Pick your death panel

[Dave's Not Here Man]

www.fredericksburg.com/news/local/first-person-to-die-from-covid-19-in-fredericksburg-area-tried-unsuccessfully-to-get-tested/article_a4eff0cf-9626-595a-bbdb-be920abf58f2.html

[bobathon]

I think we tested Paul Ryan instead.

PS Testing isn't a cure, it guides treatment. If he had been tested, he might still be dead.

[minx]

Testing isn't a cure, but imagine if he had been able to get a test early on. And then had been able to identify most of the people he had been in contact with over the past three weeks, so they could be notified to self-isolate and watch for symptoms.

Since everyone wants to compare, it's like the flu - you feel sick, go get a nasal swab. Doc says "You have the flu!" So you go home, let your co-workers, friends, family know and stay inside. Meanwhile all of those people know they met with you or had lunch with you or what not. So if they start feeling sick, they get tested right away.

Why has South Korea mostly shut this shit down? Social distancing AND testing the living shit out of people.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

A couple of things about the story that concern me. No, testing is not a cure, but the gentleman clearly CLEARLY was in respiratory distress (see: difficulty breathing). That, combined with his other symptoms and hx meant that he should have been tested right there and right then so that they would known to admit him and take the vital next steps, that very possibly could have saved his life. Then they march out the fucking Director of Marketing?? to give a statement on how they were just going by the CDC guidelines..... ummmm, no. The CDC doesn't decide who gets tested. CDC guidelines are not hospital policy. This is a whole family sized can of bullshit that SRMC (no doubt at the direction of the Mothership, HCA) handed out as an explanation, hoping it would suffice in Phase I of covering their asses.

Now on to the part of the story that said he "left the hospital Wednesday because he was disgruntled with the treatment". Thanks to the in-depth and insightful reporting from the FLS's crack team of journalists (that's sarcasm, folks) we have not a clue what that means. Was he simply waiting in the waiting room too long? With those symptoms, doubtful. My experience with that ER is the wait times to get triaged are super quick. Did he get into a room and have to wait longer than he was comfortable with? That's possible but it says "the treatment". So, was someone abrupt, rude, dismissive? Certainly could be, since some doctors act like you're wasting their time with your petty little complaints.

Now since he was "disgruntled" with his treatment and "left", why would he go back to the exact same place the next day? It says he lived over by Chancellor HS, which is just as close to Mary Wash and the locals, at least, know that they've gone full metal jacket in getting ready for this thing. But they took him back to SRMC, now sicker, and gets sent home again? This is where I start to wonder about a lot of things, and the test ain't even in the top 10 any more, because I have the facts as follows; He's a 63 year old man, has shortness of breath, he's got a cough, he's asthmatic, and has recently been to NY. I don't need the test to tell me he's got COVID19 and probably pnuemonia by now, and needs to be admitted STAT.

[minx]

I've read more than one story where a patient has gone to the ER and the doctor wants to perform a shitload of other tests, rather than the obvious ones. I'm thinking that this may be what happened here - guy goes in with pretty clear symptoms, asks about being tested, and after a long, long wait is told that we can't test for COVID, but we want to run a CT scan of your lungs instead. And I also wonder if he was staying with one of his kids, so SRMC was closer?

My sister lives in Northern NJ, about an hour south of NYC. She's a nurse and can't get a test unless she's been directly exposed to someone who has tested positive right now, unless she has severe symptoms. There are way too many assholes who don't understand the reality of this. And there is still a huge, huge shortage of those big and beautiful test kits and the equipment to process them.

I won't fault the lack of test kits at the moment - this is a new illness and test kits had to be developed. I'm willing to say that saying we'd develop our own was a honest mistake that could have been made by any president. BUT not rotating or re-stocking the national stockpile of medical supplies, and making sure that equipment in it was in current working order, up to date and still under warranty? Completely and totally unacceptable. But of course, it's all Obama's fault.

[k9krap]

Except that our administration turned down kits that were offered by WHO way way back, in February. I think Kushner was planning on getting his buddies involved in manufacturing them for another windfall.

[minx]

Our administration has always been about lining their own pockets....

[Dave's Not Here Man]

Suffice it to say that's one of the cornerstones of capitalism, not exclusive to Mr. Art of The Asshole.

[minx]

Very true.

I saw that Robert Kraft flew the team's private jet to China to pick up thousands of masks (I don't remember the exact amount, but it was substantial).
Pics on the news of the Patriots' semi trundling through the streets after loading up at the airport to deliver the masks.

The irony of a truck labeled Patriots bringing medical supplies from China (that were previously banned due to Agent Orange's tariffs) probably escaped the majority of Republicans though.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

Indeed. It's a catch-22 sometimes I suppose. Do the right things for the wrong reasons or the wrong thing for the right reasons. You know how the football players do so much in the communities but when the cameras come on, they are representing the organization. It's in their contract.