From Oregon Live:
More Oregonians died the past month than is typical in mid-March and early April, according to data released by state health officials, but fewer than half the excess deaths were officially connected to coronavirus.
In all, 245 more Oregonians died during the five weeks between March 16 and April 19 than during those same five weeks in 2017, 2018 and 2019, on average. During those five weeks, 78 Oregonians died from COVID-19, according to the state health authority’s official count.
What is clear: Nearly all the above-average deaths occurred at home, among Oregonians both receiving and not receiving hospice care.
In the first full week of April, 47% of deaths in Oregon occurred at home, 7 percentage points more than the three-year historical average. As deaths at home rose, the share of residents dying in hospitals declined.
People are not going to the hospital.
I get that. I had an issue a couple of weeks ago and I wrestled with the idea of going to the ER.
Most of the staff was nice but some nurses acted like I was wasting space in the hospital if I didn’t have COVID. A hospital that just furloughed 2,000 people and was empty. Empty.
There has been previous discussions about this. It was noticed by the Cleveland Clinic that ER visits were down.
The New York Times published an article:
Where Have All the Heart Attacks Gone?
It says the same thing. ER visits for emergencies like heart attacks, strokes, and other illnesses are down.
People are scared they are going to get COVID at the hospital and the narrative that has been pushed a is that only COVID patients are important.
As a result mortality for other conditions are up.
People are dying at home because they are not going to the hospital when they feel chest pains or have some other illness or injury.
This is driving empty hospitals to furlough workers and makes bored nurses post infuriating TikTok videos.
Outside of a few hotspots it seems that more people will die at home of everything but COVID because they are scared or ashamed of going to the ER than will actually die of COVID.
We put so much effort into saving the lives of hypothetical COVID patients that never materialized, we killed a lot of people with heart attacks, strokes, and appendicitis.
This is a nightmare and some decision makers should pay the price for it.
On a less fatal note, how many addicts in recovery have relapsed due to the isolation, and lack of in person support?
Something I keep reminding my mayor and the city assembly, and as far as I can tell, they do not give a damn. Full stop. Protecting against the virus is priority, all other concerns are secondary.