Coronavirus Outbreak

[JimFoxvog]

A friend of mine died of COVID a few days ago. He was 85 but still active until his sickness as the village handyman and in the Gideons. He wasn't into wearing a mask.

A friend of mine is recovering from surgery for mouth cancer.
If he would have smoked or chewed tobacco people would have said that was the cause.
But he never smoked or chewed tobacco in his life.
Similar extrapolation.

I'm not saying that not wearing a mask was the cause. Being with others who didn't may well have been. And when he caught it, before being symptomatic, he would have been spreading it; something a kind man like him would really not want to do.

[Jazman]

https://www.oann.com/cdc-reveals-hospit ... 19-deaths/

The latest numbers from the CDC reveal hospitals have been counting patients who died from serious preexisting conditions as COVID-19 deaths.

[video][/video]

I personally, cannot take anything from OAN with seriousness... has this outlet now replaced Fox as the go to place for "conservatives"?

[Robert]

I personally, cannot take anything from OAN with seriousness... has this outlet now replaced Fox as the go to place for "conservatives"?

Instead of discrediting the source, discredit the data. Show where they are wrong. Just coming in and attacking a source with no facts sounds ... biased.

I agree that OAN does have a bias. I also agree that all media is biased, most (90%+) to the left. It doesn't hurt to hear opposing views and data. I can guarantee that the data is being manipulated by the left leaning media.

Whether it is 130,000 or 80,000 or 50,000, this is happening and it is contaminating the data.

Yes, there are people dying from Covid that is not documented. This happens from all causes of death. The percentages are small and are not distorting the data near as bad as this issue.

[Swiss Bro]

Second wave hit Switzerland hard and we have new restrictions, call it a soft lockdown. Last Sunday we were still singing in church albeit with masks. Today it was back to no singing but at least we can still meet fot the time being as in Zurich the threshold is 50 persons, not counting the folks having a function and also not counting the kids who are strictly separated from the adults for Sunday school. As we are a small congreagation this means virtually all who want to attend physically can do so. The advantage of not being a megachurch... still we also broadcasted our first ever livesteam service for those preferring to stay at home.

[barnhart]

This sounds familiar Swiss Bro. We are limited to 25% of building capacity, we sing but masks worn properly are mandatory. We also stream for those at home. Hot zones are undergoing shut down but the numbers are creeping up all over. I suspect we will soon be in a general shut down again.

[JimFoxvog]

Instead of discrediting the source, discredit the data. Show where they are wrong. Just coming in and attacking a source with no facts sounds ... biased.

I agree that OAN does have a bias. I also agree that all media is biased, most (90%+) to the left. It doesn't hurt to hear opposing views and data. I can guarantee that the data is being manipulated by the left leaning media.

Whether it is 130,000 or 80,000 or 50,000, this is happening and it is contaminating the data.

Yes, there are people dying from Covid that is not documented. This happens from all causes of death. The percentages are small and are not distorting the data near as bad as this issue.

The thing I noticed in the clip was that because some COVID deaths were attributed to pneumonia, they claimed that attributing them to COVID was wrong. COVID often causes pneumonia. This sort of error is either severe ignorance or trying to be deliberately misleading; it made it not worthwhile to watch to the end as the source was completely discredited.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articl ... d-covid-19

[Judas Maccabeus]

Instead of discrediting the source, discredit the data. Show where they are wrong. Just coming in and attacking a source with no facts sounds ... biased.

I agree that OAN does have a bias. I also agree that all media is biased, most (90%+) to the left. It doesn't hurt to hear opposing views and data. I can guarantee that the data is being manipulated by the left leaning media.

Whether it is 130,000 or 80,000 or 50,000, this is happening and it is contaminating the data.

Yes, there are people dying from Covid that is not documented. This happens from all causes of death. The percentages are small and are not distorting the data near as bad as this issue.

The thing I noticed in the clip was that because some COVID deaths were attributed to pneumonia, they claimed that attributing them to COVID was wrong. COVID often causes pneumonia. This sort of error is either severe ignorance or trying to be deliberately misleading; it made it not worthwhile to watch to the end as the source was completely discredited.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articl ... d-covid-19

You are entirely correct here. I liked down the list, and many of the diagnosis's they listed as "not Covid were in fact things you commonly see in patients on a vent, particularly ARDS. To say someone died of ARDS and Covid was not the cause is Malarkey. The suggestion that patients with malignancies and ESRD "would have died anyway" is pointless speculation. People live with these conditions for 10+ years.

Ad to cause of death being manipulated to increase the reimbursement, this is similar to the above. The increased reimbursement is triggered by ICD-10 codes related to Covid 19, NOT the cause of death. As long as they have Covid, the hospital will incur the extra expanse related to the patient's treatment, therefor the increased reimbursement. The cause of death is irrelevant to reimbursement.

As to practitioners manipulating diagnoses to gain higher reimbursement, this could get you a fine, or even jail time. But even worse, waste, fraud and abuse (Which is what this alleges) can get a practitioner excluded from the Medicare/Medicaid program. This is like capital punishment for a career. No one will hire you, allow you on staff or give you privileges to practice. They won't get paid for what you do, this is the end for you. Private insurers typically won't have someone as a panel provider either. I knew a cardiologist that was given this penalty due to a charge of placing unnecessary cardiac stents. I would personally disagree with this finding, but that matters little. Right now, he is in Japan as far as I know. He essentially cannot practice in the US.

To think that people would risk careers for a slight (20%) boost in reimbursements requires more than a little cynicism. I have never been asked to alter an ICD-10 code incorrectly to gain more reimbursement, and would not do so even if asked.

Whoever wrote this piece has no clue how clinical medicine actually works, and surely has never been in an acute care setting.

J.M.

[mike]

236,505 deaths from the virus.

The third and record wave of daily new cases is showing possible signs of weakness. We may be near the peak.



The better news is that daily new deaths from the virus have still been nothing like the numbers we saw in the first and second waves. There has been an incremental increase in the 7-day average from 704 at its low point after the second wave to 851 now.



Our World in Data has now updated the excess deaths through September 13, when the deaths were down to 9% above expected level.

[Dan Z]

The third and record wave of daily new cases is showing possible signs of weakness. We may be near the peak.

I see that slight flattening of the increase over the last three days. That would be great if it did actually represent the beginning of a peak...although I'd note that there were similar flatenings in the middle of July and the middle of Oct that turned out to only be glitches in the upward trajectory. We'll need more than three days of easing to see a trend. Models continue to point to an ongoing rise in infections through the next few months.

I suspect some governors out here in the upper Midwest will begin to tighten things down once election day is passed.

I do share your thankfulness that death rates are not following infection rates directly at this point.

[mike]

We'll need more than three days of easing to see a trend.

This is true. However, a few more days like the last several will affect the curve.