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UpInArms

(51,252 posts)
Fri Oct 30, 2020, 12:12 AM Oct 2020

Rural No Mask Covid Patients Overwhelm Kansas City Hospitals

Rural Coronavirus Patients Are Straining Kansas City Hospitals Beyond What State Data Suggest

Health officials say the availability of health care for people in the Kansas City area is now being threatened by this influx of patient from communities that lack mask mandates.

We’ve had this huge swing that’s occurred because they’re not wearing masks, and yes, that’s putting pressure on our hospitals, which is unfair to our residents — to our residents that might be denied an ICU bed,” says Dr. Rex Archer, the head of the Kansas City Health Department.

Pascaline Muhindura, a nurse at Research Medical Center, has been treating COVID-19 patients for seven months, but she’s been especially concerned about a type of patient that has been showing up for care with increasing frequency.

Many COVID-19 patients in critical condition because they didn’t receive adequate COVID-19 treatment early on are being sent to the hospital from rural communities and small towns, she says.

“They are going to the local hospital initially, and are given a medication, sent home and then they get worse,” Muhindura says. “So that delay — what I would call a delay in care — you would be sicker if you don’t get treatment quicker.”

Missouri has the eighth highest number of hospitalized patients in the country right now, far exceeding hospitalizations in many more populous states, including New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.


https://www.kcur.org/2020-10-29/rural-coronavirus-patients-are-straining-kansas-city-hospitals-beyond-what-state-data-suggest

... I see it out here .... rarely is there anyone but me wearing a mask ... they act like there is nothing to worry about ... the county north of me has a total population of 2,000 ... they have one grocery, one dollar general, 2 convenience stores, one bank without a drive through ....

12 new cases in the past 5 days ... I can no longer go to town ...
13 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Rural No Mask Covid Patients Overwhelm Kansas City Hospitals (Original Post) UpInArms Oct 2020 OP
I knew this would happen. roamer65 Oct 2020 #1
KU study reveals mask effectiveness. moondust Oct 2020 #2
I hit the paywall on that article UpInArms Oct 2020 #3
Sorry. It's insane that masks are a thing. I wonder moonscape Oct 2020 #4
A former neighbor sent me an emailed screed about how masks are dangerous AllyCat Oct 2020 #9
So sad. I too hope she makes it, is converted vs moonscape Oct 2020 #10
I have a coworker who spouts nonsense like that, and she is the sole Luciferous Oct 2020 #12
Here's a pdf of the study. moondust Oct 2020 #6
I feel bad for saying this Tom Rivers Oct 2020 #5
THIS n/t OhioChick Oct 2020 #7
Hell yes! BigmanPigman Oct 2020 #8
Plus there are churches in my rural area preaching against masks. Midnight Writer Oct 2020 #11
Perhaps any future laws requiring masks could also include a personal opt-out provision Mr. Ected Oct 2020 #13

roamer65

(36,739 posts)
1. I knew this would happen.
Fri Oct 30, 2020, 12:16 AM
Oct 2020

Sigh.

Here comes the Dump loving anti-mask crowd to goober up the health system.

UpInArms

(51,252 posts)
3. I hit the paywall on that article
Fri Oct 30, 2020, 01:06 AM
Oct 2020

I have reached the point where I can only go to a town 30 miles away for things, as they have a mask mandate

moonscape

(4,664 posts)
4. Sorry. It's insane that masks are a thing. I wonder
Fri Oct 30, 2020, 01:18 AM
Oct 2020

if the combination of Biden’s example, science, and knowing folks who died will finally conspire to get through to brainwashed magas, or chip away at their willful ignorance anyway.

A friend in Las Vegas has a trumper friend who has a friend in ICU with covid pneumonia. Is that getting through? Sadly no. She says it’s a coincidence, having pneumonia and covid at the same time.

Having to drive 30 miles to a safe store is awful.

AllyCat

(16,031 posts)
9. A former neighbor sent me an emailed screed about how masks are dangerous
Fri Oct 30, 2020, 03:15 AM
Oct 2020

and we should not be required to wear them. A recent FB post reports she has been hospitalized with Covid-19 and is home with steroids and oxygen because there was nothing else they could do for her. She lives in a rural town with her 2 children. I hope she makes it and sees the error of her thinking.

moonscape

(4,664 posts)
10. So sad. I too hope she makes it, is converted vs
Fri Oct 30, 2020, 03:24 AM
Oct 2020

thinking a mask would not have mattered, and gets through to others.

Maybe, sadly, that’s what it will take.

Luciferous

(6,067 posts)
12. I have a coworker who spouts nonsense like that, and she is the sole
Fri Oct 30, 2020, 07:54 AM
Oct 2020

caregiver for elderly parents so you think she would take every precaution to keep them safe. She also told me that wearing masks will ruin everyone's teeth 🙄

moondust

(19,917 posts)
6. Here's a pdf of the study.
Fri Oct 30, 2020, 01:29 AM
Oct 2020
https://ipsr.ku.edu/covid19/images/Mask_Mandate_forJoCo.pdf

This graph of the rolling averages tells the story. The mask mandate went into effect on July 3 and 14 days later the mask counties stopped rising while the no-mask counties kept going up:

Tom Rivers

(459 posts)
5. I feel bad for saying this
Fri Oct 30, 2020, 01:29 AM
Oct 2020

But I'm to the point that if you vote for the "herd immunity" guy and get sick with COVID, you shouldn't get a hospital bed and ventilator, at least not over someone who voted for the "listen to the scientists" guy.

Midnight Writer

(21,540 posts)
11. Plus there are churches in my rural area preaching against masks.
Fri Oct 30, 2020, 07:49 AM
Oct 2020

Buses go out through the Amish areas and bring them into town. So you can be shopping in a store, a bus pulls up and drops off 40 or so Amish shoppers who enter the store together, and they will not wear masks or follow distancing.

I wonder what the casualty rate is among the Amish.

They have always made good neighbors, but in this case their behavior is reckless and dangerous to the whole community.

Mr. Ected

(9,670 posts)
13. Perhaps any future laws requiring masks could also include a personal opt-out provision
Fri Oct 30, 2020, 08:01 AM
Oct 2020

In which the party relinquishes any hospital care related in any small way to COVID.

It may not serve the purpose of slowing the spread of the disease, but it would force people to make the choice as to whether they were willing to put it all on the line.

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