New York added 3,700 victims on Tuesday, after officials said they were now including people who had never tested positive for the virus but were presumed to have died of it.
The rationale: New York says while these so-called excess deaths were not explicitly linked to the virus, they might not have happened had the outbreak not occurred, in part because it overwhelmed the normal health care system.
So, basically if you are in a car accident, and too many resources are wasted on a weak virus, Covid-19 will be considered the cause of death.
So it goes.
Paul Plante says
Talk about a thread shining a spotlight on muck needing to be raked, and raked real good, right down to the bedrock, and a can of worms needing its lid ripped off, but good, it is this thread concerning what is going on in New York, where it is now quite possible and very probable that the wits of Andy Cuomo, the autocratic, tyrannical, dictatorial Democratic Socialist governor of the state, have slipped their moorings, rendering Andy, who according to the knowledgeable Albany, New York Times Union, rules by fear, likely as insane as was George III of England at the time of the American Revolution, or Saddam Hussein when he tried to make Kuwait another province of Iraq.
As a former public health engineer in corrupt New York, I have been combing though as many news clippings as I can find on the internet in order to put together a chronology of the events leading up to what can only be called a fiasco and cluster**** after the CDC sent out an alert about COVID on 8 January 2020 to state and local health officers, state and local epidemiologists, state and local laboratory directors, public information officers, HAN coordinators, and clinician organizations.
So there is a key date in this puzzle – 8 January 2020, the al;arm buzzer was sounded, or at least somebody pressed the button with that alert, which would have gone to not only the state health commissioner, a worthless lackey of Andy Cuomo’s, but right down to every county health officer, of which I used to be one, so I know the warning system quite well, as well as knowing that in New York, that system has largely been gutted by Andy Cuomo and his father Mario, but that is old news now, we know the system is broken, so moving right along, we come to an article in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle entitled “Coronavirus deaths in New York projected at 16,000 or more; NYC patients moved upstate” by Joseph Spector on April 1, 2020, which is 83 days AFTER the initial CDC alert, where we were informed as follows concerning the numbers:
ALBANY – 16,000 deaths in New York.
That was the sobering projection Gov. Andrew Cuomo displayed Wednesday as the coronavirus death toll in New York approached 2,000 and New York City hospitals started shipping patients for the first time upstate.
“This virus has been ahead of us since day one,” Cuomo said at his daily briefing at the state Capitol.
Cuomo based his remarks off of modeling done by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, founded by Bill and Melinda Gates that estimated about 100,000 deaths nationwide as the virus spreads across the U.S.
end quotes
So there is where Andy is getting his numbers from, and having been very vocal about those numbers, now Andy has to defend them, lest he look like he doesn’t know what he is talking about, which takes us back to that statement about “New York City hospitals started shipping patients for the first time upstate,” and from there to an article in Saratoga Living entitled “Governor Cuomo: COVID-19 Patients From NYC Have Been Moved To Albany Med” by Will Levith on 1 April 2020, to wit:
According to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, the Capital Region is now offering up care and hospital beds to New York City COVID-19 patients.
In his April 1 press conference, the governor was asked by a journalist whether patients in New York City had been moved to Albany Medical Center and Ellis Hospital in Schenectady, and Cuomo responded “yes,” at least to the Albany Med question.
“This is one state, this is one family of New York,” said Cuomo.
quotes
If somebody wanted or needed any more proof that Cuomo is insane, they need go no further than that statement right there about “(T)his is one state, this is one family of New York,” so that in the mind of Andy Cuomo, the right thing to do, in the language of Hussein Obama, is to ship COVID patients including the NYC homeless out of NYC to upstate, which is largely rural, to insure it spread throughout the whole state, as we can see from a WGRZ article entitled “Every county in NYS now has confirmed case of coronavirus (COVID-19)” on April 2, 2020, to wit:
ALBANY, N.Y. — Every county in NYS now has a confirmed case of coronavirus (COVID-19).
That’s according to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
end quotes
Every county in New York state, many of them rural, now has COVID because Andy Cuomo made sure they would by sending out COVID patients from NYC like “smallpox blankets” to insure its spread, which goes against everything in the Public Health Law, which Andy has scrapped along with our Constitution, which takes us back to a NEWSWEEK article entitled “New York Governor Dismisses Rumors About NYC Quarantine, Says ‘I Have No Interest'” by Jenni Fink on 3/17/20, 69 days AFTER the CDC alert on 8 January, to wit:
As New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio floated the possibility of a “shelter in place” order, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo denied that a full-blown lockdown of the Big Apple was looming.
New York state has had the largest outbreak of cases in the U.S. and rumors of officials locking down New York City have been swirling for days, causing some to leave the city or stockpile supplies.
On Tuesday, Cuomo adamantly dismissed the rumors, saying they were “not true” and were being fueled by people’s fears and anxieties.
He claimed that it cannot happen legally because implementing a quarantine would require state approval and he has “no interest” and “no plan” to quarantine any city in the state because he does not want to incite panic.
end quotes
Right after that, not surprisingly, and this is according to published statistics available to anyone who wants to take the time to wade through all this bull**** from Andy Cuomo, COVID began a rapid spread in upstate counties 160 miles to the north of NYC, and now, it is everywhere.
And that is only the beginning of this sorry tale of what happens when a people put someone insane in positions of power over them.
This really has nothing to do with public health anymore – rather, it has become political, with Andy Cuomo now becoming the face of the Democrat party push against Trump, who had absolutely no role to play here, as we see by going back to the language of the CDC alert, to wit:
This message was distributed to state and local health officers, state and local epidemiologists, state and local laboratory directors, public information officers, HAN coordinators, and clinician organizations.
end quotes
Andy Cuomo has become the next Democrat in line to gain national attention in attacking Trump, who didn’t drop any balls here, because he wasn’t even on the playing field, after Adam Schif, the smarmy and unctuous Democrat congressman from Hollywood and Disneyland, made a complete fool of himself and the Democrats with their failed attempt to impeach Trump, and being the political hack that he is, Cuomo and the Democrats have to push this COVID crisis created by Andy Cuomo as far as they can leading up to the November presidential elections, and they need to jack the numbers up, by hook or crook, those time-tested Democrat methods, to make Trump look as bad as they can, as if those deaths were the fault of Trump, and not Andy Cuomo, who is being made out by the fawning, cowardly, sycophantic main-stream media as the KNIGHT IN WHITE SHINING ARMOR riding in on his white horse to save the day.
Paul Plante says
That this is all a political dog-and-pony show on the part of Andy Cuomo, the autocratic, tyrannical, dictatorial Democratic Socialist governor of the state, a “GET TRUMP SHOW,” at the expense of the lives of the ordinary people of New York state, especially the elderly in Rensselaer County in upstate New York who are being found dead alone in their homes, who are simply pawns in this political game Andy Cuomo is playing with our lives in an effort to defeat Trump in November to assure complete Democrat control and one-party rule of our federal government, just as there is complete Democrat control and one party rule in New York and the Commonwealth of Virginia, it is only necessary to drop back to April 14, 2020, and the MARKETWATCH story “Cuomo invokes Alexander Hamilton in war of words with Trump over who has ‘ultimate authority’ on when to restart economy” by Quentin Fottrell, where was posted as follows concerning Andy’s vgery public spat with President Trump concerning the huge mess Andy Cuomo has created in New York by shipping people infected with COVID like so many “Smallpox Blankets: all over the state, to ensure the spread of the disease for political purposes, to wit:
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, and President Trump are embroiled in a war of words over who has the “ultimate authority” to reopen the economy.
As cases of COVID-19 continue to climb, the prospect that the state’s lockdown will continue for weeks, if not longer, also increases.
Cuomo said Tuesday that he would not get dragged into a fight with the president over who has the “ultimate authority” to restart the economy, but the Democratic governor later quoted the following fighting words by one of America’s founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton:
“The State governments possess inherent advantages, which will ever give them an influence and ascendancy over the National Government, and will for ever preclude the possibility of federal encroachments,” Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton, said in a speech on the U.S. constitution.
“That their liberties, indeed, can be subverted by the federal head, is repugnant to every rule of political calculation,” Hamilton, said in the speech on the constitution to the New York Ratifying Convention, June 17, 1788. (New York ratified the constitution by a vote of 30-27.)
end quotes
Those are Hamilton quotes Andy lifted from Wikiquotes, and what on earth those quotes have anything to do with anything connected to this COVID CRISIS Andy Cuomo created frankly eludes me, and with respect to the autocratic, tyrannical, dictatorial Democratic Socialist governor of the state, in “The Farmer Refuted,” February 23, 1775, Alexander Hamilton stated thusly, and in the case of Andy Cuomo, it is dangerously true, to wit:
A fondness for power is implanted, in most men, and it is natural to abuse it, when acquired.
end quotes
In his speech to the New York Ratifying Convention, June 17, 1788, Alexander Hamilton also said:
Here sir, the people govern.
end quotes
But not no more, Al, not no more as we are now a conquered and defeated people in this state, where Andy Cuomo rules, instead.
And in his Speech to New York Constitutional Convention, 1787, again Hamilton spoke thusly:
“Gentlemen indulge too many unreasonable apprehensions of danger to the state governments; they seem to suppose that the moment you put men into a national council [federal government], they become corrupt and lose all their affection for their fellow citizens.”
end quotes
That too would apply to Andy Cuomo, which takes us back to that story as follows:
Earlier Tuesday, Cuomo vowed to remain above the political fray, and said at his daily press briefing: “This is not time for politics, and it’s no time to fight.”
“I put my hand out in total partnership with the president.”
“If he wants a fight, he’s not going to get it from me.”
end quotes
Uh, right, right, okay, Andy, but what about the mess you have made in New York state by shipping people infected with COVID from New York City into our upstate communities so that it has spread from New York City to every county in the state?
That has nothing to do with Trump, and everything to do with you, so why are you distracting us here trying to push the blame over to Trump, when the buck stops with you?
Getting back to that story:
On Monday, Cuomo told MSNBC, “The Constitution says we don’t have a king.”
end quotes
That’s right, Andy, our Constitution says we do not have a king in this state, so why have you suspended our laws and our Constitution as if you were one?
And from there we jump to another MARKETWATCH article entitled “Cuomo: Federal government should pay frontline workers ‘hazard pay’ for risking their lives during coronavirus pandemic” by Quentin Fottrell on April 20, 2020, where Andy politicizes this COVID CRISIS he created even further by making this about race, to wit:
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday called on the federal government to pay frontline workers “hazard pay.”
“I am calling on the federal government to provide hazard pay to these frontline workers and give them a 50% bonus because they are the true heroes in this crisis,” he said.
“Essential public workers are the ones on the front lines every day carrying us through this crisis, and we must ensure their efforts and sacrifice are appropriately recognized,” Cuomo said.
“This crisis is not over yet, and as long as these workers continue to work and expose themselves to the virus, they should be properly compensated.”
Cuomo said people of color are disproportionately represented in delivery and child-care services, and one-third of frontline workers are members of low-income households.
His office cited data from the Center for Economic and Policy Research, which states that 41% of frontline workers are people of color.
Of those, 45% of public transit workers and 40% of health-care workers are people of color.
“We see the infection rate among African Americans and brown Americans higher proportionally than other groups,” Cuomo said.
“Why?”
“Because they were out there exposing themselves.”
end quotes
No, Andy, they have been exposed because for political reasons, you not only let this COVID spread, you facilitated and caused it to spread, and now, you are trying to shift that burden on these people over to the federal taxpayers as if they are now responsible for the harm you have caused society.
You are a clear and present danger to constitutional government and civilized society, Andy Cuomo, and for that reason you are unfit to hold high public office in New York, or anywhere else, for that matter, so do the right thing and resign!
Paul Plante says
As to all of these deaths alleged to be caused by COVID, the truth of the matter is that we will never know how much Andy Cuomo in New York state cooked the books to inflate the number as we can see by going back to a New York Post article entitled “Scores of ‘probable’ coronavirus deaths not counted in NYC tally” by Tina Moore and Craig McCarthy on April 7, 2020, where we had as follows:
Dozens — if not hundreds — of coronavirus deaths in New York City will not be included in the Big Apple’s grim tally, because victims died at home without being tested, The Post has learned.
end quotes
And WHOA, stop right there – how can they be called “coronavirus deaths” if they never were tested?
OH!
Right, right, because we need them to be called that to jack up the body count that Andy Cuomo and the Democrats are blaming on Trump, as if he were responsible for New York’s failed public health system instead of Andy Cuomo, who along with his father Mario, was the one who broke it.
So everybody dies regardless of the actual cause is a coronavirus death, which takes us back to that article, to wit:
At the same time, city paramedics were answering hundreds of more calls for cardiac arrest that include COVID-19 symptoms — with the death count worse than “wartime.”
“Out of the 12 [cardiac cases], I did on Sunday 10 had COVID symptoms.”
“Flu-like symptoms, cough, etc.”
“Nobody made it back.”
“That’s going on all over the city,” said Anthony Almojera, vice president of FDNY, EMS union local 3621.
“There’s gotta be 200 a day… obviously are not all COVID, but they aren’t being tested,” he said.
end quotes
As to having flu-like symptoms, might that in fact be from the flu, and not COVID?
Here is what the CDC has to say about that:
Flu Symptoms
Influenza (flu) can cause mild to severe illness, and at times can lead to death.
Flu is different from a cold.
Flu usually comes on suddenly.
People who have flu often feel some or all of these symptoms:
* fever or feeling feverish/chills
* cough
* sore throat
* runny or stuffy nose
* muscle or body aches
* headaches
* fatigue (tiredness)
* some people may have vomiting and diarrhea, though this is more common in children than adults.
Most people who get flu will recover in a few days to less than two weeks, but some people will develop complications (such as pneumonia) as a result of flu, some of which can be life-threatening and result in death.
Sinus and ear infections are examples of moderate complications from flu, while pneumonia is a serious flu complication that can result from either influenza virus infection alone or from co-infection of flu virus and bacteria.
Other possible serious complications triggered by flu can include inflammation of the heart (myocarditis), brain (encephalitis) or muscle (myositis, rhabdomyolysis) tissues, and multi-organ failure (for example, respiratory and kidney failure).
Flu virus infection of the respiratory tract can trigger an extreme inflammatory response in the body and can lead to sepsis, the body’s life-threatening response to infection.
Flu also can make chronic medical problems worse.
end quotes
So the flu can and does kill people and has symptoms similar to COVID, but its all about COVID now, and how gallantly and forcefully Democratic Socialist governor of New York Andy Cuomo is doing dealing with this “invisible enemy,” as he calls it, so any and all deaths are called COVID instead, which takes us back to the story, as follows:
New York City’s death toll — which surged past 3,000 on Tuesday — only includes the number of confirmed cases.
The city does not test people for the disease after they’ve died — even if they end up in the Medical Examiner’s Office after fighting coronavirus-like symptoms.
The OCME has reported these deaths to the Health Department as “probable” but it was unknown how many of these cases were, and the city wouldn’t say whether bodies were being tested when The Post asked two weeks ago.
The OCME confirmed to WNYC that bodies were not being tested.
In at least two cases the police responded to, a medical examiner released the bodies directly to the funeral home, cop sources said.
Almojera said EMS has had a number of similar cases where the bodies skipped the city morgue.
A spokeswoman for the OCME did not respond for comment.
But experts say without looking at the totality of cases, it could severely affect the next person to contract the virus.
“If deaths aren’t a reliable marker, then we are in really big trouble,” said Susan Hassig, an associate professor of epidemiology at Tulane University in New Orleans.
Typically, predicting the apex or plateau of the virus’s infection curve is based largely on the death rate, Hassig said.
That modeling determines how hospitals and state and city officials will shift their response during the outbreak.
“The fact that it is an underestimate … the extent to which the models are being used in New York, it could be substantial,” Hassig said.
“If it’s 100 cases, that’s a big number.”
“If it progressing and gets even worse … it’s problematic.”
A spokeswoman for the mayor’s office said Tuesday the OCME and Health Department were “working together to include into their reports deaths that may be linked to COVID but not lab-confirmed that occur at home.”
end quotes
The OCME and Health Department were “working together to include into their reports deaths that may be linked to COVID but not lab-confirmed that occur at home?”
Isn’t that an example of cooking the books here to jack up the death total to make Trump look bad in an election year?
But of course it is, which takes us back to 8 January 2020 and the CDC official CDC Health Advisory distributed via the CDC Health Alert Network to state and local health officers, state and local epidemiologists, state and local laboratory directors, public information officers, HAN coordinators, and clinician organizations, January 8, 2020, 1615 ET (04:15 PM ET), CDCHAN-00424, where in the section “Recommendations for Health Care Providers,” these clear warnings were posted as follows, to wit:
1. Providers should consider pneumonia related to the cluster for patients with severe respiratory symptoms who traveled to Wuhan since December 1, 2019 and had onset of illness within two weeks of returning, and who do not have another known diagnosis that would explain their illness.
Providers should notify infection control personnel and local and state health departments immediately if any patients meet these criteria.
State health departments should notify CDC after identifying a case under investigation by calling CDC’s Emergency Operations Center at (770) 488-7100.
end quotes
Keep that date in mind – 8 January 2020, and ask yourself, with that warning sent to Andy Cuomo’s “health commissioner” the worthless Howie Zucker, who is noteworthy for his very toothy smile, on 8 January 202, how is it that Andy Cuomo can honestly be saying in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle article entitled “Coronavirus deaths in New York projected at 16,000 or more; NYC patients moved upstate” by Joseph Spector on April 1, 2020, 83 days AFTER the initial CDC alert, that “(T)his virus has been ahead of us since day one?”
The virus was ahead of Andy Cuomo and Howie Zucker from Day One because Andy and Howie were both asleep at the switch, and that for months
So how many people died in that time because of their grossly negligent response?
Getting back to the CDC alert:
2. Multiple respiratory tract specimens should be collected from persons with infections suspected to be associated with this cluster, including nasopharyngeal, nasal, and throat swabs.
Patients with severe respiratory disease also should have lower respiratory tract specimens collected, if possible.
Consider saving urine, stool, serum, and respiratory pathology specimens if available.
end quotes
How many Ph.D’s or JD’s or medical degrees or degrees in rocket science does Howie Zucker need to understand those three recommendations and to make sure that in New York state they were followed?
But since Howie, with his nice toothy smile that makes people feel like they like him as their doctor, which is important for a doctor, having that comforting smile, is nothing more than a figurehead, with Andy Cuomo making the real medical decisions as an autocratic dictator should, to show the people he is the man in charge, it doesn’t make a difference whether Howie understood those words or not, since nothing was done about that alert in New York state until it was way too late, which again takes us back to the CDC alert, to wit:
3. Although the etiology and transmissibility have yet to be determined, and to date, no human-to-human transmission has been reported and no health care providers have been reported ill, CDC currently recommends a cautious approach to symptomatic patients with a history of travel to Wuhan City.
Such patients should be asked to wear a surgical mask as soon as they are identified and be evaluated in a private room with the door closed.
Personnel entering the room to evaluate the patient should use contact precautions and wear an N95 disposable facepiece respirator.
For patients admitted for inpatient care, contact and airborne isolation precautions, in addition to standard precautions, are recommended until further information becomes available.
end quotes
And stop the presses right there at that phrase “(F)or patients admitted for inpatient care, airborne isolation precautions, in addition to standard precautions, are recommended,” because to medical personnel, it is not an empty phrase, as we can see, for example, from the Children’s Hospital Minnesota website on the subject, to wit:
* What are airborne precautions?
Some germs are easily spread in the air to other patients.
Airborne precautions are a way of preventing this spread.
* Why is my child in airborne precautions?
Your child is in airborne precautions because of the type of illness he or she has, or may have.
The precautions are to decrease the chance others will catch the germs.
* What will be done to prevent the spread of germs?
Your child will be in a special isolation room called an “airborne infection isolation” or “negative air flow” room.
The door will be closed at all times.
Your child must stay in the room, and can only come out for certain tests, with special precautions in place.
A sign on the door to your child’s room lets staff know that your child is in airborne precautions.
end quotes
According to the Air Innovations website, a negative pressure room uses lower air pressure to allow outside air into the segregated environment.
This traps and keeps potentially harmful particles within the negative pressure room by preventing internal air from leaving the space.
Negative pressure rooms in medical facilities isolate patients with infectious conditions and protect people outside the room from exposure.
end quotes
Had that guidance from the CDC been followed by New York state back in January, how many fewer people would have died?
Of course, it is too late for that now, because as Andy Cuomo said above in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle article entitled “Coronavirus deaths in New York projected at 16,000 or more; NYC patients moved upstate” by Joseph Spector on April 1, 2020, 83 days AFTER the initial CDC alert, COVID has been out ahead of Andy and Howie Zucker, the “smiler,” since day one, and a lot of people are now dead, as a result, which takes us to an article in the medical journal STAT entitled “With ventilators running out, doctors say the machines are overused for Covid-19” by Sharon on April 8, 2020, where we had:
One problem, though, is that CPAP and other positive-pressure machines pose a risk to health care workers, he said.
The devices push aerosolized virus particles into the air, where anyone entering the patient’s room can inhale them.
end quotes
So how many people caught COVID in the hospitals because Andy Cuomo had people on those types of ventilators in positive pressure rooms, where the aerosolized virus particles could spread like anthrax spores?
And again, we will never know.
But clearly, had that CDC alert been acted on in a timely manner, it is safe to say this COVID crisis created by Andy Cuomo would not have been as bad as it has been.
Which takes us to the close here with a Washington Post story just out entitled “In New York’s largest hospital system, 88 percent of coronavirus patients on ventilators didn’t make it” by Ariana Eunjung Cha on 23 April 2020, to wit:
Throughout March, as the pandemic gained momentum in the United States, much of the preparations focused on the breathing machines that were supposed to save everyone’s lives.
New York State Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) and President Trump sparred over how many ventilators the state was short.
Now five weeks into the crisis, a paper published in the journal JAMA about New York State’s largest health system suggests a reality that like so much else about the novel coronavirus, confounds our early expectations.
Researchers found that 20 percent of all those hospitalized died — a finding that’s similar to the percentage who perish in normal times among those who are admitted for respiratory distress.
But the numbers diverge more for the critically ill put on ventilators.
Eighty-eight percent of the 320 covid-19 patients on ventilators who were tracked in the study died.
end quotes
Hmmmm.
How about that.
But did they still get a bill from the hospital for being put on the ventilator?
Of course!
It is a for-profit system, afterall.