Sad COVIDiocy: Irish Anti-Vaxxers Died of COVID, and Anti-Vax Professor Dismissed from Irish University

Multiple Irish anti-vax residents have died from COVID. 

Paul Hamill, an Irish DUP councilor, who had previously shared many anti-vax posts on Facebook, has died of COVID. He's been called "a genuine good guy in local politics". 

A mother-daughter anti-vax pair died days apart in an Irish hospital. Both were care workers and eligible for the vaccine as first responders back in January 2021. Both refused, and posted online various COVID conspiracies and shared posts from anti-vaxxers around the world. The father lamented that don't they understand how their death burdens those who still live, even if it is their life and their choice. 

In related news, an anti-vax professor at an Irish UCD School of medicine has been dismissed. Dolores Cahill had publicly opposed COVID-related public policies such as lock-down and publicly stated falsehoods such as "nobody is dying [of COVID]" at an anti-vax rally. 

Sad COVIDiocy: Unvaxxed Man Survived 169 Hospitals Rejections, Travelled 1200 Miles for Treatment, Now Pro-Vax

It's the unvaxxed's stubborn selfishness that's keeping COVID around because they refuse to be vaccinated. 

One Florida family found out the hard way: they believed everything had returned to normal, so they did NOT get vaxxed and gathered for July 4th... and they got infected HARD. Lots of family members tested positive for COVID. Some got really sick. 

COVID hit the man so hard, he had to be put on life support, aka an ECMO machine, that does the heart pumping and lung breathing for you. Except there isn't one anywhere near him. This is very dire. Most COVID patients who got intubated this way did not survive. She called 169 hospitals in 3 states. but NONE had an ECMO machine available (being used by prior COVID patients). Lung transplant is even less likely as there's a HUGE waiting list (again, due to COVID). The doctors basically told her that there's nothing to be done. 

Until a doctor in Connecticut, 1200 miles away, with the concurrence of the hospital board, offered up a bed with ECMO support available. 

So her husband made the journey on a special medical transport plane. Then he got on the ECMO machine for 22 days before doctors declared his heart and lungs are healthy enough to support him. During the ordeal, he lost 50 pounds, and the former burly construction worker that went to the gym daily now struggles to stand up. He will need extensive physical therapy to recover. 

But he has made a declaration: ALL visitors, family or not, have to be vaccinated. 

He's not taking ANY chances. 

And can you imagine how much this all costs? 22 days on full life support (figure 5K to 10K a day, probably more since this guy was at death's door), special medical transport plane, physical therapy for weeks if not months, and probably a couple days in ICU. 

And to think all this could have been prevented with two jabs, that are FREE. 

And his extended family and friends certainly got the message, esp. when they realized their "vaccine skeptic" beliefs are irrational. If you are unvaxxed, you can pick up COVID, and even if you only suffer a little, you can pass it on to others... and they may not be so lucky like the guy above, yanked back from death's door. 

So don't be a COVIDiot. Get vaccinated. 

It's not about you, but people around you. 

More COVIDiocy: Why Are People, esp. Medical Professionals, Refusing Vaccines?

Evidence is incontrovertible: new COVID cases are almost exclusively of unvaccinated people. People who are not fully vaccinated are at MUCH HIGHER risk of dying. 32x more likely, according to CDC statistics. 

Yes, some vaccinated people have "Breakthru COVID", but the symptoms are vastly reduced and rarely require a hospital stay. And yes, the vaccines work the same on the Delta variant, just a bit less effective. Data in New York suggests vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization was 92% before Delta, and 80% now that Delta is the predominant strain. 

So there's no reason other than entitledness and pettiness (aka "You can't tell me what to do!" "I have rights!") to refuse vaccination. 

Indeed, that's why the alt-right is pushing random drugs that they claim can treat COVID, or want to focus on the breakthru cases and use that to discredit the vaccine, or believe outlandish lies like "there are microchips in the vaccines"... because they refuse to accept the obvious: it is up to the individuals to get vaccinated, in order protect the public at large. 

When did Americans get this SELFISH? 

As the Delta variants get more prevalent, and more people refuse to be vaccinated, the medical system is getting overloaded. At least one state had already instituted "care rationing" due to full ICUs, and several stories have already circulated about how ICUs, already full of COVID patients, are forced to turn away treatable patients for heart attacks, pancreatitis, and so on, resulting in death. 

You'd think that the medical professionals, who were on the forefront of COVID fight, would be the most eager to get the vaccines, but that is not necessarily the case. Some are total holdouts who would rather be fired, than get vaccinated themselves. In June 2021, WebMD / Medscape study shows that "1 in 4 hospital workers with direct contact with patients had not received a single dose of COVID shot as of end of May"

The odds can be even worse: 1 in 3 workers in the largest hospitals in the US are unvaxxed, according to the same report. Some hospitals in Florida have vax rate of 30-40 percent. 

The news is so alarming that some hospital systems, such as Houston Methodist Hospital, instituted their own vaccine mandate, and has a vaccination rate of 99+%.  And in case you were wondering "is that legal", the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission EEOC has greenlit vaccine mandate in May 2021 provided that accommodations are made to people who are exempt. Many cities are already doing so, such as San Francisco, that some have taken to protests. 

Yet if you hear from these protesters, their main beef can be boiled down to "you can't tell me what to do!" Albeit in different forms. One nurse claimed she has a right to choose whether to work with or without the vaccination, another claimed he has a right to choose if he wanted to share his vaccination status with his employer. Both can be summed up as "you can't tell me what to do!"   

In fact, many clinics across the nation are facing labor shortages... Because their staff refused to be vaccinated. Anecdotes from various states indicate that small clinic's staff are quitting when the head of clinic asked employees to be vaccinated to protect the patients. They rather sit at home for their "freedom" than accept responsibility to protect the public at large. Economy? Public health? Who cares about that? You can't tell me what to do! 

The screams are even louder from the Republicans about "Tyrant Biden" and how the new "Federal vaccine mandate" is an "assault on freedom". 

It's not a vaccine mandate. It's a TEST mandate that you get tested WEEKLY, that you can opt-out by getting vaccinated. 

But then again, it comes back down to "You can't tell me what to do!"

We're being told to do all sorts of things by the government all the time. We need to wear seatbelts. We need to have a driver's license. We need to pay taxes. We need to wear helmets when riding bicycles and motorcycles and e-scooters... 

COVID has already taken 659K people from US. Every refusal to vaccinate is a delay to control COVID, which leads to increasing hospitalization and death. 

Is "You can't tell me what to do" more important than not being a COVIDiot? 

COVID wouldn't care what you believe, whether you are "free" or not. 

More COVIDiocy: Ivermectin Desperados Threaten Vet Clinics For Heartgard

 This is not on the news, but the relative of a friend. 

Apparently some guy bullied his way into a veterinary clinic's treatment area demanding access to Heartgard, a heartworm medicine for dogs and cats. 

Why? Its primary ingredient is, you guessed it, ivermectin, the nonsense "wonder" ingredient COVIDiots believe can treat COVID. 

The guy allegedly played the race card, "You won't sell me Heartgard because I'm black."

The clinic called 911, and the crazy guy left before the police arrived. 

No, they won't sell you Heartgard because it's meant for DOGS or CATS. 

Is this sign of things to come: robbery, then armed robbery of veterinary clinics? Smash and grab? Looting?

More COVIDiots: can a judge "compel" a hospital to administer something that doesn't work? An Ohio judge just did...

Would YOU decide to take horse dewormer because somebody on the Internet told you it can cure COVID? 

Before you said yes, remember many months ago someone said the same thing about hydroxychloroquine? It was touted by no less than Trump himself. That did not work. 

So why would you expect ivermectin to work? It doesn't either. 

There is ONE study in Egypt with positive results for ivermectin that was NOT peer-reviewed. Then the publisher retracted the paper. Turns out there are SERIOUS problems with the data, where there are signs that data have been copied between patients, among other problems. The entire study cannot be trusted. 

You can guess what the antivaxxers did... Scream "censorship", never mind the details. 

So what is this about a judge? Hold one for one more thing...

Ivermectin CAN be used on humans... for a MUCH reduced dosage... for parasites. It can be used topically for head lice, or internally for "river blindness", and so on. It was so useful, the team that found the human use got the Nobel Prize in 2015. Again, it kills parasites, not viruses. 

Now onto the judge. 

In Ohio, a woman, Julie Smith, has her husband in the ICU for COVID since July 15th, 2021. Julie, found a Dr. Fred Wagshul, supposedly an expert in treating COVID with ivermectin, who was willing to prescribe her husband ivermectin. The hospital refused. Thus the lawsuit. 

We have determined above that most studies regarding ivermectin are either inconclusive or flawed. There is little evidence to suggest Ivermectin can prevent or treat COVID. Yet its proponents continue to claim the proof is "irrefutable" and such that it works. 

Just think about it. Ivermectin has NEVER before been formal trial tested in ANIMALS OR HUMANS for fighting a virus, muchless COVID, until very recently. Suddenly, it works wonders... then THAT study was found to be potentially fraudulent. So what's the conclusion? 

Logically, it should be "I'll have to wait and see, as there's no evidence that it really works. If it worked that well, I'd want to see some MORE proof. Extraordinary claim requires extraordinary evidence."

Indeed, that's the current Cochrane systematic review and meta-analysis of ivermectin and COVID conclusion based on all existing studies (will be updated as more studies are performed):

Based on the current very low- to low-certainty evidence, we are uncertain about the efficacy and safety of ivermectin used to treat or prevent COVID-19.

But now, just because some patient asked for this unproven treatment because she shopped for a doctor that will give it to her, does that means the hospital has to provide it? Apparently a judge decided that to be a "yes". Does a judge have the right to decide if a treatment is viable? Or can any patient walk into any hospital and demand a quack treatment just because she found a doctor willing to prescribe it? 

But hold on, it gets worse. 

The dose prescribed was "30 mg daily for 3 weeks". 

So what's a typical ivermectin dose? 

For intestinal deworming, the suggested dose is ONE, repeat ONE ONLY, dose of 200 mcg/kg. Assuming her husband is 100 kg (220 pounds), that's 20 mg dose.

This "doctor" has prescribed a dose 50% over that (30 mg), FOR 21 full days. 

Where did he even get this number? 

There is no science to his prescription. 

And I'll just leave you with this bit of news...

Anti-vax police Captain of Georgia town who touted ivermectin, taken quite a bit himself, and proud of his unvaccinated status, has died of COVID. 

Don't be a COVIDiot. Get vaccinated. 

RANT: Nobody will be happy about universal healthcare

Image via Wikipedia

What we got in March 2010 was not even universal healthcare, but just some health insurance reform.

In universal healthcare, nobody will be happy, and I am talking about the three parties: the people (who will use the coverage) the providers (doctors, hospitals, and etc.), and the insurers. Here's why

The people want to be covered for everything, and pay nothing. Right? The reality is they can only get covered for something, and pay a bit more than something.

Providers want to provide everything, and get paid for everything at price of their choosing. The reality is providers can only provide something, and get paid for what the insurer chooses to pay up.

Insurer want to pay providers nothing, take in lots of premiums from the people. The reality is They have to pay providers something.

The needs are mutually exclusive, and it's a THREE-WAY relationship. So in short, nobody will get everything they want. Thus, nobody will be happy when the solution is available.

Malpractice suits: who really pays at the end?

Image via Wikipedia

Did you know that in New York City, 92.2% of OB/GYN doctors have been sued for malpractice at least once? And the average is 3 times each? The effect is OB/GYN driven out of the city altogether, or just GYN, no more OB.

Another OB/GYN doctor remarked: in 1981 his medical malpractice insurance is only $8000 per year. Now it's $155000 (2009). His practice can't pay for the insurance, at about $50 per appt, so he's getting out of the business. Average malpractice insurance for non-OB/GYN doctors in NYC is $40000.

Stats show that less than 30% of the malpractice suits actually have a chance of winning. The rest are frivolous.