A week ago, I wrote a bit about South and North Dakota’s somewhat different but yet, in the end, similar failures to control COVID. Now let’s compare North Dakota and New York.
A few days ago, in North Dakota, a young woman who’s a long-time family friend had a bad reaction to some medication she was taking for a serious illness. She went to the Emergency Department of one of the hospitals in her big-for-ND city, and wasn’t able to get any treatment. Why? Because North Dakota hospitals are full to the brim with COVID patients. Here’s the situation on Monday:
Sanford Health Bismarck had one available staffed ICU bed and one available staffed in-patient bed as of Monday, according to the Department of Health. The CHI St. Alexius Medical Center in Bismarck had no staffed ICU bed available and 10 in-patient staffed beds open.
Some additional ICU space opened up in Fargo, with now 13 staffed ICU beds available compared to the three that were available as of Sunday.
Overall, the state announced Monday that there are 25 available staffed ICU beds and 263 available staffed in-patient beds.
A couple of days ago, in Rochester, a young woman that I’ve known for all of her life — my daughter — woke up in the middle of the night with a pretty serious and painful kidney infection. She went to the Emergency Department and was treated and released after a few hours that included a complete work up and IV antibiotics.
My daughter is fine today because of the care she received, and because of our state’s immense effort to control COVID. Our friend, who got through the reaction, is doing well out of pure fucking luck.
Yet, in a little under two weeks, a vast majority of North Dakotans will go to the polls and dutifully vote for Donald J Trump, probably not wearing masks, no matter how many tears their governor cries, or how many pediatricians beg him to institute a statewide mask mandate.
trollhattan
I’m very glad your daughter is on the mend!
ND I suspect was more sane, in balance, before all the awhl development drew a new class of mouthbreathers. It doesn’t take a big influx to really change the demographics of a sparsely populated state.
Brachiator
I am very happy to hear that your daughter and friend are both doing OK. Thank you very much for sharing this story.
I’ve mentioned before that we are way beyond Trump supporters voting against their own self-interest. Donald Trump claimed he could “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody” and not “lose any voters.”
Who knew that his base would volunteer to be targets?
Roger Moore
If you look at the North Dakota stats on covidtracking.com, they look terrifying. They are getting about 1K daily positive tests per 1M population, meaning about 1 person in 140 in the state received a positive test in the past week, and there’s no sign of a plateau; their positive count is still climbing. Their hospitalization rate seems to have stabilized, but that is, as Mistermix points out, because they’re running out of beds.
South Dakota is superficially not as bad- they’re getting “only” 800 daily positive tests per million population instead of 1000- but the deeper numbers are terrifying. Those positives are coming with a positive test rate of about 35% vs only about 10% in North Dakota, meaning they’re almost certainly missing a lot of people who just can’t get tested. The whole situation is obviously completely out of control in both states.
trollhattan
The coveted Mel Brooks endorsement!
Betty Cracker
Glad the young ladies are okay. It looks like we may all get a refresher course on the undesirability of uncontrolled spread with no plan for testing, tracking, tracing, etc.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
I’m fine with them voting to kill themselves.
download my app in the app store mistermix
@Roger Moore: Yes, this has been a pattern for Dollar Store Sarah Palin, Governor Kristi Noem. SD hasn’t been testing enough since the beginning, she has encouraged large gatherings, and COVID is kicking SD’s ass.
ND shows what happens when you do an OK job testing and just encourage distancing, masks, etc. COVID still kicks your ass despite your mediocre efforts.
Stopping COVID requires extraordinary effort and only states that have worked really hard are anywhere near controlling it.
Brachiator
@trollhattan:
That was wonderful. Thanks for the link.
prostratedragon
@Roger Moore: I’ve plotted cases per million for several States, using the JHU data as of this morning. Some of the big, earlier States are included for references. NoDak is smashing records of cases per capita, and still hasn’t turned the corner.
Edit: It might be necessary to load it into a pdf reader or onto your disk. Doesn’t seem right, but that’s what I just had to do.
satby
So, your friend is planning to move to a saner state soon?
Ohio Mom
Trollhattan: “When you’re dead, you can’t do much.” Classic Mel Brooks and unarguable.
As I type this, Ohio Dad is on the phone with his mother/Grandma Ohio for the umpteenth time this week — she keeps calling. All the isolation of this pandemic and she is beginning to crumble.
Annie
May I brag a bit about San Francisco?
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/San-Francisco-yellow-tier-new-businesses-opening-15661944.php
We have moved into California’s yellow tier which means less than 1 case of Covid-19 per 100,000 people and less than 2% positivity for Covid 19.
So glad I live here.
What was that about California being a failed state again?
rjnerd
The governor made it very clear that his mentions of limiting patronage, and wearing masks were not mandates, but requests. That, combined with a positive test rate of 19.7% earned him his dishonorable mention last night. the Herman Cain Medal – nominations wanted
lowtechcyclist
So the ND Gov has the authority to institute a mask mandate, but he just won’t, because Freedumb or something like that?
If you don’t believe that government exists to deal with shit like this that can’t be dealt with by individual choices, then when push comes to shove, you don’t believe in government as we’ve come to understand it in civilized countries.
You might believe in government as an organization that, if you control it, allows you to beat up your enemies and reward your friends, but that’s what we used to call a ‘banana republic.’
Seems like a good chunk of the U.S.A. now fits that description. And if Velveetamort somehow hangs onto power, it’ll be the whole thing.
Scout211
But did you know that there are far more Covid-19 infections in states with mask mandates? And did you know that not wearing a mask will make you immune from Covid-19? And that all those crazy blue states with mask mandates are full of cases because masked people cannot develop immunity? Did you know that?
Well, that’s what my husband learned yesterday from a very helpful young man at the feed store. He was kind enough to tell him all about it and many other conspiracies that boggle the mind. He said he gets up very early every morning and researches all of this on the internet so he knows it’s true.
This is in California!
Yikes!
lowtechcyclist
@trollhattan: He’s looking pretty damned good for 94 years old!
The Thin Black Duke
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Problem is, it’s the ‘essential workers’ who bag the groceries, pick up the garbage, drive the Ubers, cut the grass, deliver the mail and so on who are at risk because of these selfish motherfuckers. I wouldn’t give a damn otherwise.
Sab
@trollhattan: Yeah. Didn’t they have Earl Pomeroy for about twenty years?
trollhattan
@Scout211:
Mercy, I’ve been doing it all rong!
catclub
@prostratedragon: I like the ‘path to Zero” website because it has a per capita measure of badness.
dislikes: 1. have not found much there on testing rates.
2. hard to get history – even the past trend.
Ruckus
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Except it’s not just them they kill. This virus is like a gun with barrels pointed in every direction. You pull the trigger and risk killing everyone in every direction. Friends, relatives, children, strangers, medical workers. Etc.
It’s asinine because it’s relatively cheap and easy to slow down and cut back the effects dramatically. But no, they can’t be bothered.
Roger Moore
@download my app in the app store mistermix:
I think it’s less extraordinary effort that’s needed and more sustained, ongoing effort. Here in California, we got it under control in the spring, let it get out of control in June when we relaxed our safeguards, and have been working to get it back under control since then. It hasn’t been some miraculous thing that’s gotten it under control, just regular grinding effort.
prostratedragon
@catclub: From what I gather, testing rates are not even collected in all States, nor hospitalization rates.
ETA: I use JHU partly because it has a github site which, if you have a free account and learn the basics of using it, makes updating easy, without all kinds of files of different vintages hanging around.
Nicole
@Roger Moore:
Yeah, funny that. People brag about being a “hard working American” but when the rubber hits the road, you see who really is. Not all work is paid.
I still resent Andrew Cuomo making me like him a little bit, but he did a good job getting the message out to NYers. I was a couple hours upstate of the city this weekend, and was quite impressed with the consistency in mask-wearing, in an area that was pretty 50-50 for Trump vs Biden signs.
Brachiator
@Annie:
Los Angeles county is not doing so well. But kudos to San Francisco.
Brachiator
@Scout211:
It’s amazing how people can find the junk science and conspiracy sites so easily. Unfortunately, once you focus on a few of these sites, algorithms will serve them up to you to the exclusion of more reputable sites.
lee
I’ve got a tragic story from S Dakota. I work for a medium/large company based in a suburb of Dallas. We have field techs all over the country.
A guy who has worked for the company for 20 years died of Covid19 related issues. He leaves behind 5 kids and a wife. Thankfully our work life insurance is very very good.
Yes he did ride a motorcycle. I have no idea if he went to Sturgis.
Chagall Charles Caltrop
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: word
Another Scott
@rjnerd: Bad linky. I fix.
The Herman Cain Medal.
:-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Skepticat
My nephew finally gave up on the long line in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, but he’ll try again tomorrow. As a resident living overseas, I voted a month and a half ago, though I’m briefly currently in the States, more fool I.