Ever have a moment of clarity when madness surrounds you? It’s weird, but I’m kinda happy again. I’m sure that it will pass.
70% of the hospital is covid now.
We have 36 full ER beds, only enough staff for 24, 20 of them are either admitted or psych patients waiting for placement. Basic CTs are taking 10+ hours to get.
I need to get all these tests done, I’m high risk. - person who didn’t get covid vaccine
I’m not high risk (h/o DM, HTN, CAD, MI, TAVR, CVA)
COVID patients now my favorite because I can admit/discharge them after walking them for a few minutes based on the oxygen levels.
Yeah, totally. At some point things get out of control enough that I no longer believe I can change the situation, and I stop struggling. Great relief follows. So sorry this situation has reached that point again.
Totally agree. The problem(s) I’m addressing aren’t really the issue, it’s the idea in my head that “this is not the way things are supposed to be”. When I can accept things as they are at any given moment, I’m more free to do what I need to do. It’s a subtle perspective shift.
Update: one friend still in ICU, feels better but still not out of the woods completely
Other friend is scheduled to get his first shot on Thursday. A paraphrase of his motivation: the primary reason I’m getting it is because I can’t afford the hospital bill that comes with not getting it. He’s in between jobs trying to setup a small business and is lacking health insurance at the moment. People sure do love that stuff.
The messed up part is all the people who think because they have health insurance they won’t still owe massive money if they have to spend time in the ICU in USA#1.
Sorry that ventilator tube was an out-of-network contractor. $80,000 please!
“Yeah, you got visited by an out of network doc a few times while you were unconscious. Guess we’ll see how much we can get out of you in the bankruptcy proceedings. Enjoy!”
Just in case anybody is on the edge of their seat wondering how Phil Valentine is doing, there’s been an update:
FRANKLIN, Tenn. (WKRN) — Conservative radio talk show host Phil Valentine remains in “grave condition” a month after being hospitalized with COVID-19, according to his family.
In a statement provided Monday evening, relatives asked his friends and followers to “pray for a miracle,” as he remained in “grave condition.”
Guess the GoFundMe is going to have to be a big one to pay for a month+ long stay in the hospital.
The article points to the evangelicals adopting a more corporate mass spectacle structure for the churches as a source of radicalization.
Over the course of the pandemic, I spoke with dozens of evangelical church members and leaders. I observed a consistent pattern. Churches that were already doing a good job providing pastoral and social services to their congregations and communities weathered the crisis and even thrived, developing new ministries and gaining respect for their work. Size was not a criterion. Churches large and small found success. What seemed to make the difference was a focus on one-on-one ministry and a commitment to local communities. Saddleback, one of the United States’s largest churches, transformed itself into a social services hub, providing food and other resources to local residents and helping to promote vaccines via an online conversation between Warren and National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins, who is himself an evangelical. For years, Saddleback has encouraged members to join small fellowship groups that provide the kind of personal contact and accountability otherwise lacking in large, anonymous megachurch services. In Austin, Texas, medium-sized Covenant Presbyterian Church bought and forgave $10 million worth of local medical debt. Oak Park Baptist Church in Jeffersonville, Indiana, with roughly 400 members, focused on a youth services program that benefits residents of nearby public housing complexes.
By contrast, evangelicals who spoke out most vocally against pandemic measures tended to belong to churches that depend heavily on in-person worship services and the star power of prominent pastors. Such churches suffered from the prohibition of indoor gatherings and left members searching for alternative ways to cope with the pandemic’s many hardships. Leaders fought to return to business as usual. Members gravitated to us-versus-them explanations for their troubles. The rise of pandemic radicalism reflected a massive failure of evangelical ministry.
