SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
New Zealand police arrest pair trying to enter Auckland with ‘large amount’ of KFC:
The men were arrested after allegedly trying to flee from police near the Auckland border. When their car was searched, police said they found a large quantity of KFC, as well as the cash and a number of empty ounce bags.
The arrest struck a chord with New Zealanders – especially Aucklanders, who have spent a month in a strict level four lockdown that does not allow restaurants to open or residents to order takeaway food.
[...] After the KFC arrest, a police spokesperson said “officers noticed a suspicious looking vehicle travelling on a gravel road, and upon seeing the police car, the vehicle did a U-turn and sped off trying to evade police.
[...] A breach of the Covid-19 Public Health Response Act can result in imprisonment for up to six months; or a fine of up to $4,000.
The men will appear in court for breaching the health order, and police said further charges were likely.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by fustakrakich on Tuesday September 21 2021, @09:31PM (24 children)
Any shortage is a business issue, not a medical or technical one. We need the money to keep the financial markets afloat, not enough left over for your hospitals and medical staff. 120 billion dollars will buy you 30,000 ventilators or 6 billion doses of the vax, more or less. A demand for proper financing and transparent administration will ensure plenty of supplies for everybody worldwide. The whole issue is one of human incompetence and corruption, worse than the virus itself. Almost like being killed by friendly fire.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 3, Touché) by sjames on Tuesday September 21 2021, @11:11PM (23 children)
Here's a few billion dollars, kindly double the ICU capacity in the U.S. Oh, and I'll need that by noon tomorrow, we good? No? You mean you can't wave your magic wand and poof a few thousand more educated health professionals into existence in 18 hours? Well I'll be damned!
While I'll readily agree that at least in the U.S. we could be doing a hell of a lot better with healthcare, even a fully socialized system has to be optimized for utilization and may be subject to strain under extreme conditions.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 21 2021, @11:47PM (2 children)
A list of the 50 countries with the highest number of hospital beds per 1000 people. Supports your statement. Not a lot in common within the top 50. But, the US doesn't make the list, so whatever it is about the US, the US is shite at providing for its citizens.
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/countries-with-the-most-hospital-beds-per-capita.html [worldatlas.com]
Ah, here it is. The list of top 15 countries for spending on military. US on top in a category all its own in that one. This alone is sufficient to explain why the US is a shit hole country with a non-existent social safety net, crumbling infrastructure, and (in many cases worse than) 3rd world health outcomes and life expectancy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 1, Troll) by ChrisMaple on Wednesday September 22 2021, @04:35PM (1 child)
The U.S. military is the price the U.S. taxpayer pays to keep ungrateful snobs around the world alive and more-or-less free. Do you need any further proof than Afghanistan?
The cost of healthcare in the U.S. is high, and if there were more beds it would be even higher. There are many reasons:
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 22 2021, @09:34PM
The US is like a pyromaniac fireman who starts fires around the world, pretends to be the hero putting them out and the victim when burned.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by fustakrakich on Tuesday September 21 2021, @11:50PM (19 children)
We are under a chronic condition now, it's all corruption at this point. This is hardly extreme. Business is moving fairly normally here. But scheduled procedures are hard to come these days because somebody "might need the ventilator". It's bogus. It's all for the love of money
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by sjames on Wednesday September 22 2021, @01:24AM (18 children)
Meanwhile, in the southeast I see articles about a man needing ECMO but there is none to be had and a man having a heart attack in Alabama who has to be shipped to Mississippi for treatment because there were no beds in Alabama for him.
Grady memorial and others have been on full diversion for a while.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday September 22 2021, @01:42AM
That's my whole point. There's plenty of money to ensure everyone is supplied, it's just being misspent to prop up the financial markets, instead of supplying hospitals training staff and paying peoples' bills, to the tune of 120 billion every month for the last two years, not including the trillions (they say 700bil) spent on bailing out the repo market [catalyzewm.com]. Note, timing is everything. All talk about shortages and debt are absolute garbage until this is addressed. Why should we let one totally non-productive sector of the economy profit so much in contradiction to all others during a crisis? Everything we suffer is through mismanagement. Our denial only makes it worse and drags it out
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday September 22 2021, @01:55AM (6 children)
Specifics required to explain why he was transported across state lines. Wadley Regional Medical Center in Texarkana routinely gets Arkansas residents, along with some Oklahoma and Louisiana residents, simply because it is the closest medical facility. There may be some here who don't understand that Alabama and Mississippi are neighboring states, and that a medical center across the state line might be the closest available care even under normal circumstances.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Wednesday September 22 2021, @02:16AM
The article I read was explicit that there were several closer places that had no room. Here's a report [cnn.com] on the incident.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Tork on Wednesday September 22 2021, @02:34AM (4 children)
Slashdolt Logic: "25 year old jokes about sharks and lasers are +5, Funny." 💩
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday September 22 2021, @07:23AM (3 children)
That doesn't explicitly say that any of the 43 hospitals actually had ICU facilities for heart patients. "The level of care he required". Interesting choice of words, actually.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Tork on Wednesday September 22 2021, @07:47AM (2 children)
Oh, yeah that's real sus. Are most of the ICUs around there specialized in dental? 🙄
Slashdolt Logic: "25 year old jokes about sharks and lasers are +5, Funny." 💩
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday September 22 2021, @08:58AM (1 child)
I dunno what they might specialize in. I know that burn victims anywhere around here are routinely airlifted to Children's in Little Rock, or to Shriner's in Shreveport. Heart patients are routinely transported (not necessarily airlifted) to St. Vincent in Hot Springs. Yeah, hospitals do kinda specialize, especially university hospitals. If you have all of the story concerning that heart patient, I'll be happy to listen. The article blames COVID patients, but it isn't clear that the blame is entirely justified.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday September 22 2021, @05:27PM
Which means they're full of shit, a propaganda piece, unless they're talking about the refusal to get the vax. And specialized hospitals are irrelevant to the fact that there is plenty of money available to build adequate facilities wherever they are needed in short order. After two years of this, all shortages are caused by bullshit
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday September 22 2021, @03:12PM (9 children)
Couple interesting observations about 'bama and the data at healthdata.org
The covid death rate was about zilch from spring until August. Now its about two dozen dead per day. But it was one to three dozen dead per day from May of 2020 until Jan of 2021. Propaganda/news is always focused on the recent but I wonder how coverage compares to the recent "crisis" to most of the year of 2020.
There was a spike of deaths in 'bama in late Jan/Early Feb this year that was about five times the current death rate. So if delta is a real threat and not a nothingburger the "crisis" could predictably be five times worse than the screaming propaganda at present. So thats gonna be shrill.
On the other hand the peak infection rate in 'bama for the previous peak was around new years around 11K people per day being infected. The population of 'bama is not that big and given the extremely high asymptomatic rate of covid, the entire state could be infected in little more than a month. Anyway, the peak death rate was about a month later. As for the Delta infection rate peak, that was way back around Aug 1st, so peak death rate "should have been" a couple weeks ago, but instead it seems to be now?
"Strike while the iron is hot" so the propaganda is going to be hot and heavy about 'bama for a few more weeks before rates naturally drop back to zero or so.
Comparing the graphs of infection, vaxing, masking, and social distancing they seem completely unrelated. I'm sure in the lab masks always work and it can be proven in the lab, but in practice it seems to have no effect. Masking certainly has no effect on infection rates, the infection graphs look identical at 70% masking and at 25% masking. The infection peaks before and after vax appear identical, as if vax has no effect on the disease. Social distancing graphs (based, I think, on cellphone data?) also show no impact on infection rates.
There is a huge aspect of cowardice and acceptance that isn't discussed. Clearly, outside a lab, in the real world, nothing any human being can do in 'bama, or likely the entire world, has any effect on the disease. Its just wasted effort, security theater style, on a grand scale. Lockdowns didn't work, masks didn't work, social distancing didn't work, the vax doesn't work, hating your neighbor doesn't work, using big government and big corporations doesn't work... Some areas, like where I live, are much braver than crappy New Zealand, so we're living our lives like normal for many months now and we generally ignore the fearful propaganda. I think we're moving to a "Civil War" style thing where we're gonna self select to the people who live in terror and demand everyone play along, and the people who bravely live life. Certainly, for people older than 80 or whom are very sick, its a more dangerous life than it was before, but better to live in danger than endlessly cower in fear in front of a TV. Being scared all the time just means you gonna die scared, its not gonna save your life or extend your life. People in New Zealand, or at least their government serf owners, must be some of the shittiest cowards I've ever heard of.
As far as I know, on a micro scale, the only procedure or process, under human control, that DOES help individuals survive covid on a small individual scale is being not obese and having decent cardiovascular health. So hit the gym, as I do. A good workout feels good, too. Just got back from the gym, in fact. Get out there and live. Let the cowards be cowards and everyone else can inherit the earth.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Wednesday September 22 2021, @04:26PM (8 children)
Are you planning to keep spinning like that? If you are, I'll wrap some copper wire around you and see if we can get an alternate energy program going.
The vax works, but only if you take it. A lot of people haven't because they're afraid it'll improve their 5G reception or make the dog lick itself excessively or something. Similarly the mask helps (not as much as the shot), but only if you actually wear it over your mouth and nose rather than as a chin diaper.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday September 22 2021, @05:14PM (3 children)
So, here we are, still arguing amongst ourselves instead of demanding that available money be redirected towards staffing and equipment, and clear honest education. This is why we suffer any shortages. What ever happened to loosening up the patents so more countries can make their own vax? Two months of bailout money will vax the whole world
It has been two years, what's up??
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by sjames on Wednesday September 22 2021, @05:29PM (2 children)
At least here in the U.S. we have all the vax we need. What we're missing is willing arms to put it in.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday September 22 2021, @05:37PM (1 child)
Yeah, there are ways to deal with that too. It would be self defense to make space to isolate all the Typhoid Marys and give them a jab.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 3, Touché) by sjames on Wednesday September 22 2021, @09:42PM
Blow darts would be fun!
(Score: 2) by VLM on Thursday September 23 2021, @06:56PM (3 children)
That's my point about the problem. They only work in the lab or when TV presenters claim so. Just not in 'bama. Believe science and look at the graphs.
"Go to church and pray harder like the good people do and then everything will be better", except now we're talking about masks, isn't a viable scientific policy.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Thursday September 23 2021, @07:49PM (2 children)
They work when they are worn. They do not work when jackasses run around spewing their disease everywhere. They are not perfect. Kinda like seat belts. Using one doesn't render you immortal, but your cousin's roommate's best friend's sister once got injured in a car crash while wearing a seatbelt is not a good reason to skip it.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Thursday September 23 2021, @08:37PM (1 child)
I'm not disagreeing with you. I'm sure they work awesome in the lab, and when properly used by "professionals" like surgeons I guess.
I'm just saying they don't work as a public policy. The infection rate graphs in 'bama when everybody wore masks look the same as the infection rate graphs when nobody wears masks. Therefore a public policy of everyone wears masks is utterly ineffective and a waste of effort and even worse it provides a false sense of security.
AFAIK the graphs for seatbelt use are wildly different situation, and they do save lots of lives. I'm too lazy to look it up but I'd agree with you tentatively. A public policy of "wear seatbelts" seems to coincide with a massive decline in traffic death rates as I recall.
Your claim of the entire state of 'bama being an anecdote seem unlikely. Its a big state, the experiment was run semi-rigorously over a long time... The two graphs under different conditions look darn near identical (maybe fake data is being used?). If you're gonna claim its a mere anecdote that seems your responsibility to explain why, it seems like good solid experimental method and good solid data. OK lets say AL is an outlier. Lets choose Nevada because why not. Their alpha peak infection rate around new years was around 5000 people per day during eighty percent masking. Their delta peak was in late July and masking rate in mid july was forty percent. The upward slope of both peaks is indistinguishable, although the delta peak was only about 4/5 the size of the alpha peak despite half the population no longer wearing masks. So in both states, wearing masks seems to have no effect on either infection rate or total number of infections.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Thursday September 23 2021, @09:54PM
I'd like to know where this mythical place in Alabama where everyone wears a mask is. I've never seen a unicorn in person!
I'm not claimint the entire state as an anecdote, I am talking about a particular news report (link was provided) where a guy ended up being sent to a hospital in another state to deal with a heart attack (apparently the 44th place contacted according to the report).