I was at work today, I just finished a 12 hour shift. We had even more COVID patients. We had four patients die today. Here is the issue:
Many (the majority) of the patients in the hospital are older. Some are younger, but not most. The youngest COVID patient I have seen on the floor is 19. The oldest is 96.
The problem here is that they have more and more issues with getting oxygen into their bloodstream. The ones who are really sick can be on high flow oxygen at 60 liters per minute and still have oxygen saturations in the 60’s. Once the percentage drops low enough, their heart slows down, blood pressure drops, and they require a response team to keep them alive for the trip to their new room in the ICU.
One woman today with dementia pulled off her mask, and her oxygen saturation dropped to 17 percent within 90 seconds. That is the lowest percentage I have seen on a conscious person ever.
COVID isn’t fake. It is a real disease. Let’s get that out of the way.
Some portion of the people who get it, maybe fifteen percent, seem to have a lot of trouble and have to be admitted to the hospital. A portion of them seem to get worse until they have to be put in the ICU. Some of them die, some of them wind up with long term problems.
I am not and have not ever said that COVID is a fake illness.
Where we need to be spending our scientific efforts is in discovering why some people suffer more than others, and why some have problems recovering fully. So why aren’t we doing that?
Because of the real problem. Some people in and out of our government have discovered that this crisis can be used to create fear, and with that fear, they can take more power and money for themselves. Now that they have that money and power, they are not likely to give it up.
12 Comments
Miguel GFZ · August 22, 2021 at 6:14 am
^^^^^^ This!
why · August 22, 2021 at 6:51 am
I worked the ICU earlier this week. I had 6 COVID + patients. 1 had received full vaccinations, the rest none. The 1 that had received full vaccination I ended up transferring to a LTAC (Long term acute care) for O2 care. The other 5 (non-vaccinated) were all on vents. They were of various ages and male/female. The ONE common factor amongst all was – OBESITY. 1 was BMI 35, the others were all over 40.
The 2 independent factors that I see with COVID of how well will you do are – 1) age (over 85, good luck), and 2) obesity (0ver 40, good luck).
Remember that obesity alone puts you at increased risk for cancer, diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, and high blood pressure (we’ve known this for 30 years). Remember also that we live in a society of fat people (BMI over 30, you’re fat).
PapaSierra · August 22, 2021 at 8:17 am
Vitamin D levels appears to be critical. Since D is fat soluble, this would explain why obesity is such a big factor. It also explains why blacks and hispanics appear to get hit harder, because their darker skin limits the absorption of D from sunlight.
We shouldn’t still be guessing about these types of things after 18 months, so I can only conclude that the left doesn’t want to know how best to treat Covid. Dr. Dan Stocks recently claimed that 85% of Covid deaths could have been prevented with early treatment.
Don Curton · August 22, 2021 at 7:03 am
“Where we need to be spending our scientific efforts is in discovering why some people suffer more than others, and why some have problems recovering fully. So why aren’t we doing that?”
This is basically what I said in a comment to a previous post. If we can figure out why a small segment suffers more, figure out what the commonalities of that segment are, then we can more smartly work at protecting that segment and leaving the other 85+% of the population alone. Like I said, I along with many others I know have had it with only mild symptoms. Apparently I’m not part of the small segment, so leave me the hell alone with all the mandates and focus on the at-risk group.
Of course, that requires real science, not progessive “science!”.
PapaSierra · August 22, 2021 at 7:41 am
Search for “Dr. George Fareed and Dr. Brian Tyson share early treatment protocol”. These guys claim that they’ve treated thousands of Covid patients and have had zero deaths if their treatment protocols are started within 6 days of the onset of symptoms.
They offer over the counter recommendations to boost your immune system, such as vitamin D, zinc, etc.
Dr Tyson also gave an excellent interview on Daniel Horowitz’s podcast, episode 934.
SiG · August 22, 2021 at 9:58 am
I ran across a link to an interesting paper on the journal Frontiers in Public Health. Let me try to link to it
They trained an AI algorithm to go through almost a quarter of a million papers on the disease (240k) and found the most important factor leading to worse outcomes is high blood sugar.
“The machine-driven framework we developed repeatedly pointed to elevated blood glucose as a key facilitator in the progression of COVID-19. Indeed, when we systematically retraced the steps of the SARS-CoV-2 infection, we found evidence linking elevated glucose to each major step of the life-cycle of the virus, progression of the disease, and presentation of symptoms. ”
“DM (Diabetes Mellitus) is one of the comorbidities that is a strong risk factor for COVID-19 mortality since around 50% of hospitalized patients who died from COVID-19, independent of age, had DM. … On the other hand, one in five COVID-19 patients with diabetes succumb to the disease.”
20% of diabetics who get COVID-19 die of it, amounting to 50% of the hospital patients who die.
In other studies (heart attacks and fatalities) they’ve found that the number of diabetics is low because many that were affected weren’t diagnosed as diabetic, but retrospective looks at their medical files showed they were undiagnosed diabetics.
I’ll bet that explains commenter Why’s observation of BMI being a major factor. That’s a pretty well-known correlation.
joe · August 22, 2021 at 10:21 am
co-worker has/had the covid…he was in the hospital a few days, they released him then he passed out in the shower at home from low oxygen…they had to readmit him…he’s overweight…
AC47spooky · August 22, 2021 at 5:39 pm
Get ready … they are going to clamp down on us like “hell won’t have it” because of these unfortunate folks who are succumbing to the coronavirus. And they must be fairly satisfied that there are still people suffering and dying — not to mention the fear factor that grips those who are clueless. Take care fo your personal health — that is a basic thing people should be concerned with.
Bear Claw Chris Lapp · August 22, 2021 at 6:21 pm
It’s a feature not a bug
SOXCAR · August 23, 2021 at 7:56 am
“One woman today with dementia pulled off her mask, and her oxygen saturation dropped to 17 percent within 90 seconds.”
I keep hearing stories like this and it always strikes me that a) what the human body can take and b) what the hell is going on with this thing that allows people to be alert (and often able to do things) with O2 levels that should lay them out flat?
JonEMTP · August 23, 2021 at 3:28 pm
I’m not sure I believe the 17%… but seeing numbers in the 50-60% range is not unusual in cases of severe disease.
What’s crazy is that 18 months ago, most of us in healthcare usually believe these readings were possible, and assumed they were erroneous (motion artifact, nail polish, etc). I’ve seen ambulatory and mostly alert folks with pulse oximitry in the 70% range, and it continually amazes me.
Divemedic · August 23, 2021 at 7:35 pm
Just today, I had several patients in the 30’s and a couple in the twenties.
Here are some of the highlights:
One patient with V/Q mismatch, COVID free. His SATs on room air are in the 50’s. When on high flow, he maintains in the low 90’s.
A second patient with ALS. He keeps desaturating while on 20 liters. He would be in the upper 80s, but was constantly dropping into the upper 60’s.
Third patient on 60 liters. Even on 60 liters, the best we could do for him was 65% or so. Blood pressure is down, heart rate up in the 130s. His fingers and toes are cold and blanched from all of the pressors he is on. Even if he DOES make it, he is going to lose a few fingers and toes.
A fourth patient was out of it. She is in restraints because she keeps pulling out her Foley. She kept asking me to let her out of the restraints so she could visit her parents. They have been dead for decades. Her sats were in the 50-70 range.
Two others had sats in the low 30s, even though they were on 60 liters of oxygen. We were trying to get them moved to the ICU, but there were other patients in worse shape than they were, including the mother of one of my employees, whose mother was intubated last night.
17 percent is the truth. It is the lowest I have seen. Like you said, I remember when we used to think that 70 percent was low. We are discharging people and sending them home with SATs in the 70s now.
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