Updates from America — Part 4 of 4
11. The above article tells us that because COVID-19 is rapidly filling up all hospitals, parts of America may no longer have beds for strokes, heart attacks, car accidents, and so on. Serious diseases or accidents that is normally treated in an American hospital will not be as readily treated (or be treated at all), once the ICU capacity is gone.
12. California ICUs are full. Los Angeles County Director of Health and Human Services Dr. Christina Ghaly has laid out the following equation, which has proven reliable:
- about 12% of all coronavirus cases end up in the hospital
- 6% of all coronavirus cases end up in the hospital end up in the ICU
- 4% of all coronavirus cases end up on a ventilator
- 2% of all coronavirus cases die
Doing the math, that means 3,561 of the 29,677 infections reported in California on 10 Dec 2020 will end up in a hospital. Of those, 1,780 will require ICU care. Some 1,175 of those ICU patients will require a ventilator. That means 587 people will die as a result of 10 Dec 2020 (Thurs) single-day new numbers.
13. EdSource is tracking the impact of the coronavirus on all aspects of education in California. On the heels of a new regional stay-at-home order due to what state public health officials call a “rapid” surge in Covid-19 hospitalizations, three more counties have been moved to the most restrictive level on the
state’s reopening tier system, bringing the total number of “purple” counties to 54 out of 58.
14. In California, Amador, Marin and Mono counties are the latest to drop down to the purple tier. Mariposa, Inyo and Alpine remain in the red or “substantial” tier and Sierra remains in the orange or “moderate” tier.
15. The 54 counties in California are now in in the purple tier include 981 public school districts and 1,300 charter schools, enrolling a total of 6,065,117 students — 99.87% of the state’s total enrollment.
16. Numerous ideologues in America are in deep denial. Denial does not change the fact that:
(a) 1 out of every 500 residents in New Jersey are dead due to the pandemic.
(b) 1 out of every 675 residents in North Dakota are dead due to the pandemic.
(c) 1 out of every 721 residents in Mississippi are dead due to the pandemic.
(d) 1 out of every 731 residents in South Dakota are dead due to the pandemic.
17. Beyond New Jersey, North Dakota, Mississippi, and South Dakota, 8 other states and DC have already hit the 1 in 1,000 dead milestone: New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Louisiana, Rhode Island, Illinois, Michigan and Iowa. Five other states are likely to join that "club" soon: Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia and Indiana. We should not lose sight of this fact: more Americans have died from Covid-19 in 9 months than in combat over 4 years in World War II. The virus death toll exceeds 292,000, compared with 291,557 American World War II battle deaths.
18. Pfizer's vaccine has already received emergency approval in Britain and Canada. In more good news, emergency use authorization allows the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine to be distributed in the US. See:
FDA Takes Key Action in Fight Against COVID-19 By Issuing Emergency Use Authorization for First COVID-19 Vaccine