Heading toward hell in a handbasket

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back on January 23, 2021 in a blog post I made a guess that in another six months our pandemic emergency would end. I was wrong – we instead got the delta variant.

 

On August 31, 2021 there is a press release titled Gov. Little activates National Guard again, directs hundreds of new medical personnel to help Idaho hospitals overwhelmed with unvaccinated COVID-19 patients. Near the end it mentions ‘crisis standards of care’, a dire phrase which denotes that we might not be able to help everyone and resort to triage. There is a long Crisis Standards of Care document and a briefer Whitepaper.

 

On September 2, 2021 there is an article by Katie Terhune at KTVB7 titled Idaho doctors express frustration, grave warnings as COVID-19 crisis state looms. Another article on September 3, 2021 at AP by Rebecca Boone is titled ‘Loss of hope’: Idaho hospitals crushed by COVID-19 surge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The chart from Johns Hopkins University shown above describes the current situation. Back on December 7, 2020 the previous peak was at 1653 cases; on September 2, 2021 we hit 1567 cases. Our situation likely will get worse before it gets better.

 

The image of a basket was adapted from this one at Wikimedia Commons.