It’s another big “thoughts and prayers” weekend in Texas!
Gunman Kills 8, Injures 7 in Mass Shooting at Allen Outlets
But wait, there’s more...
16-year-old killed in shooting altercation at Houston after-prom party
Those 2nd Amendment extremists can celebrate their free-dumb even more now.
The far right NRA governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, doesn’t want Texans to dwell on all those corpses that keep piling up in his state under his watch. So he’s creating a distraction by bussing more migrants to Chicago.
In letter to Chicago mayor, Gov. Abbott vows to keep busing migrants
Texas Republicans only care about you if you’re a fetus. Once you’re born, you take second place to assault weapons in terms of affection.
If you’re moving to Texas, get ready for gun-crazy fascist hell.
In a hundred years, what are the great-grandchildren of these anti-vaxxers going to think of their idiot ancestors when they see pictures of them at the Early 21st Century Museum of Trumpist Stupidity?
Jason McElyea says people overdosing on anti-parasitic drug that some people believe without evidence can cure or treat Covid
It’s bad enough that anti-vaxxers are overcrowding hospitals when they come down with COVID-19 which could have been prevented or mitigated with a free vaccination.
Now the idiots are putting further strain on hospitals and medical professionals by overdosing on livestock dewormer.
Emergency Room patients in Oklahoma suffering from heart attacks, gunshot wounds, and highway injuries now have to compete with MAGA zombies who had foolishly been gorging themselves on Ivermectin.
“The [emergency rooms] are so backed up that gunshot victims were having hard times getting to facilities where they can get definitive care and be treated.
“Ambulances are stuck at the hospital waiting for a bed to open so they can take the patient in and they don’t have any, that’s it. If there’s no ambulance to take the call, there’s no ambulance to come to the call.”
McElyea told the Tulsa World a colleague was forced to send one severely ill Covid patient to a hospital in South Dakota, three states away to the north.
“They had sat in a small hospital needing to be in an [intensive care unit] for several days, and that was the closest ICU that was available,” he said.
The article didn’t specify the location in South Dakota, but the nearest city there to Tulsa is Yankton. That’s 560 miles/901 km.
An 8.5 hour ambulance ride while on a ventilator doesn’t sound pleasant. A direct route by air, presuming one is available, would still be 489 miles/787 km.
According to Johns Hopkins University, in the past week Oklahoma has recorded more than 18,400 cases and 189 deaths. The same source puts the death toll in Oklahoma over 8,000, out of more than 647,000 across the US.
The vast majority of US hospitalisations and deaths are among unvaccinated people. Amid opposition to vaccines and public health mandates stoked by Republican politicians, conservative media and disinformation on social media, many have turned to ivermectin.
It doesn’t help that misinformation spreaders like Joe Rogan are making things worse.
This week, the influential podcaster Joe Rogan, who has been dismissive of vaccines, announced he had tested positive for Covid and was taking ivermectin.
It’s better to listen to reputable medical professionals than to moronic anti-science blowhards when it comes to matters of public health. Seriously, do you want to risk blindness because Tucker Carlson or Joe Rogan are encouraging you to take Ivermectin?
The American Medical Association appealed for an “immediate end” to the drug’s use, outside studies seeking to determine if the drug has any use against Covid-19, with federal and state regulators tracking side effects and hospital admissions.
A panel from the National Institutes of Health found “insufficient evidence” for or against using the drug for Covid-19.
In Oklahoma, McElyea said: “Some people taking inappropriate doses have actually put themselves in worse conditions than if they’d caught Covid. The scariest one that I’ve heard of and seen is people coming in with vision loss.
“You have to ask yourself, ‘If I take this medicine, what am I going to do if something bad happens?’ What’s your next step, what’s your back-up plan?”
Show some horse sense and get vaccinated. It’s a lot safer than quack medicines. And the free vaccination is enormously cheaper than an ambulance ride (not covered by insurance) to a hospital three states away.
A Happy Meteorological Winter to our friends in Texas!
Considering that Texas is on the free-dumb power grid rather than on one of the main US grids, here are some gift suggestions for our chill buddies in the Lone Star State.
batteries
crank radio
mittens
an ax suitable for chopping firewood
solar water heater
did I say batteries?
If you’re lucky, you might get Sen. Lyin’ Ted Cruz to take you with him the next time he flees a power emergency to take refuge in Cancún.
With vaccines readily available, many patients are once again on the hook for deductibles and co-pays.
If you are unvaccinated for COVID-19 and then are hospitalized because you caught the virus, you are going to pay more for your entirely preventable hospitalization.
Your free-dumb to spurn free vaccinations will earn you humongous hospital bills that may take you years to pay off.
Coronavirus patients who end up hospitalized — the vast majority of whom are unvaccinated — are increasingly likely to be on the hook for their medical bills, according to a new KFF analysis.
[ ... ]
The typical deductible in an employer health plan is $1,644, per KFF, and hospitalization for coronavirus treatment could amount to around $1,300 in out-of-pocket costs.
Vaccinated people with breakthrough cases of COVID rarely require hospitalization.
The unvaccinated are overwhelming hospitals in Alabama. The state has been running out of ICU beds.
Alabama out of ICU beds amid COVID surge
People who refuse to get vaccinated should pay for the burden they are putting on the rest of us.
