Thread by @PDXJournalist

Biden c19 team cont'd:

Robert Rodriguez: UCSF emergency medicine professor

Latino.

Covid hysteric: the work he did in Brownsville was "the hardest experience of my life...treating the sickest patients that I had ever seen in my career"

Focused on identity-politics of c19.

Looks like Cameron County, where Rodriguez went, used a ton of ventilators...and has a high covid death rate. Sounds like Elmhurst in NYC. #PoorPeopleAreGoodToTrainOn

krgv.com/news/cameron-c…

One hospital "had 199 coronavirus patients Tuesday, with 73 on ventilators" -almost 1/2

Oh...and its the hospital that Rodriguez was at.

abc7news.com/cameron-county…

"Brownsville's Valley Baptist Hospital, where Rodriguez has been volunteering in one of four ICU's they've created for the pandemic."

texastribune.org/2020/07/14/tex…

At Valley Baptist Medical Centers in Brownsville and Harlingen...there were people waiting in the emergency room hallways for treatment this week, said Dr. Jamil Madi, medical director of the ICU in Harlingen. The hospitals are nearly out of ventilators..

..and are starting to consider older models and disaster ventilators that are less optimal for treating the virus, he said.
There’s nothing else other than COVID. … You treat COVID, you look at COVID, you see COVID, you smell COVID, you hear COVID. Everything’s COVID,” Madi said

kalb.com/content/news/L…
3 months earlier in Louisiana, hyperbaric therapy: "So far, each patient that's received treatment has seen positive results.
“All six patients have responded very well to therapy, with some of them being discharged already,"

hyperbariclink.com/treatment-cent…

Valley Baptist has hyperbaric therapy. No mention of it being offered as treatment for covid19 to be found.

One more thing...the huge financial incentive for diagnosing patients as covid+ and using ventilators is very alluring for hospitals like Valley Baptist that have lots of poor patients. kff.org/uninsured/issu…
Appx $14k for respiratory patient, $40k for vent + 20% from CARES act

And for those indignant at the idea of widespread medical fraud/error, here's an example beyond the well-known studies showing widespread fraud/error:

oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oe…
Medicare Administrative Contractors conducted prepayment reviews that resulted in the denial of more..

than 90 percent of claims for noninvasive pressure support ventilators, primarily for deficient clinical documentation...(because) suppliers could bill Medicare for the device as if
it were being used as a ventilator, when use of a lower
cost CPAP device or RAD is indicated"

90%

wallethub.com/edu/healthiest… Notice which city is at the Very Bottom of the list of - Brownsville. This could also speak to their high death rate.