitations to…
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Another Critical Coronavirus Graph
By DJ Rippert Timing. As Jim Bacon wrote, “Now comes COVID-19. Everyone is in a blind panic. The concern may be overwrought, whipped up by the media. Or maybe things could get worse than anyone could imagine. Nobody knows. Uncertainty reigns.” Jim is right. Uncertainty does reign. But what are the costs of indecision if…