Thread by @APhilosophae

Thread.
I was recently sent this article by a Journalist from a major paper with the words:
“Things get blurry.”
archive.is/QfkDm

Now, it wasn’t the author of the piece, but rather a Journalist who was asking with this short caption about how my Jeffersonian beliefs view an individual States apparent failure to provide necessary healthcare during a pandemic. Fair enough.

I thought what better way to answer than to make a thread outlining my thoughts on the situation in Idaho, whether we can apply the Jeffersonian concepts that I believe in to what is now happening, and then offer a few thoughts on the national situation as it stands.

Idaho has a population of about 1.8Million people, and roughly 2,500 staffed hospital beds across the state. Of these, about 400 are ICU beds. These 400 beds are distributed among what appears to be 49 different ICU's across the state, 9 of which are Level 1 Units which will...

keep their beds available for Level 1 patients as they arrive be they Stroke, Trauma, or STEMI.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_h…

If each unit is roughly the same size, that means you have about 8 patients per ICU. If 9 of those are Level 1 and wont have COVID patients so they can serve the rest of the State the required services, ...

we're looking at about 70 of those Statewide ICU beds not available from the get go to COVID patients.

So, our starting point is somewhere closer to 330 beds. The likelihood that all 330 are taken up by COVID patients at any given time is low. And we know those units aren’t all similarly sized, ...

its just an example of how total bed numbers aren’t representative of capability, something the often cited Forbes article on ICU beds entirely failed to represent. forbes.com/sites/niallmcc…

Its truly a poor marker and tells us little. We're likely looking at much fewer than 330 beds available at the outset which are capable of accepting COVID ICU patients.

And in truth, the States own COVID Dashboard shows the upper limit of ICU beds to be 200 which I can accept as accurate.
public.tableau.com/app/profile/id…

Over 21 months of COVID (Jan 2020) Idaho has seen about 2,300 deaths +/-. That averages out to about 111 deaths per month over the course of all this.
public.tableau.com/app/profile/id…

Further, another interesting bit of insight is that in viewing the States Covid Dashboard, on Sept. 3 the State altered the ICU bed reporting guidelines.

This means, that prior to Sept. 3 the State reported all ICU beds, regardless of staffing, and they included pediatric beds which of course adults couldn't utilize. With the earlier style of reporting, the States COVID dashboard gave the appearance of all is well in the system.

As soon as the reporting guidelines changed (only ICU beds that are open, Staffed, and available for occupancy) we saw a sharp drop off that made it appear as if the State has all of a sudden been overrun with ICU cases.

The current dashboard shows 11 ICU beds available, putting them at about 95% Capacity.

Idaho also spends about 16% of GDP in Healthcare related costs. New York State is comparable at 17% of GDP. Other States, such as New York aren’t as clear in how they report ICU beds, meaning what is the definition of an available ICU bed?

Similar to how Idaho reported prior to Sept. 3 or after? With no consensus definition there is no way to know.

All of this to say we exist in a society where large Federally guided and influenced healthcare systems exist across the country and within every State. No State is alone in their actions, handling, management, or funding of healthcare within their State.
heritage.org/article/the-tr…

The States have been forced for decades and decades to fall in line with the Federal system, its rules, guidelines, regulations and massive programs whether they like it or not.

And some do like it, and all abuse it. And this coercive, dumpster fire of a relationship has produced the system we now have.

If it is working regarding Covid then central government may be an answer in this case. If it is failing then central government may be the problem in this case.

But to blame or cheer on any state as if its healthcare infrastructure were independent from decades of massive federal guidance and influence, simply is not true. It's all interwoven with the federal government.

Perhaps, had each State (and even large potential City-States such as NY, LA or Houston) a bit more independence 100 years ago we may have seen a better managed result today. But we'll never know, as the federally managed system we live in has produced the result we are living in

So, the placement of blame based upon some fault of a States hospital infrastructure falling short isn’t applicable to Jeffersonianism. Maybe we can blame the State for playing ball with the Federal government? Maybe we can blame the Federal government? Maybe we can blame it all?

But it’s a pointless attempt to place blame of a wholly mismanaged (or purpose-driven) event across an entire national system on a singular area in a single moment of time.

Our focus on masks, vaccines, and movement passports have contributed as much to the continuation of this nonsense as anything.

I find it keenly interesting that few are talking about the problematic nature of vaccination campaigns mid-pandemic and how such actions can lead to variants as we know these vaccines only reduce the worst acute symptoms, not transmission, susceptibility, or anything else.

As vaxx's have gone up, so to have case numbers, the # of variants, and the number of breakthrough cases. In Mongolia, the deaths perfectly trend with vaccination efforts. Many will blame the Chinese vaccine being used, but lets not put on Neo-Americana blinders at this point.

In some areas of the UK and across Israel more vaccinated patients are hospitalized than unvaccinated, and likely true soon if not already true in certain areas of the US.

Once more people are vaccinated than unvaccinated, the likelihood is that the vaccinated will be the primary ones spreading the variants. And this is now in many places both globally and in the US. Case numbers are higher now more than ever.
theexpose.uk/2021/07/19/pat…

We know for example that in the the CDC found in the Cape Cod incident 75% of the infected were vaccinated, and that they were just as likely to transmit the virus as the not vaccinated.
upi.com/Health_News/20…

If the vaxxed have far lessened symptoms, then we suspect they are more likely to spread the virus because they may have little to no symptoms, or only have a small cold or some congestion while going about their daily lives in public as superspreaders.

And it is the unvaccinated who we are told have an 11x more likely chance of serious reaction to the virus than the vaccinated. Once they catch it, the likelihood that they are stricken with severe illness means they wont be out and about spreading Covid.

They’ll be home with severe flu like symptoms according the experts. So, then they cant be out spreading it because they're home sick in bed or at the hospital we're being told. It must be the vaccinated out and about spreading the virus.

If anything it now appears it is a pandemic spread by the vaccinated, and suffered by and blamed on the unvaccinated.

Its also a bit facile to now call those who don't want the vaccination "anti-vaxxers" when we've ZERO long term data on the vaccination and many of those weary get flu vaccines and have every other childhood vaccination that has provided long term data in its safety and efficacy.

We're just now seeing journals and major outlets report or begin to study pregnancy and fertility risk, childhood myocarditis, long term neurocognitive risks, among many other things.
medrxiv.org/content/10.110…

Its now established that the spike proteins unique to Covid can themselves cross the blood brain barrier through ACE which lines our endothelial vasculature.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

And now that date is coming in we're, what, a year out? Is that long term? What happens in 3 years? 5? 10?

My personal belief is that history will look unfavorably on the Centralized Federal government which has for 150 years devoured the Constitution and ruled by decree, loophole, and phony mandate,

I’ll finish my thoughts by showing you just how far we’ve come in our thinking in as few as 10 years.

This 2011 NPR article on how 110 years ago vaccination was compelled in the US by the State and no effort was taken to ensure the vaccines were safe. Many People were forced to receive the vaccine against their will, and some African-Americans at gunpoint
npr.org/2011/04/05/135…

Willrich is quoted in the NPR article as saying “it’s a shocking scene and very much at odds with our daily-held notions of American liberty.” NPR this very year advocates for State mandated vaccines and, like other major press, seem willing to have the State do so by any measure

Currently they are proponents of a policy in which people will lose their jobs if they aren’t vaccinated. No job means no money, no money means no food or house. Making people jobless, homeless, and starving to force vaccination is the current standard.
npr.org/2021/09/10/103…

We have failed one another, again. When will we learn? Or have we, and perhaps we are now in some purpose driven experiment with aims disguised as public health? Time will tell.
Be kind to your neighbors.