So naturally I assumed the first thing they would do is to test all the residents and staff and determine if there are any other infections. Nope. No. Not going to happen. They will only test people who become symptomatic.
Can you spot the problem with that? As you should also know by now if you have crawled out from under your rock lately, people without symptoms can be infectious. Ergo there could be 1 or 6 or 10 other people in that nursing home right now who are infecting others. Including my mother.
Why can't they test them? Because there aren't enough testing kits in Connecticut to test people who aren't symptomatic. This goes back to the beginning. We wouldn't be in such a profound crisis if the federal government hadn't bungled the ramp up of testing capacity in the first place.
[A]s the deadly virus spread from China with ferocity across the United States between late January and early March, large-scale testing of people who might have been infected did not happen — because of technical flaws, regulatory hurdles, business-as-usual bureaucracies and lack of leadership at multiple levels, according to interviews with more than 50 current and former public health officials, administration officials, senior scientists and company executives.
The result was a lost month, when the world’s richest country — armed with some of the most highly trained scientists and infectious disease specialists — squandered its best chance of containing the virus’s spread. Instead, Americans were left largely blind to the scale of a looming public health catastrophe.
And how are we going to get out of this? First, we need to be able to test a large population based sample in every part of the country to understand the current prevalence and what percentage of people turn up sick and actually get diagnosed. Then we need to have enough testing capacity to trace and test the contacts of people who are determined to be infected. Only then can we relax the lockdown and start to get back to some semblance of normalcy. But we can't do that because we don't have the testing capacity. Right now, we can't even prevent outbreaks in nursing homes where we know people have been exposed. That's the story.
8 comments:
As far as I am concerned the Republicans and Shitler are guilty of manslaughter at the least, mass murder at the worst.
That doesn't help us now.
Sean Penn was on Lawrence O'Donnell's show last night on MSNBC. As Lawrence reported, SP is doing more for the COVID-19 crisis than Shitler is. And that's a gross understatement, because SP is helping and Shitler is sowing the seeds of chaos and death. Maybe SP will run for president, but probably not.
Shitler must be removed. Now. Life is not a TV show. And it is not a death cult.
I want to leave a thoughtful comment that isn't a rambling diatribe against that freakin' idiot in the White House, but I can't. So, I'll just say I am so sorry about your mom's situation there. To have this pandemic happen during the reign of this utterly incompetent, narcissist, psychopath is unbearable.
Thanks. So far she's physically okay but the situation is confusing and scary. No visitors are allowed, all the staff are wearing masks - a lot of people in those places have got to be terrified. My mother has been having nightmares and she confuses them with reality.
so sorry about your mom's situation. robin and i are relieved that our parents are gone. both our moms lived in places. lying about the testing situation is just deliberately cruel.
Well he lies about everything. He doesn't give a shit about any human being but himself.
I appreciate Robin's comment. I'll try to be more on point ... though it does seem like the point is the 20,000,000 ton malignant elephant in the room. And that's an insult to elephants, who are really great beings. Nevertheless, the man will die. It's just to get to where he doesn't take us with him. Narcissists always "win."
Speaking of narcissists ... my own mother is in a "place" too, her third, now. She's in very good physical health for almost 92 (ambulatory, no major ailments). Her mind has been going for four years, but when we talk, she kind of "warms up" after ten minutes and remembers a few things, but not much. Her short-term memory is shot, but she knows it's shot. We have good talks because there are no memories, no more resentments and "digs" on her part, just a pleasant old lady. But when she was younger she was a terror, a rageaholic. This was in part due to medications prescribed by an OB-GYN to help her lose weight after childbirth, in the 1950s; but the uppers made her feel crazy and rageful. Combined with her narcissistic personality disorder, she was impossible to deal with. She could never be convinced of anything because the only reality was the one between her ears, and she could turn any argument on its head and toward the other person.
Narcissists always "win." And in the process, everyone else who interacts with them loses.
Don Quixote-- I was so hoping that you wouldn't take my comment as directed at you. I appreciated your comment so much and probably should have mentioned that. Shitler! What a perfect name for him. I was just trying to keep my comment short and offer my thoughts about Cervante's mom. It's hard not to go screaming off about that schmuck in the White House, but oy, I'm trying to keep my sanity and not always be in that place of outrage. My mom died in March 2018 after a 1 1/2 year decline with Alzheimer's. It was a slow unfolding tragedy, losing her to that. It took her away before she was gone. If she were alive right now she would be reading her LA Times everyday (even with the Alzheimer's). She may have forgotten my name, but she never forgot how much she despised that narcissist.
No offense taken, nor did I take it personally :-) Indeed, we have a 20,000,000-ton elephant in the room at all times these days--and that's an insult to elephants, who are intelligent and caring.
My mother has good physical health at almost 92 years of age, and we hope that her Alzheimer's decline doesn't get ugly as her mind deteriorates further. She still has her musical gift and can sing songs from 85 years ago, and is very pleasant. Her short-term memory is nonexistent.
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