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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsA Montana County Is So Swamped by COVID They've Run Out of Teachers, Hospital Beds
For seven emergency response physicians associated with the Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital in Hamilton, Montana, the rapid spike of coronavirus cases in the state has them at their breaking point.
The 80-year-old hospital system, named after one of the three Copper Kings of Butte, has seen the number of total infections double in the last few weeksand the pandemic is slated to only get worse as winter looms.
In the last week alone, three residents in Ravalli Countywhere the hospital is locatedhave died from coronavirus complications. On Tuesday, all Stevensville schools were forced to close for two weeks and pivot to remote learning after the school system couldnt find enough staff to fill classrooms.
At least four more schools in the county had to do the same in the past fortnightincluding one school in which 40 percent of the students either had COVID-19 or had been in close contact with someone who did.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/montana-county-swamped-covid-ve-221602436.html
soothsayer
(38,601 posts)hatrack
(59,583 posts)Lotsa luck, Montana.
MontanaMama
(23,297 posts)When Governor Bullock issued a statewide mask mandate, Stevensville schools laughed at him. Stevensville and the whole Bitterroot Valley is in for it. This is going to be a long winter.
StClone
(11,683 posts)Bet they vote Republican in the next pandemic too.
MontanaMama
(23,297 posts)That area is only 40 miles from where I live and the difference in culture is mind blowing. A couple years ago, I chaperoned a middle school trip to Belize with my sons class...we were paired with a group of students from Stevensville and our kids and their kids did not get along at all. It was almost alarming. Oil and water. When I recounted the story to my husband, he said Doesnt surprise me at all. Its the Bitterroot. Theyre as backwards as it gets.
Klaralven
(7,510 posts)Hamilton is, as of 2004, home to two microbiological research and production facilities: the government-run Rocky Mountain Laboratories, and a branch of the Corixa Corporation (bought in the late 1990s from Ribi ImmunoChem Research, Inc.). The Corixa Corporation was bought by GlaxoSmithKline in 2005. NIAID (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) completed construction of a Biosafety Level 4 biohazard laboratory as part of the Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML) facility in 2008. This facility has begun operations using highly-pathogenic organisms including the Lentivirus family of viruses.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamilton,_Montana
AIDS is caused by HIV, a Lentivirus.
kwolf68
(7,365 posts)When he was bashing blue states for early struggles with the pandemic. We knew the red states would catch up given their cavalier attitude toward safety and low and behold they have. Will Trump tweet how badly the red states are being run now?
TigressDem
(5,125 posts)orwell
(7,769 posts)...putting people in the hospital.
MAGA sucks when you're in the ICU...
KY_EnviroGuy
(14,489 posts)Their politicians and many parents need to be taken out behind the woodshed.
Many of these children and teachers will suffer long-term complications from this virus. Montana, this ain't the flu.
No excuse for this level of ignorance......
Happy Hoosier
(7,251 posts)That county voted for Trump by a 2 to 1 margin. They VOTED for this.