Category: Health Care
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Who Will Pay for Increased Nursing Home Testing?
by James A. Bacon The The Virginia Mercury has published a well-reported article today about the challenges of addressing the spread of COVID-19 in Virginia nursing homes, which account for 57% of all COVID deaths in the state. The Virginia Department of Health is gearing up for a massive expansion of testing at the nursing…
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Are Northam’s COVID-19 Policies Racist? By the Left’s Logic, Yes
by James A. Bacon Now that Governor Ralph Northam has declared his intention to take down the Lee Statue on Richmond’s Monument Avenue in the cause of racial equity and justice, perhaps he could take another step — one that would actually affect the lives of African-Americans in a tangible way. He could accelerate the…
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COVID-19 Update: All Trends Positive
Over the last few days I almost forgot we’re in the middle of a COVID-19 epidemic. Maybe that’s because thousands of people have been marching down the streets of Richmond and other Virginia cities in defiance of Governor Ralph Northam’s prohibition on gatherings of more than 10 people. But I will give the protesters credit.…
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Northam Relaxes Death Grip
by James A. Bacon Governor Ralph Northam had a lot to say yesterday, some good and some not-so-good. In this post I’ll focus on the positive: Beginning Friday, most of Virginia will move to “Phase Two” of the rollback of COVID-19 emergency decrees. Under Northam’s kinder, gentler Vulcan Death Grip, the maximum number of individuals…
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Government Goons Shut Down Hampton Restaurant
by Kerry Dougherty Like many Virginia restaurateurs, The Pepes were relieved when the governor finally allowed outdoor dining to resume earlier this month. The owners of several Peninsula eateries had been surviving on take-out orders since Gov. Ralph Northam’s executive order closed all Virginia restaurants in March. They reopened The Barking Dog at the Sunset…
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Dissecting the COVID-19 Death Statistics
by Carol J. Bova If you compare the COVID-19 hospitalization statistics published by the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) and the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association (VHHA), you’ll quickly see they don’t add up. On May 30, the VDH COVID-19 dashboard showed a total of 4,601 hospitalizations. The same day, the VHHA showed that 5,745…
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COVID-19 Update: Knowns and Unknowns
Highlights from today’s data dump of Virginia COVID-19 data: Total number of tests: 303,430 Total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases: 43,611 Percentage of tests that turned out positive: 14.3% Total hospitalizations: 4,601 Percentage of confirmed cases that require hospitalization: 10.5% Percentage of COVID-19 cases, known and unknown, requiring hospitalization: no one knows — but smaller…
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Chap Petersen and Pete Snyder: Get Virginia Back to Work
By DJ Rippert Odd bedfellows? In a recent Op-Ed entitled, “Time to get back to business, Virginia” State Senator Chap Petersen, D-Fairfax, and entrepreneur and Republican activist Pete Snyder call for a more aggressive reopening of Virginia. The piece questions why large companies like Home Depot are allowed to thrive while “Mom and Pop” operations…
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Uh, Oh, COVID Hospitalization Numbers Creeping Back Up
Here’s the latest from the Excel spreadsheet of John Butcher, publisher of Cranky’s blog: Daily COVID-19 hospitalizations are creeping back up, as can be seen in the graph above. And the total number of COVID-19 patients is rebounding as well as shown in the graph below:
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One More Time: The COVID Crisis Is Largely a Nursing Home Crisis
by James A. Bacon The daily numbers reported about COVID-19 in Virginia are volatile, and it would be imprudent to read too much into a single day’s statistics. But two numbers published on public dashboards this morning are symbolic of the true nature of the epidemic. The first data point is the number of new…
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You Don’t Have to Like the Decree, But Wear Face Masks Anyway
by James A. Bacon I’m still digesting Governor Ralph Northam’s face-mask mandate, but my initial reaction is that it could be worse. I dislike the coercive aspect of his executive order. But requiring Virginians to wear face masks in public buildings and places of commerce is less intrusive than compelling businesses and workplaces to shut…
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Hypothesis: Improving Treatments Are Making COVID-19 Less Deadly
by James A. Bacon The Wall Street Journal cited a revealing statistical measure of the COVID-19 virus that reflects upon the ability of different health systems to cope with the epidemic: the percentage of confirmed cases that result in fatalities. That number varies widely across countries and states. The focus of the article was Singapore…
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What Northam’s “Key Measures” Do and Don’t Tell Him
by James A. Bacon Later today Governor Ralph Northam will issue his mask-wearing mandate for Virginians. I’ll reserve comment about the details of the plan for when I see them. In the meantime, it is worth considering what data he might draw upon to justify his measures. The Virginia Department of Health COVID-19 dashboard highlights…
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Virginia Board of Health & the Infrastructure of Influence
by James C. Sherlock The Virginia Board of Health (the Board) is by law a policy board (§ 2.2-2100) appointed by the Governor with the majority of seats specifically reserved for representatives of interests regulated by the Department of Health. Virginia law gives the Board broad policy, regulation and enforcement responsibilities and duties to communicate…
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COVID-19 Counter-Factuals and Trade-Offs
by James A. Bacon A recent Columbia University study generated headlines after concluding that 55% of deaths reported as of May 3 could have been avoided if stricter social-distancing controls had been implemented nationally just one week earlier. Responding to that story, President Trump created a mini-furor by engaging in his usual ad hominem attacks.…