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Originally Posted by LessinSF
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Yeah, it's been a shit show.
Part of it is that most people don't get that ICUs (and hospitals in general) try to operate as close to the margins as possible. That they've been empty for such a long time now is really unusual. So seeing that a hospital is 97 percent full SHOULD be the normal state of things, but it hasn't been portrayed like that in the med center's messaging.
Part of it is also that the virus is hitting us differently than in other parts of the country so far. In the last few weeks, the majority of people hit with it are under 50, including those going to the hospital. Most are going to med-surg units rather than ICU. We've also gotten better at treating it, so the length of stay is longer and vent use is a lot lower. Our mortality rate is also lower than in other places, probably because of the age distribution. Still, the rate of infection is pretty high, and a good hunk of people are coming up positive. I know at least half a dozen in the last few days, and most either work in hospitality or have been socializing more.
The real clusterfuck was last week when the Med Center sent out a panicked "take this shit seriously" message on Wednesday, and then backtracked a day or so later saying that they can handle it. It was pretty clear that they either weren't on the same page (it was the four big hospitals, not the med center as a whole that sent out the latter message) or got some outside pressure from the state.
The county judge is pissed as hell about the numbers switch. Changing the metrics midstream has not been helpful at all, because it's unclear what was wrong with the previous set of numbers and why these are better. The Med Center data is the data almost everyone in the region was relying on, especially since testing around here has been abysmal so a case count didn't really tell us much.
The county judge, btw, has been outstanding. She is in her late 20s and it's probably the third or so most powerful position in the state. She slid in on the blue wave in 2018, ousting a very popular Republican incumbent (I voted for him). She had very little practical experience, and totally upended how the county was run (especially the court's sessions). The commissioner's court has historically been a good ol' boys network, and she doesn't stand for that shit. She also lengthened the meetings and gets citizen input. My brother works with her office a lot (he does community development) and has been really impressed. She does almost all of her press conferences in English and Spanish. And she's taken a lot of flack because she's a non-white, very young woman. We had a very good response for the first month and a half of the pandemic, in part because she shut the county down early. Then the governor's office intervened, taking away pretty much all the tools in her arsenal.
