I think Atlas is fringe and off the mark. Birx and Fauci are health experts and as such are concerned with mitigating the virus without much thought about the harm that some policies can/will do to the country. Masks, social distancing, and hygiene are critical...but we can't shut everything down without dire consequences. I'm no epidemiologist but it seems to me that you would not be able to halt the flu with contact tracing and asymptomatic testing, etc...and this stuff is more contagious than flu and it's all over the world. Testing is helpful in defining the prevalence of the disease as well as it's case fatality rate. But in terms of stopping the disease, I think that train left the station a long time ago. The graphs I posted above would seem to debunk the much publicized rhetoric that we are doing so much worse than the rest of the civilized world.
Just like any virus..... the more people stay apart and wear masks the less transmission there will be. Dining outside rather than inside is of course a better way to go but now northern states cannot do that so that along with bars is probably why the infection rates in Wi. and Mi. are soaring right now. It's crazy to me when I do go to a bar and I'm trying like hell to stay away from people's faces to see a bar crowded with patrons all drinking and loudly talking in each other's face..... Just like when I see Trump rally pics of so many people crowded together screaming out their man love for Trump with no masks.... it's just hard to figure out why that is ok. That said.... any of us can get it it's so contagious but why increase your chances of getting it significantly like in my examples above. Having easily contracted Covid himself it is beyond comprehension how Trump can hold rallies in the manner that he does without care or concern for his supporters. I'm sure me saying so is just "funny" or not "agreeable" to some.
In the clip above so many people without masks crammed in together for what certainly was longer than the 15 minutes medical experts say is the optimum time it takes to be infected with Covid-19. You can't put fans in the stands in this manner for football games but Trump deems it ok for his rallies as Covid surges in so many states.
People of intelligence disapprove of those types of BLM gatherings too Gipper..... the huge difference being they are not called there to be stupid by a callous uncaring Joe Biden speaking. Meanwhile Trump continues to spout the most outrageous lies about the pandemic: "The suggestion that doctors — in the midst of a public health crisis — are overcounting COVID-19 patients or lying to line their pockets is a malicious, outrageous, and completely misguided charge," Susan Bailey, president of the AMA, said. "Rather than attacking us and lobbing baseless charges at physicians, our leaders should be following the science and urging adherence to the public health steps we know work — wearing a mask, washing hands, and practicing physical distancing," she added.
I believe Biden has said in the past that people should always wear masks and social distance and he himself works at following those guidelines in public appearances.... trying to set a good example. His political rallies vastly differ as well from Trump's: As virus surges, Trump rallies keep packing in thousands
"According to the US Department of Health and Human Services [HHS] which oversees the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, under the federal coronavirus aid relief bill known as the CARES Act, hospitals get an extra 20% in Medicare reimbursements on top of traditional rates due to the public health emergency. That's for COVID-19 related admissions, which can include deaths. The pay-out amount varies, according to a medicare spokesperson who said "medicare adjusts hospital payment based on geographic variation in local costs." Do hospitals get more funding by marking deaths COVID-19 related? | abc10.com It's not a lie. It's not a lie it's just another of a long long list of things that people with TDS spout because they are ignorant and gullible.
Let me get this straight.... you are equating hospital admissions for Covid treatment with Covid deaths?? So you think doctors not only want dead Covid patients but they want more sick Covid patients to get sick enough to be admitted to the hospital so the doctors can make more money. Yeah.... I see the problem alright Pretty scary outlook from Trump and his followers. Doctors are evil greedy bloodsuckers, The FBI has no business protecting its citizens if political intimidation on behalf of Trump is involved, so what if people get sick and die from attending a maskless Trump rally, the generals don’t have a clue about what they’re doing, all Democrats are not Americans but rather they are villainous Antifa radicals intent on burning down America. WTF have we devolved to...,,
Listen you Dem, with lockdowns hospitals are not allowed to do elective surgeries which are a substantial part of their income. Additionally many potential patients have be forgoing procedures such as cancer screening and cardiac monitoring. Someone is in a car accident and they test positive for the Covid antibody. They may have it or have recovered from it, but counting the death by Covid makes up for some of the income that they've lost because of the pandemic. You're telling me that that's not happening? Please tell me that you're not that naive. Washington health officials: Gunshot victims counted as COVID-19 deaths Man who died in motorcycle crash counted as COVID-19 death in Florida: Report
I would point out that those articles you posted, Gip, seem to discuss confusion in state DOHs and their reporting of statewide numbers...not hospitals and doctors inflating COVID numbers for profit, as President Trump has claimed. Having signed nearly 2000 death certificates, I find it incredible to think that COVID would be put down as an underlying cause of a death in a MVA or GSW. I do believe that perhaps individual states are requiring death certificates to state whether a person had tested positive or not for statistical purposes...but it would be totally wrong for them to include those as "COVID related deaths"...but there are dumb people everywhere and in every job. And it certainly is possible that there is some under counting as well as over counting (particularly early on when we didn't have a lot of testing) where an elderly person with heart conditions or COPD is found dead at home...and no testing is done and the death is attributed to their heart disease and maybe they had COVID. But if a person has COVID and probably would not have died at the time even though they have, say, heart disease, then that is indeed a COVID related death using the "but-for" principle....but for the COVID they would probably not have died at that time. The COVID can be listed as an underlying factor (respiratory failure due to Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome due to COVID infection) or the virus can be listed below as a "contributing factor". Either way it should count as a COVID death. I am unconvinced that there is a whole lot of over counting and I certainly don't buy the deliberate profit conspiracy theory.
Physicians Say Hospitals Are Pressuring ER Docs to List COVID-19 on Death Certificates. Here’s Why | Jon Miltimore As Minnesota lawmaker and longtime family practitioner Dr. Scott Jensen recently observed, hospitals are incentivized to pressure physicians to include COVID-19 on death certificates and discharge papers, since the CARES Act increases Medicare payments to hospitals treating COVID-19 victims.
I'm not buying it...either you have the COVID or you don't. If you're admitted to the hospital and have tested positive for COVID then there is nothing wrong with including it on the discharge summary...the hospital gets paid more but they incurred more costs in terms of PPE, staffing, and isolation of the patient. Again...the only guy in that article defending listing COVID as a cause of death when it wasn't is a Public Health official (idiot). But if you look at the statistics right now...it's the case numbers going off the chart...and in some states hospitalizations. But in most states (and nationally) the death rates have not jumped. So I would opine that the death certification is not a problem in terms of inflated numbers...and as far as marking it down as a case...if someone has tested positive then it is a case of COVID, whether or not he was admitted for pneumonia or a motorcycle accident. The idea that someone would be put on a ventilator to jack up reimbursement is unconscionable. If that is happening then heads should roll. The accusation is so vulgar that those making it ought to put up or shut up.
Even though I don't buy it, Gip, I will give you this...the media only reports on how terrible Trump is for making these accusations without reporting on any of the statements/claims/articles you have posted that forge his thoughts. "How dare he make these unsubstantiated claims??"
As I pointed out Stu, some hospitals were financially stressed with lockdowns that prohibited elective surgeries. Anyone who's looked at their hospital bill knows that costs are startling. It wouldn't surprise me at all if hospital administrators who worry about the bottom line might have tried to fudge figures to make up for the lost income caused by the lockdown. I wonder if we'll ever learn how many people profited more than they should have using the CARES act.
Oh, Gosh...I personally know some who did. (Not necessarily illegally...but geez.) And local governments around here got all kinds of stuff. New furniture for instance (justification; easier to sanitize.) New vehicles (self sanitizing). Yada, yada. You can justify it...but shouldn't the money go to folks who are losing their jobs...who can't pay their rent.
"The idea that someone would be put on a ventilator to jack up reimbursement is unconscionable. If that is happening then heads should roll. The accusation is so vulgar that those making it ought to put up or shut up." And as I have said before many times it's not the media that shapes my hugely negative opinion of Trump and his lack of integrity and truthfulness it is what comes directly out of his mouth that causes me to feel the way I do. He directly and clearly said "the doctors" make more money from assigning Covid as the causes of death and implied they do it on purpose. There was no clarification.... just the direct implication that the bad doctors were inflating Covid deaths to make money.