How Is Covid-19 Impacting Life in Your City?

[someone123]

Originally Posted by SlidellWx

I'm shocked at the low number of ICU beds in total for a country the size of the Netherlands (population 17.5 million).

Around here 100 covid patients in ICU has been considered high (a year after original pandemic estimates showing peak utilization of 200). The population of this province is 5 million.

I'm not sure how this situation really makes sense when covid continues to work its way through the unvaccinated population and so much money is spent on society-wide initiatives with very high cost and low benefit (e.g. hobble tourism by demanding tests at borders). Usually the excuse given is that the bottleneck is qualified labour and the supply of that is perfectly inelastic. If you have $100B and 18 months you cannot expand ICU capacity. So we cannot as an arbitrary example have tourism and then spend 10% of that tax revenue on adding 50 more ICU beds.

I think in reality we just have an uncoordinated mess, a lot of it is driven by the media and anxieties that tend to fixate on narrow outcomes or measures, and a lot of the rationales are motivated reasoning or based on local constraints of the "computer says no" variety (e.g. FDA/Health Canada take forever to approve drugs known to work).

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

^ That’s obvious

If you are already paying hefty taxes for so called health care, why shell out £800 for an ultrasound?

By the way, that much money for an ultrasound of the foot is insane. Pure price gouging

Price gouging because it's private insurance.

My medical/dental insurance company is already getting premiums from me and my employer, yet I have to pay a copay. I went to my dentist last month to get a crown. My out of pocket was $1100, even though I have dental insurance. The total cost of the crown was $1600. Should I be grateful that my insurance only paid for 1/3 of it? Talk about scam.

My crown costs more than the ultrasound he hasn't gotten. The way people talk about him on here, I would think he wouldn't think twice about paying for an ultrasound himself.

I used to work at Glendale Adventist Hospital. They billed $200 for one PA/lateral chest x-ray. This was back in 2003. Price gouging indeed. Private healthcare.

[10023]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

So... why not just do it?

Part of me wants to receive something of value for the vast sums of money that I have paid to this country in taxes, just on principle. Also if you “go private” and pay for the scan yourself, then any subsequent diagnostics or treatments must also be done privately (which would end up being many thousands of pounds).

But yeah, you’re probably right, silly me for thinking the public healthcare system will actually provide healthcare to someone that isn’t a geriatric.

And it’s not private insurance. That would be purely out of pocket, paid by debit card. My supplemental private insurance considers it a pre-existing condition which they don’t have to cover here.

British healthcare sucks.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

Price gouging because it's private insurance.

My medical/dental insurance company is already getting premiums from me and my employer, yet I have to pay a copay. I went to my dentist last month to get a crown. My out of pocket was $1100, even though I have dental insurance. The total cost of the crown was $1600. Should I be grateful that my insurance only paid for 1/3 of it? Talk about scam.

My crown costs more than the ultrasound he hasn't gotten. The way people talk about him on here, I would think he wouldn't think twice about paying for an ultrasound himself.

I used to work at Glendale Adventist Hospital. They billed $200 for one PA/lateral chest x-ray. This was back in 2003. Price gouging indeed. Private healthcare.

The problem isn’t the fact that it’s private versus public. This is where I think liberals are seeking a solution that will only make things worse.

The problem is the failure, in the US, to allow market forces to correct the problem. Giant insurers and the enormous consolidated health care systems have virtual monopolies in the regions they serve, that is why they can charge whatever they want. This ill-advised notion that our employers should provide us “health” coverage is an abysmal failure and we are witnessing that every day.

Imaging centers everywhere should be popping up with their prices posted, and they should compete for your business. Let people shop for the best price and pay out of pocket for these services. I guarantee you that if you unleash the power of the real free market, prices will come down. Large health insurers and health care goliaths have enormous lobbying power and are protecting their own interests by suppressing the free market and disallowing any competition. That’s the problem

[10023]

^ Yep. In imaging it’s all about machine utilization anyway, so specialized centers could make the best use of expensive scanners. Then you can farm the reading out to radiographers in India for half the cost (or less). It’s literally the easiest possible application of telemedicine, you’re just sending JPEGs.

[TWAK]

Still no impact since February, unless I go out to Sac/LA/Bay Area then I have to wear a mask...sometimes. I bring my COVID card just in case.

[dktshb]

Looks like many countries acted immediately banning flights and travel to and from South Africa related the newly identified variant coming out of that region. Will be interesting where this leads. Hopefully nowhere. I certainly get the desire for lock downs not being an option. I just don't know what the solution is for overrun hospitals since there is equal aversion to vaccine mandates. I really feel bad for all the healthcare workers on the front lines constantly having to deal with the surges in covid patients and here we go with a new surge making its way globally and an new variant for this winter... good times.

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by dktshb

Looks like many countries acted immediately banning flights and travel to and from South Africa related the newly identified variant coming out of that region. Will be interesting where this leads. Hopefully nowhere. I certainly get the desire for lock downs not being an option. I just don't know what the solution is for overrun hospitals since there is equal aversion to vaccine mandates. I really feel bad for all the healthcare workers on the front lines constantly having to deal with the surges in covid patients and here we go with a new surge making its way globally and an new variant for this winter... good times.

Biden is banning travel to the US from South Africa and some other African nations... but why isn't he banning travel from the UK and Belgium, where this variant has also been detected?

[the urban politician]

^ Because it’s all a waste of time and we need to move in, that’s why

[10023]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

Biden is banning travel to the US from South Africa and some other African nations... but why isn't he banning travel from the UK and Belgium, where this variant has also been detected?

Because this “new variant” is already everywhere. You don’t think anyone had travelled from SA to the US with it before they’d sequenced the thing? Banning travel is pointless.

[mousquet]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

^ Because it’s all a waste of time and we need to move in, that’s why

Short lesson about some move semantics.

Always, people from impoverished countries (because of corruption by local governments, not so much because any so-called new imperialism) move to wealthier countries to find opportunities and make a better living. I would do the same if I was born in Rwanda or in Mali. You would do the very same if you were from, say Afghanistan, Cambodia or El Salvador.

I really don't see why people in the US would move, until their empire collapses from arrogance and decadence, as all empires throughout mankind always did.
There never was any exception thus far. No empire was peaceful and quiet enough to remain.

[TWAK]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

Biden is banning travel to the US from South Africa and some other African nations... but why isn't he banning travel from the UK and Belgium, where this variant has also been detected?

He's telling them to lockdown or else we are gonna have to do it for them.

[10023]

Originally Posted by mousquet

Short lesson about some move semantics.

Always, people from impoverished countries (because of corruption by local governments, not so much because any so-called new imperialism) move to wealthier countries to find opportunities and make a better living. I would do the same if I was born in Rwanda or in Mali. You would do the very same if you were from, say Afghanistan, Cambodia or El Salvador.

I really don't see why people in the US would move, until their empire collapses from arrogance and decadence, as all empires throughout mankind always did.
There never was any exception thus far. No empire was peaceful and quiet enough to remain.

What are you talking about?

[the urban politician]

As soon as the media starts talking about the “scary new variant” on TV I immediately change the channel

I recommend others do the same. Actually, don’t even watch cable news. Even better

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by mousquet

Short lesson about some move semantics.

And i thought you were going to tell us something about modern c++.

[montréaliste]

Originally Posted by 10023

Because this “new variant” is already everywhere. You don’t think anyone had travelled from SA to the US with it before they’d sequenced the thing? Banning travel is pointless.

So, if banning travel is pointless, barring the UK’s ban on travel to SA, would you yourself travel there, and would you also chuck the mask since you are double vaxxed?

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

Biden is banning travel to the US from South Africa and some other African nations... but why isn't he banning travel from the UK and Belgium, where this variant has also been detected?

Ultimately, banning travel won't work by itself. But what it can do with a competent public health establishment is to minimize the number of people coming into the country carrying the "variant of concern", keeping those numbers within the capacity of public health workers to track, isolate and trace their contacts.

Unfortunately, the US CDC has so far not proven itself competent and I don't have much hope they will take the opportunity they are being handed but we'll see.

This variant is apparently different from previous ones in many respects but the important one here is that it can be detected with the routine PCR test already required of international airline passengers. That should mean that travelers carrying it could be blocked at the country of origin but failing that they can be identified and traced after landing if the numbers are limited.

My guess is that if those numbers become significant in European countries, flights from the one countries may be halted but for now there are only a couple of cases in Europe. As the idea of lockdowns and the rest in early 2020 was to "flatten the curve", the idea here should be to keep the numbers of people entering the country carrying this variant within the capability to trace, and isolate . . . if we are even trying. Otherwise, it probably is pointless to block the travel because the variant will get here and we can only hope it isn't that much more transmissible than delta and that the vaccines work against it.

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by montréaliste

So, if banning travel is pointless, barring the UK’s ban on travel to SA, would you yourself travel there, and would you also chuck the mask since you are double vaxxed?

He probably would because he thinks his gym-toned physique makes him invulnerable. And having had covid as well as being vaccinated, he may well have more immunity than most of us.

But because he would do what you suggest doesn't mean rational people should.

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by someone123

Around here 100 covid patients in ICU has been considered high (a year after original pandemic estimates showing peak utilization of 200). The population of this province is 5 million.

I'm not sure how this situation really makes sense when covid continues to work its way through the unvaccinated population and so much money is spent on society-wide initiatives with very high cost and low benefit (e.g. hobble tourism by demanding tests at borders). Usually the excuse given is that the bottleneck is qualified labour and the supply of that is perfectly inelastic. If you have $100B and 18 months you cannot expand ICU capacity. So we cannot as an arbitrary example have tourism and then spend 10% of that tax revenue on adding 50 more ICU beds.

I think in reality we just have an uncoordinated mess, a lot of it is driven by the media and anxieties that tend to fixate on narrow outcomes or measures, and a lot of the rationales are motivated reasoning or based on local constraints of the "computer says no" variety (e.g. FDA/Health Canada take forever to approve drugs known to work).

Because there are apparently 304 ICU beds capable of taking care of patients on ventilators in British Columbia. You are talking about reducing that normal capacity by ⅓. Either the province is egregiously oversupplied with ICU beds or those 100 being occupied with covid patients means people with strokes, heart attacks and severe trauma who need one of the beds won't be getting it and people don't like being told their relative died for lack of an appropriate bed since that bed was taken up by someone with covid.

[10023]

Originally Posted by montréaliste

So, if banning travel is pointless, barring the UK’s ban on travel to SA, would you yourself travel there, and would you also chuck the mask since you are double vaxxed?

I would love to go to Cape Town for Christmas. Actually looked at doing so a few weeks ago, but the flights this year were ridiculously expensive. I know several people who will be there over Xmas and NYE, including a friend who’s been in Malawi for the last couple months (conservation work). Another friend will still go, but now will have to return to London via the US again like last year.

Instead we’re going to Florida for a couple weeks in December. If they tighten rules here, we will just stay there rather than coming back for Christmas.