Getting vaccinated

[Gob]

A California mother-of-four who was outspoken against vaccines and masks has died of COVID-19.

Kristen Lowery, 40, from Escalon, California, 'unexpectedly' passed away on September 15th, according to a GoFundMe page raising money for her funeral expenses.

In screenshots taken from Facebook, family members say she lost her battle against COVID-19 — after frequently posting content protesting vaccines and labeling herself 'unmasked and unmuzzled' and a 'free thinker.'



Lowery's Facebook profile has since been set to private, but screenshots have been posted on Reddit and other sites.


Lowery had made use of political borders for her profile photos, including one reading 'Unmasked, unmuzzled, unvaccinated, unafraid. Together we win.'

Another read: 'Free Thinker. Question everything. Research mandatory.'



She also appears to have gone to some sort of protest or anti-vaccine event holding a sign reading 'Give voice to the vaccine injured.' In the photo, she also wore a shirt proclaiming herself to be an 'ex-vaxxer' and reading: 'I trusted them. Never again.'

Yet another photo was lined with a border reading 'Moms for Liberty.' Lowery was mother to four school-age children, Tayden, McKenna, Ella, and Ryenn.

[BoSoxGal]

I can’t find any pleasure in these senseless deaths because of the orphans. I suppose the little comfort comes from the knowledge that they might now have the chance to be exposed to more sensible adults with their dimwit mother out of the picture.


Feeling particularly frustrated with antivaxxers/antimaskers as I sit here awaiting results of the covid19 test I had yesterday - it’s my 5th time getting tested during this pandemic, but only the first time getting the test because I’m sick.

You can be first in line to get vaccinated and you can diligently wear a mask and do your best to social distance, but you can’t avoid all the antimaskers and antivaxxers and covidiots who don’t think the virus is real or deadly and don’t give a fuck about being a vector transmitting to vulnerable people.

[ex-khobar Andy]

I wish someone would find a word for 'looking up shit on the internet and pretending that joe89 from Kalamazoo knows everything about public health' because 'research' just does not work. It starts young: we tell kids (or at least used to in the dark ages) to go to the library and find a couple of books and the Encyclopaedia Britannica - "Do your research."

I've spent a lifetime in labs finding out stuff. Around 7 of those 50 or so years could properly be called research.

BSG - hope it works out well for you. I agree with your post.

[BoSoxGal]

(CNN)Natalie Rise was a registered nurse in Idaho who loved her job as a home health care worker before she decided to stay at home with her special-needs twins, according to her brother, Daryl Rise.

But her science-based training to become an RN was apparently no match for the disinformation about Covid-19 vaccines being shared across social media, according to her brother.

Rise refused to be vaccinated, even as the virus surged in her city, Coeur d'Alene. And even as her mother lay in a coma in a hospital bed, fighting for life against Covid, Natalie advised her family against being vaccinated.

"She was telling me not to get vaccinated," Daryl Rise told CNN. "I think it was from misinformation, I think it was falling into negative social media and bloggers, YouTubers."
His sister didn't think there had been studies on the vaccines, Daryl Rise said.

There have been numerous scientific studies of the vaccines, testing on thousands of people and millions have received them after authorities granted approval based on those studies.

According to the CDC, 54.7% of the US population is fully vaccinated. However, in Idaho, it's only 40.8%.

Natalie Rise, 46, died August 22, one of the many unvaccinated patients who have triggered a capacity crisis in Idaho hospitals that's flowing into Spokane, Washington, which is about 33 miles away.

Idaho last week said that healthcare providers are allowed to ration care, meaning that providers decide who is sickest and needing immediate care, and who must wait for care.

"This is serious; your ability to receive care in a hospital will likely be affected," the Idaho Department of Health explained the measure on its website. "It may look very different than how you have received care in the past. Surgeries are being postponed, emergency departments are full, and there may not be any beds for patients to be admitted to the hospital."

But there's not much alternative, Idaho providers say. Hospitals are converting classrooms and conference rooms into hospital care rooms, and there are patients in the hallways.

"We're in the worst state that we ever have been in the pandemic, this surge has been back-breaking for our health care facilities," said Katherine Hoyer, a spokeswoman for Panhandle Health District that covers five northern counties in Idaho. "Our case investigators, they cannot keep up."

She explained that the hospitals are full of people who are unvaccinated. "It's been like a tsunami wave that continues to hit us each day," Hoyer said.

As for the cause of vaccine hesitancy in Idaho, Hoyer blamed misinformation and disinformation. "Social media makes it so easy to spread information quickly that may seem like fact, and it's not. I wish people would listen to credible sources," she said.

The tsunami has washed into Spokane. "We're declining roughly half of our patients at this point due to capacity, and we've done a lot of things to try to increase capacity," said Daniel Getz, chief medical officer at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center and Holy Family Hospital in Spokane.

"Historically we're roughly able to accept 90% of transfer requests from our communities to bring patients in," Getz said. "We've struggled over the past two weeks to accept half of those patients."

The hospital is opening a second ICU in the postoperative recovery area, he said, but it's not unthinkable that it too, will have to ration care.

"If we get to the point where we saturate our ability to deliver care, then we're put in that incredibly difficult position," Getz said. "And that's a tragic decision to have to make. You're now trying to triage patients. You have multiple sick patients. You're trying to determine which of those patients does not get life-saving care."

Getz is quick to point out that there are pockets of unvaccinated people in east Washington who are contributing to the crisis. And the overwhelming majority of those crowding medical facilities in both Washington and Idaho are not vaccinated, health officials said.

"The vast majority of patients that are in the hospital for Covid right now are unvaccinated, especially those patients that are in our ICU on ventilators," Getz said.

Patients who are not immediately able to receive the care they need are taking it "horribly, and rightly so," Getz said. "At the end of the day, we're delaying their care."

As for the Rise family, Natalie's death has upended the family. Daryl has given up his job as a truck driver to help care for the 10-year-old twins his sister left behind, he said.

His and Natalie's mother, who is still recovering from Covid-19, remains on the fence about being vaccinated, he said.
But Daryl got his first shot the day after his sister died.
"It was the hardest decision of my life, you know, am I doing right by God? Am I doing right by Natalie?" he said. "And I got it out of fear."

Poor fucking kids, nobody will ever love them like their mother did.

[Big RR]

Patients who are not immediately able to receive the care they need are taking it "horribly, and rightly so," Getz said. "At the end of the day, we're delaying their care."

Take it as horribly as you want, it's your own damn fault. These people aren't being misled, they're being stupid,and some get what they so richly deserve. Yes, I feel bad for the kids, but it's like feeling bad for the kis of a drunk driver who dies in an accident where he takes out a mother of three. Maybe they're better off without the jerk.

[Sue U]

Take it as horribly as you want, it's your own damn fault.

Although it is not terribly clear, I think the reference was to patients with conditions other than COVID whose treatment is being delayed because the COVID patients have overwhelmed the available resources. And I agree that unvaccinated COVID-infected patients have nothing to complain about if their treatment is delayed.

Also:

His and Natalie's mother, who is still recovering from Covid-19, remains on the fence about being vaccinated, he said.

Get that woman a DNR, stat!

But Daryl got his first shot the day after his sister died.
"It was the hardest decision of my life, you know, am I doing right by God? Am I doing right by Natalie?" he said. "And I got it out of fear."

WTF is wrong with these people? The hardest decision of his life??!!?? It should have been the goddam easiest decision EVER! "Doing right by Natalie?" SHE'S FUCKING DEAD AND NOW YOU HAVE TO QUIT YOUR JOB TO TAKE OF HER ORPHANED CHILDREN!!!! WHAT HAPPENS WHEN *YOU* NEEDLESSLY DIE, TOO?

Gah. Humans will be the cause of our own extinction and we will deserve it.

[Big RR]

Sue--it isn't clear, but I think you are correct about the treatment delays. So I withdraw my comment.

[Crackpot]

It is true. Unfortunately.

[BoSoxGal]

I think there are probably some folks needing other care who are upset with the delays - but I suspect some are also unvaccinated covid19 patients as well. I’ve been reading accounts in various news sources about unvaccinated patients treating their medical caregivers pretty badly, demanding ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine when those medications aren’t approved to treat them and hospitals refuse to go against FDA and CDC directives regarding them. These patients think it’s all part of the plot to kill them off either by vaccine poison or refusal of treatments they believe will cure them. More fun brought to us by Agent Orange.

Honestly I feel such compassion for these right thinking doctors nurses respiratory therapists and support staff - they are being ABUSED by the citizens who are eligible and won’t get vaccinated, and they keep showing up every day. There is going to be an even bigger shortage of healthcare workers and an even bigger problem filling these positions going forward - who would want to pursue these professions after seeing in this pandemic how little respect half the American public has for them?

[BoSoxGal]

This is quite an article; in addition to linking to a couple of places (subReddit and stand-alone website) where antivaxxer covid19 deaths are being tracked, it also links to other subReddits including a nursing one where the bad treatment of nursing and other medical staff by some patients and patient families is discussed - some nurses are worried that they’ll be attacked in the hospital by deranged family.

The Unbelievable Grimness of HermanCainAward, the Subreddit That Catalogs Anti-Vaxxer COVID Deaths

I honestly feel worse about this pandemic today than I did in the beginning when we had no idea there would be a life saving vaccine available a year after the first cases arrived here.

I wasn’t feeling well today so sat like a lump all day and watched Q: Into the Storm on HBO. It’s a 6 hour documentary series but well worth watching - I learned so much about aspects of the internet I’m not very familiar with, and the series ultimately appears to reveal the identity of Q and in so doing reveals that this massive cult movement that has disrupted our democracy and been instrumental in exacerbating the pandemic via disinformation campaigns was all just a massive hoax carried out by a few computer nerds for fun and ego stroking. It is utterly chilling to realize how easily the internet can be used to radicalize tens of millions of people worldwide.

Every day I get more depressed over the state of this country and the world.

[Gob]

Irony;

Coronavirus live news: Brazil health minister tests positive at UN; Marcelo Quiroga tests positive hours after Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro speaks at UN General Assembly

[Long Run]

One part of the problem is the standard of care has changed. Last year, COVID patients who had moderate symptoms were told to go home as the hospitals did not want to get overrun. Now, huge numbers of hospital beds are taken by COVID patients (most unvaccinated) who simply need a small amount of oxygen supplementation until they get through the few days of incubation; most of these people can be easily treated at home like every other person who is on supplemental oxygen. A cynic might suggest there isn't much money for the hospitals in sending people home.

[BoSoxGal]

One part of the problem is the standard of care has changed. Last year, COVID patients who had moderate symptoms were told to go home as the hospitals did not want to get overrun. Now, huge numbers of hospital beds are taken by COVID patients (most unvaccinated) who simply need a small amount of oxygen supplementation until they get through the few days of incubation; most of these people can be easily treated at home like every other person who is on supplemental oxygen. A cynic might suggest there isn't much money for the hospitals in sending people home.

Can you provide a source for this information? It doesn’t square at all with what I’m reading on Reddit and other forums where doctors and nurses are frequently participating in the threads on the pandemic. They aren’t admitting oodles of people with mild symptoms, they’re admitting people who are very ill and most hospitals in the hot zones are overrun by such patients.

[Long Run]

I am sure it varies by location, but we are a hotspot here and a leading physician and regular nurse confirm that people are being admitted for oxygen when they could be home.

The Atlantic is doing the best job I've seen of reporting on the entire spectrum of COVID.

A new study suggests that almost half of those hospitalized with COVID-19 have mild or asymptomatic cases.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/arch ... ng/620062/

[Long Run]

I can’t find any pleasure in these senseless deaths

This could actually be the communication strategy that might move the needle on those who have not gotten vaccinated for whatever reason. Logic, overwhelming medical studies and opinion, scolding, nagging, financial incentives and penalties, appealing to our better angels, have all failed. But one of the most motivating factors for humans is the avoidance of looking like an idiot, being made fun of for being a chump. Publicizing every person who argued against vaccine and then has serious negative consequences from getting COVID held up for public embarrassment might be what it takes' s distasteful as that is.

[BoSoxGal]

I am sure it varies by location, but we are a hotspot here and a leading physician and regular nurse confirm that people are being admitted for oxygen when they could be home.

The Atlantic is doing the best job I've seen of reporting on the entire spectrum of COVID.

A new study suggests that almost half of those hospitalized with COVID-19 have mild or asymptomatic cases.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/arch ... ng/620062/

Some thoughts: the study discussed in that article was not yet peer reviewed. It also covers a population not representative of the population as a whole - veterans. It also admittedly ended June 30, BEFORE the delta variant broke wide open - the delta variant is more transmissible, appears to cause more serious illness in younger, healthier people, and for many weeks now has accounted for 99% of new covid19 cases in the USA.

Further, in the article they are discussing total hospitalizations, and they point out that those break down into people hospitalized FOR covid19 illness versus those hospitalized who test positive for covid19 infection. Yes those are two different things, but it is nonetheless people hospitalized FOR covid19 illness who are overflowing the ICUs in the least vaccinated states, and they aren’t in the ICU with mild asymptomatic covid19. Any suggestion of such would be ridiculous. People admitted to ICU are not able to maintain O2 saturation greater than 90% without assistance and if such a person has any comorbidities they are at high risk of rapid deterioration (a hallmark of covid19 illness that doctors now have going on two years’ experience with) and organ shutdown. So they are not being sent home with portable O2 because they require medical monitoring and treatment.

I read your original post to be an assertion that hospitals are, because of financial incentives, admitting covid19 patients that don’t really need treatment. I just don’t buy that for a second. Honestly given what I know of medical professionals fighting this pandemic, I find it insulting.

[Crackpot]

There’s medical professionals and then there’s hospital Administrators. Administrations general attitude is if the patients insurance covers it - do it.

[ex-khobar Andy]

What CP said.

[BoSoxGal]

There’s medical professionals and then there’s hospital Administrators. Administrations general attitude is if the patients insurance covers it - do it.

I’ve spent a great deal of time in hospitals myself and with family members, friends and clients. I have never once seen an administrator in the ER making hospital admission determinations.

If anyone can show me a reputable source that suggest an O2 saturation of 90% or less isn’t grounds for hospital admission - with the exception of patients with moderate to severe COPD - I’d be willing to reconsider my position. Otherwise, I trust the doctors who are making these determinations and I don’t believe for one second that the overflowing ICUs in the red zone states are filled with patients with mild covid infection.

I honestly am surprised by this conversation.

[Scooter]

Ditto. Idaho and other states are not triaging ICU beds because people are being unnecessarily admitted. Quite the opposite, in fact:

As the Delta variant of the coronavirus tears through Idaho and the rest of the US, Souza said he and his St. Luke’s colleagues have noticed several important differences from the December 2020 surge. Patients are younger (averaging 58 years old, down from 72), they are sicker and require more mechanical ventilation, they are staying in the ICU longer, and they are dying more frequently (the ICU mortality rate has jumped from 28% to 43%). Some 80 people have died from COVID in St. Luke’s hospitals in just the past three weeks.