Wednesday, August 19, 2020

Visting The Sick in The Plague Year



Remember the reports out of Wuhan and then Italy? Pandemic disaster, right? People falling dead on the street, hospitals overwhelmed, crematoria burning 24/7 and all the rest. Scary stuff, like Journal of a Plague Year redux. Flash forward maybe 6 months, and what do we see? I went to a hospital in Waco today to find out.




Was it overwhelmed with plague victims, in the kind of crisis you'd expect from a deadly disease that's shut down the nations of the West and forced Texans, yes Texans to wear masks? No, it was not.

After passing through a viral safety checkpoint, which consisted of a crop haired girl with tattoos and a handheld thermometer gun the place was empty. Seriously, you could fire a homemade pipe canon or a trebuchet down the corridors of this Health Industry and not hit a soul.




Which made everything easy. I conducted some business with the billing section, which you can visit as much as you like, unlike the patient side which you can't, tellingly. And yes, Hillcrest's gotta look after the cash flow. 

There's a moral here, if you care to draw it. As in, how much does this place of healing get paid for the COVID-19, Chinese Bat Bug? Thousands, tens of thousands, more? Follow the money.




Regardless, thoughts of conspiracy, corruption and outright malfeasance aside, I sent flowers via the "gifte shoppe" to a church lady, along with a letter. I wasn't allowed to visit her, obviously, unlike Billing. 

But priests must care for their flock, even in times of election year plague and, thank God, underwhelmed hospitals. Then it was time to get on the deadly nightmare that is I35 and head back to base, mission accomplished.




Recce Patrol,

LSP 

22 comments:

Well Seasoned Fool said...

Wonder what impact this has on individual specialists? Both my Cardiologist and Urologist office called recently wanting me to come in for my "annual" exam. The old salesman in me heard undertones of a "sales call". One visit is now booked for mid September and the other the first day of October.

LL said...

Thanks for being there where you were needed (at Billing). Too bad about not being able to visit the sick, If the masks actually work, they should have saved you from getting the plague... but we know that's a scam too.

Anonymous said...

It’s the same here with hospitals empty, nurses and doctors making tiktok videos as they have no patients. Yet we have the absurd happy-clappy for the NHS ‘heroes’ on a weekly basis and the shifting of published data from number of deaths to number of cases to attempt to maintain this charade.

The Lancet just published a research article in which they claim to show noticeable rise of deaths in the next five years due to lack of diagnosis/treatment of four cancers (considerably understated in my opinion, and ignoring all the other conditions affected). Whilst at the same time the ONS (Office for National Statistics) monthly reports have shown that overall death rate, and specifically deaths due to all respiratory diseases this year to date, are lower than they have been in decades.

The question is why? Why when the hospitals are empty. The clinics and departments are open. Doctors and nurses are standing idle but … no patients. When, for the overwhelming majority, there’s little or no danger from Covid.

People are avoiding hospitals, even with life threatening conditions, not because services aren’t available, but through fear.

In many ways Covid resembles a dirty (radiological) bomb. The damage such a device causes is minimal. The levels of radioactivity are, at worst, what you’d get from a couple of chest x-rays, if you’re a frequent flyer, or considerably less than if you live near a coal powered power station. Yet people will flee blindly, causing more damage to themselves and others in their panic than if they’d stayed put.

Why do people act this way? I have ideas, but no real understanding. In the initial stages, yes, when there is no real data but ... am I really in a minority of people who question the narrative? That, worries me more than I'd really like to admit. That an apparent majority, around the world, will blindly follow any orders they're given, however absurd, patently wrong and even directly harmful to themselves, without question.

Jim said...

The other night I found myself having to run my wife to the local hospital's ER for a bout of severe pain that turned out to be a pinched nerve in the neck. I got her in the door, parked the car, then returned to her side neglecting to don a face diaper(GASP!). I remained barefaced the entire time I was there and not a single staff member, including at least one doctor and more than a few nurses, commented on this. I didn't even get a dirty look. This tells me something.

Adrienne said...

Before my dear friend, Mary Lynn, died, she made sure that no one could keep her priest(s) away from her. She was very organized that way. Of course, the Wuflu thing was just starting to crank up, but she was not taking any chances.

@anon The Lancet just published a research article in which they claim to show noticeable rise of deaths in the next five years due to lack of diagnosis/treatment of four cancers (considerably understated in my opinion, and ignoring all the other conditions affected).

My husband is in dire need of having his right eye entropian corrected by surgery. We keep putting it off and putting it off due to all the restrictions. We're not afraid of the Wuflu, since the North Idaho Eye Clinic is about the cleanest place I'm been in. Of course, it won't kill him, but it could cause blindness from the irritation. Some days the lower lid swelling is so bad I can hardly look at him (my optician genes kick into high gear and I want to do something, but can't.)

Jim said...

I just recalled that I forgot to disarm as well. Oops.

Kid said...

You have to admit the dems have their act together - not for America but for themselves.

- Conspire with China to create a bug to kill mostly older people who are taking money out of the till rather than putting it in
- Have China spread the virus worldwide using people on commercial aircraft for months before news of the Covey gets out
- Use the virus to concoct some BS mail-in ballot scheme potentially resulting in massive fraud favoring democrat votes.

China and the dems go back to robbing America blind, not to mention committing all their other crimes once again which are once gain back under the rug.

Anonymous said...

Adrienne

Forgive me, but I don’t understand. Your husbands condition is sufficiently severe (painful, disfiguring and potentially disabling) and yet “the restrictions” have caused you to delay treatment. Am I misunderstanding? Are there restrictions on ‘non-urgent’ surgeries, or is it the ‘rigmarole’ you will be expected to navigate? I’d say ‘bite the bullet’ and get’r’done (but I’m constitutionally a curmudgeon and don’t know the circumstances).

(If there is some justifiable, latent, subconscious concern [I don’t know whether you’re in the ‘at-risk’ group], and you can’t get prescription HCQ [as a prophylactic with Zinc and Vit D the evidence is pretty clearly positive by now] you can replace the HCQ with tonic water [Quinine] or Quercetin – both are ionophores ‘facilitating’ the transport of the zinc across the cell membrane [obviously there are no clinical studies in the current situation, and if there were you’d see ’the usual suspects’ demanding tonic water removal from stores, but their actions have been clinically documented for many years]).

Anonymous said...

Jim

It’s much the same as smoking. That was the original leftist manipulation of fear, and the ‘template‘ they openly crow about using to demonise everything from sugar to guns. Is it good for you, of course not, but it isn’t even vaguely as bad as claimed (causing everything from alopecia to zits, and an automatic, immediate death sentence).

One of the original studies (in 1947), following an up-tick in lung cancers after the war, examined smoking and ‘ionising radiation’ (the bombs). It had three groups (of white rats): a smoking group, ionising radiation and a control. The findings were ‘interesting’ and ‘political suicide’. It found that there was a significant rise in cancers in the ionising radiation group, a small rise in the control group and smoking groups. There was a ‘mistake’ made though. By accident some of the rats from the smoking group were added to the ionising radiation trial and … they showed a significant reduction (over their non-smoking furry companions). The mechanism was deemed to be an increased secretion and mucocilliary ‘clearance’ of particulates leading to the reduced rate of cancer ‘they’ caused. This was, as indicated, in the beginning of the Cold-War, political suicide (you couldn’t undermine national defence and the weapons needed for it), and so the findings were ‘altered’ to show “smoking causes cancer” - and the rest is history.

My point? Here in The UK (although rates are equivalent in The US), whilst in the past almost everybody smoked, despite everything the propagandists, doctors and scolds can do, the rate of smoking remains stable at roughly 25% of the general population. Within the professions of nursing, medicine and allied professionals though … the rates are closer to 40%.

So? The health care professionals, those with the education and knowledge, those most familiar to, not only, the research but actual clinical reality are … ‘more’ likely to smoke than everybody else. Why? Because they know it’s all bunk.

(For the record the evidence has been clear for decades that cancers, and heart disease, a predominantly ‘genetic’ in basis, with a small but significant ‘viral trigger’ eg. HPV and Coxsackie-B).

So, those ‘unconcerned’ doctors and nurses, despite having to pretend, wear the panic cosplay and do the corona dance, know it is in reality, yet again, bunk.

I can’t really speak to “forgot to disarm” there, and yes the ‘caring professions’ tend to attract the ‘guns are icky’ crowd, they also tend to attract the ex-military crowd (I worked in one hospital whhere every other person was ex-military, and nine were former my rather small unit).

So? There especially, you’d have as likely (if they could get away with it) a crowd of admirers wanting to discuss carry options and calibre as screeching harpies having ‘the vapours’. No?

LSP said...

Good question, WSF. I detect skulduggery, malfeasance and profiteering. But maybe I'm wrong.

LSP said...

LL, I'm right tired of this BS.

LSP said...

I've seen the stupid Tik Tok vids, Anon.

Like really, we're supposed to shut down our countries for this? Apparently we are. They must be DESPERATE to remove 45.

Over target.

LSP said...

I hope she's alright, Jim.

I was amazed at how empty this hospital was in a time of dire, shut the country down plague.

LSP said...

May she rest in peace, Adrienne. And I'll add your husband to my prayers.

In the meanwhile, the hospitals in Waco are empty, which is odd because we're in a pandemic.

LSP said...

Kid, I'd say you're right on the money.

LSP said...

Anon, are you recommending HCQ?

Report yourself for re-education, immediately.

Anonymous said...

LSP

I would, of course, do that but I’m no longer allowed in the re-education complex.

I’ve been accused of being every kind of ist and ic there is (I think I have the full set) and sent for indoctrination every time. Apparently pointing out errors, inconsistencies, etc. isn’t allowed though.

e.g. I trained as a nurse in a civvy hospital (one of the ‘trades’ I had to learn as part of my job) and in The UK nurse education is almost exclusively staffed by extreme lefty, lesbian feminists. One session I was singled out by the upper middle class tutor (lefty, lesbian, feminist, one of each) as the token dastardly white British male and berated that my ancestors had oppressed everyone throughout history. I pointed out that rather than my male ancestors oppressing, for example her female ancestors, the simple fact was that my poor, working class Great Grandad was more likely to have been flogged by, or sent off to war for, her rich Great Grandma. She burst into tears and refused to teach the class again, go figure.

It’s gotten so bad that for most of the mandatory racial/gender/sexual sensitivity (self-flagellation) training sessions, as soon as I arrive I’m signed as completed and told to go away. Sigh!

So, I’ll report but only if you assure me I wont be thrown out if I make the interrogator cry.

Oh, and I wasn’t recommending HCQ I’m merely trying to persuade the colonials to take up civilised (regular G&T prophylaxis) drinking habits. (I’m holding out some hope that science can demonstrate that mushy peas have some protective effect and we’ll get them eating right too. In the Aussi outback the pie floater is the height of Australian cuisine, and you aren’t hearing about the Diggers collapsing with the Wuflu are you?)

Anonymous said...

This is reminiscent of 'Kabul Today' snapshots. Any chance that President or U.S. Government can master time-travel and sort out the Black Death?

Adrienne said...

@anon

Part of the problem is a recalcitrant husband who has a very low threshold for inconvenience - something many men are guilty of(nothing personal.)

Seriously - if he had his way it would never get done. You see, that's why God planned marriage between a man and a woman. Aren't we designated as "helpmates?" Hmmmm - I think so.

Anonymous said...

Adrienne

Um ..er ... guilty as charged M'lady.

Not having ever found a lady sufficiently saint-like (or possibly masochistic) to put up with my 'professional lifestyle' (let alone my foibles) my personal experience is limited. My exemplar of 'how it should be' was my mothers second cousin, and his wife, who I only knew as Uncle and Aunt. Married for 79 years (they married when he was 18, she 16). He working in the Welsh pits (coal mines) and surviving, not one but two pit disasters (not to mention both World Wars), and thereafter became a lay preacher in the Welsh Chapel. Four children, 18 grand-children and ... I believe half of North Wales by now. Uncountable tests and travails (the likes of which most modern people would be destroyed by) and not only survived, but flourished.

Aunty B died in 1981 (a year to the day that I passed out, which they attended). He survived her by three days, and the consensus view was that he simply didn't want to survive without her.

By their example I prefer, instead of helpmates (but that too), to think in terms of an 'alloy'. Supporting each others strengths, tempering errors, bolstering weaknesses and I quite like the analogy used in 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding', "The man may be the head of the household, but ... the woman is the neck" (working with, supporting the head, and where necessary ... turning him in the right direction).

So? We may be 'difficult' (the male assumption that attending for care implies admitted weakness is something I may have some passing familiarity with [hanging head in shame])at times but you get to tempering, turn him in the right direction and ... failing that follow Aunty B's advice and limit him to only bread and peas-pudding and threaten him with the soup ladle (Hey it seemed to work on Uncle J).

P.S. Yes I did make a habit of trying to teach Granny to suck eggs.

LSP said...

Ah, Anon, when you report in for your next struggle session make sure they get your pronoun right.

"And your preferred pronoun is?"
"Major." (or whatever appropriate rank)

I think that'll help a lot. No! Dammit! You'll get get signed off as "course completed." Now we're back to the drawing board. Huh.

Used to love G&T, gives me heartburn now, annoyingly.

LSP said...

Anonymous, TIME TRAVEL. Now you're talking.