I found the most interesting article this morning about what it has been like to be an embalmer during the days of covid. I took copious notes, but know that if you found that very brief description fascinating, you'll want to read the whole thing yourself. Click here to jump there. So, what is it like? Well, at the start of the pandemic, embalming was actually not encouraged because of uncertainty over the virus and could it be transferred during embalming. It turns out that embalming is a good thing, because afterwards, you don't need to keep a body refrigerated. No need to park a mobile morgue out back of the funeral home; I guess a U-Haul or Penske truck would do. Between late November and early December 2020 and mid-March 2021, embalmers were routinely pulling intensely long shifts, long like 20-some hours long. And 65 percent of the bodies coming in had covid. The embalming business was pretty good already as baby boomers started to die. Covid may be the straw that breaks the camel's back.
Covid bodies leaving an ICU are in much different condition than other bodies would be. Covid bodies tend to be tremendously swollen, and many have sepsis or secondary infections such as staph. Being on a ventilator means adhesive patches on one's cheeks (the facial kind). Sepsis is one possible result as is gangrene. Family members may have a hard time recognizing someone. The author spoke of embalming a husband and wife together or, sadly, all the members of one family. The Delta variant has meant that people are not in the ICU as long before they die; this makes the embalmer's job easier, sadly.
Warning: The material that follows may be disturbing. Embalmers typically use a major artery to inject embalming fluid and use an adjoining vein for drainage. Blood tends to settle out and gravitate to the dependent part of the body. The longer the body sits, the more the blood clots. Covid bodies dead only a few hours have major clotting issues. Clots can be "the size of pancakes," a phenomenon seen only with covid. The author noted that he had been an embalmer for 30 years at medium- to high-volume funeral parlors, with covid being unlike anything he had seen during those years.
Okay, enough with embalming. How about policemen across California threatening to resign en masse over vaccine mandates. One issue is that some cities are not allowing regular testing as an alternative to vaccination. As of September 3, only 47 percent of Los Angeles Police Department staff were fully vaccinated, and only 54 percent had gotten at least one dose of vaccine. These percents are significantly lower than corresponding ones for the citizenry of Los Angeles County. Some cops are even refusing to be tested. And, as The Professor said in response to this, these are the people to whom we give guns and the right to use them.
China has reported its first "school-centered" outbreak, traced to an elementary school. Authorities are fighting to contain it before hundreds of millions of people travel next month for the National Day Holiday.
One in four hospitals reports over 95 percent of ICU beds occupied; a month ago, it was one in five. In June, it was lower than one in 10. Alabama has 700 ICU bed across the state. All are occupied. In Florida 24 hospitals had more ICU patients than beds last week. This Delta wave does not appear to be slowing much if at all. The Florida governor is moving to penalize cities and counties that have vaccine mandates even though new cases across the state now number about 15,000 per day.
WHO wants booster shots delayed until every country has vaccinated at least 40 percent of its population. Every unvaccinated person gives the coronavirus another chance to mutate. I have found myself every now and then pondering whether the virus could mutate into a less serious variant or one that is harder to transmit between people. Would "positive" vaccines take hold as strongly as the negative ones seem to? Or would they simply and quickly die out? Are those even legitimate questions medically? I know that there are no stupid questions, but there seem to be some stupid answers. I may have to look into this more deeply.
2 comments:
I am incensed at public servants who seem to think getting vaccinated is not part of that service.
I've had calls this week for a third covid jab and the flu jab. We're going to have 80% with really good immunity and 20% who will get their antibodies the hard way. It looks like we're reaching the end game where those remaining just won't get vaccinated. All that effort in research and manufacturing, all the planning that's gone into getting us here for people to then not take advantage of it. The annual flu vaccination programme is free for healthcare workers and they'll jab you at work, on work time. The take up there is usually about 75% so I suppose the covid vaccination is some sort of an improvement.
My thinking is that mutations will be more transmissible but less serious because that's what success looks like. You want your host walking around spreading more copies of yourself, not sick in bed too ill to move.
Post a Comment