Divemedic

The Florida governor today said that 34 hospitals are now more than half full. Granted, Florida has 350 hospitals, but not all of them are equipped to handle COVID cases. As soon as the state reaches its maximum capacity, things will begin to get ugly.

In Florida, it is legal to use force (including deadly force) to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony. Here is the statutory definition of forcible felony (emphasis added):

“Forcible felony” means treason; murder; manslaughter; sexual battery; carjacking; home-invasion robbery; robbery; burglary; arson; kidnapping; aggravated assault; aggravated battery; aggravated stalking; aircraft piracy; unlawful throwing, placing, or discharging of a destructive device or bomb; and any other felony which involves the use or threat of physical force or violence against any individual.

Tampering with food is a first degree felony in Florida (ss 501.001):

Whoever, with reckless disregard for the risk that another person will be placed in danger of death or bodily injury, tampers with, or conspires or attempts to tamper with, any consumer product or the labeling of, or container for, any such product is guilty of a felony of the first degree

Why do I post this? Because there is a new social media trend where teens are filming themselves coughing on produce and then posting it to social media as a “corona virus challenge.” Doing this in the presence of any adult, armed or otherwise, should result in an immediate ass kicking, pepper spraying, or other use of force as appropriate to end the threat. Stupidity should be painful.

My son is a nurse practitioner who works in the emergency room. He is what they call a “floater” and he works in different emergency rooms, depending on where he is needed. His house is an hour and a half drive from mine. Whenever he works at the hospital near me, he spends the night at my house rather than having to make the drive after a 10 or 12 hour shift, only to turn around a few hours later and drive back.

Last week, I had a discussion with him and pointed out that I am higher risk due to age and some of my health history. The best, most cost effective way is to avoid catching it. Since he works in the ED, he is constantly exposed to everything that they have. We decided that once his exposure was too great, he would stop staying here.

Today he saw 30 suspected COVID cases, including seven who had already advanced to pneumonia. So that is the last I will see of my son for awhile. We jointly decided that it was too risky for him to stay at my house for the time being.

My wife just received a notice from her employer:

All employees are required to come into work unless you are diagnosed with COVID19, in which case you will receive full pay. (Here is the messed up part) If you are a parent of minor children and cannot find daycare for your children because the facility has closed, you can work from home and still receive full pay.

So there are different rules for people with and without kids. I struggle to see how this is legal. If it is possible to do your job from home, should it matter whether or not you have children?

We may be contacting an attorney.

The state of Florida is refusing to admit new inmates to its state prisons. Meanwhile, counties are beginning to release inmates, in order to prevent the spread of this virus.

Crime will increase as this goes on.

That is the message that the Baltimore mayor has for his citizens.

You can prepare all you want, but morons can throw a wrench into your plans. Even though schools are closed, the school where my wife works is insisting that the order from the state only applies to students and is demanding that teachers return to work at the conclusion of spring break next Monday.

Meanwhile, there is a COVID case less than 5 miles from my home. It is likely that the restaurants and stores in the area have been frequented by the patient. The more we leave the house, the more likely it is that we will wind up catching it.

I don’t know if the problem is in the government’s reporting, or if it is in the reporting, but this is odd. For the past week there have only been 10 critical patients, but in that same time period 53 people have died. I don’t know how the number of critical patients remains the same while the death toll climbs.

Finally, today the critical patient count increased to 12.

Donald Trump was right- we are going to build a wall, and Mexico is going to pay for it.