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Sam Whitehead Profile picture
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26 Aug, 8 tweets, 4 min read
So, this is pretty stunning. @GaDPH is asking people to not go to the ER for non emergencies, because they're so overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients. Check out the full release below.

1/n
#gapol #coronavirusGA
@GaDPH I've been seeing a lot of chatter on here for the last few weeks about hospitals here or there being busy and on diversion. For the state's public health agency to feel like things were SO BAD they had to send this out ... yikes.

2/n
@GaDPH DPH stresses if you're having an emergency, you should still call 911 or go to an ER.

It doesn't go as far as saying "stay away for non emergencies," though the header of the release implies that.

So how can you reduce the burden on ERs?

3/n
@GaDPH Get vaccinated, DPH says. Which they've been saying for some time, and we see how that's been working.

Georgia's response? Send out national guard troops, $125m for more staff (but where those staff come from, who knows).

4/n
@GaDPH So, I guess, good luck not getting into a situation where you need ER care?

5/end
@GaDPH Sorry, one more thought.

Remember how scary it was to hear about parts of northern Italy rationing care in the early days of the pandemic? This is that.

6/end end
@GaDPH Seeing some comments that its COVID-19 testing swamping ERs. Maybe that's some of the issue, but from what I've heard from people working there, it's not like they're overwhelmed by how many noses they have to swab.
@GaDPH Also, whether or not it's your experience, there are so many people for whom an ER is where they get care, plain and simple. It's not that they don't know any better, it's likely because they don't have any better.

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More from @sclaudwhitehead

Sam Whitehead Profile picture
22 Jan
THIS: It's a little late, but here is the final White House Coronavirus Task Force report from the Trump administration. It features some lessons learned from the federal officials on the panel, many that speak directly to the situation in Georgia.

bit.ly/3odxVUR

1/n
- Georgia is back to 6th in the country for new cases in the week leading up to 1.17 (not long ago we were doing better than nearly every other state)
- 5th in the country for test positivity
- 97 percent of all counties in the state in the "red zone"

2/n
It's the recommendations that are the most interesting (we know things are bad here).

"Mask mandates work," it reads. "Any indoor space where masks cannot be worn ... must be substantially curtailed or closed."

This rec has been here before, but not so bluntly.

3/n
3/n
Read 12 tweets
Sam Whitehead Profile picture
21 Jan
YES, ANOTHER THREAD: @GovKemp says more COVID-19 shots will be made available to the general public. Georgia's weekly allocation will go from 80k > 120k doses because already shots have been set aside for long-term care facilities.

1/n
@GovKemp Kemp stressed, in a presser that just wrapped, that there will still be much more demand than supply, eve with the bumped up allocation. He says the state isn't ready to move into later vaccine phases, which would open up vaccination to other groups.

2/n
@GovKemp Kemp says the state's 120k shot a week allocation hasn't changed and it's not clear if it will with the new administration. He says he will provide that info as quickly as he can if things change.

So far, about .5m Georgians have been vaccinated, with about 2m total in 1a+

3/n
Read 9 tweets
Sam Whitehead Profile picture
21 Jan
More health budget hearings happening this morning at the Georgia Capitol and by Zoom. First up, @GADCH which oversees Medicare and Medicaid and regulates LTC facilities in Georgia, which have been hit hard by the pandemic.

Stream here: bit.ly/3iAi3eg

#gapol

1/many
@GADCH About 1/3 of all COVID deaths in the state have been among people in long-term care facilities.

Though, DCH only shares info on facilities with 25 beds or more. Not a lot of good data on deaths linked to smaller settings in the state.

2/n
@GADCH Commissioner Berry: "We have had more children and families become eligible for Medicaid than ever before" during the pandemic.

A substantial amount of Georgia's budget goes to covering part of the costs for Medicaid, some of those costs come from the feds.

3/n
Read 31 tweets
Sam Whitehead Profile picture
20 Jan
INBOX: @RWalensky, the new head of @CDCgov promises a "comprehensive review of all existing guidance related to COVID-19" and that "comprehensive review of all existing guidance related to COVID-19."

Full statement below.

1/n
@RWalensky @CDCgov The press release came just a few hours after Biden was sworn in.

There was lots of meddling from Trump administration officials in the CDC's previous pandemic guidance, which we learned from folks like @apoorva_nyc @ddiamond @Pien_Huang and others.

2/n
@RWalensky @CDCgov @apoorva_nyc @ddiamond @Pien_Huang I kinda thought we could start to see CDC guidance to change in the coming days with new leadership, and it looks like that will be the case.

It would be GREAT if @CDCgov took the time to lay out all the changes in a public, explicit way, line by line.

3/n
Read 5 tweets
Sam Whitehead Profile picture
19 Jan
Two numbers from my conversation with @GNRHealth's director, Dr. Arona, I can't stop thinking about.

Number 1: Last week, her department, which serves Gwinnett, Newton, and Rockdale got 1200 vaccine doses.

There are close to 1m people in Gwinnett county, alone.

1/n
@GNRHealth Sure, they don't all qualify for the current phase of vaccination (and other non-public providers are also getting shots).

Even so, that doesn't strike me as a lot of doses for a district that includes one of the state's most populous counties.

2/n
@GNRHealth Number 2: In the early days of vaccination, as many as 75% of the shots the district handed out were to people who DID NOT live in Gwinnett, Newton, or Rockdale.

Even if that was just, like, one day of appointments, that's very few actual locals getting shots.

3/n
Read 5 tweets
Sam Whitehead Profile picture
19 Jan
We're nearing the end of the @GaDPH budget hearing and we're just now getting in the numbers.

The big takeaway? Most of the things the state has been doing to fight the pandemic has been funded by the feds.

Here's a slide breaking down some of that money.

1/n
#gapol
@GaDPH And it looks, from Toomey's slides, that there isn't really a request for more state money to supplement that.

Some state money goes to matching federal grants, Toomey says, but needing to have that money has made them careful about what grants to take.

2/n
@GaDPH So, in the middle of a pandemic that's not under control, in the middle of a vaccine rollout that's not going all that smoothly, Georgia looks like it will continue to rely on the feds to fund their response.

3/n
Read 8 tweets

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