Coronalie-30, Civil Disobedience I Support

Gov. Tim Walz (Democrat Governor of Minnesota) has issued lock-down orders for restaurants, gyms, bars and other businesses that, apparently, offend the owners. The leader of the movement has been threatened with monetary fines and jail time for disobeying the orders.(1)

And yet, as little as 4 months ago Minnesota was a war zone over Black Lives Matter issues that led to violence, property destruction, civil disobedience, threats to de-fund law enforcement.(2) The rest of the world sat back and watched rioters deface

Riots in Minneapolis 2020 property, assault police and civilians with little to no repercussions from our/their government.(3) And the rioters performed, gasp, wait for it;

blatant disobedience to masking, social distancing and other orders to combat coronavirus.

Worse than the current movement by these 150 Minnesota businesses. Were the rioters 4 months ago punished for their disobedience? No!

If anything deserves support for civil disobedience, protecting one’s livelihood does!

From your grumpy Uncle Dave.

  1. 150 Minnesota businesses vow to defy COVID-19 restrictions: ‘An illegal and unlawful order. Joshua Q. Nelson. Foxnews.com. Dec 16, 2020. Retrieved 12/16/2020 from https://www.foxnews.com/us/minnesota-bars-and-restaurants-to-defy-covid-restrictions-this-is-an-illegal-and-unlawful-order.
  2. My View: Spiraling Out of Control – Killings and Riots. David Greenwald. 5/30/2020. DavisVanguard.org. Retrieved 1/1/2021 from https://www.davisvanguard.org/2020/05/my-view-spiraling-out-of-control-killings-and-riots/
  3. Image by David Greenwald at Davisvanguard.org via [Name of the website where you found the picture with the hyperlink attached].

About $145.70

Why are health insurance costs are so high?

A patient had an, as yet, un-diagnosed condition. The routine testing done by her specialist yielded an initial diagnosis that about a year later was determined to be wrong. They were looking at a cluster of difficult, slowly developing and confusing diagnoses. The specialist recognized her shortcomings and sent the patient off to the big city for a second opinion by a big wig specialist.

The second specialist repeated most of the testing previously done and some new avenues of testing. He reviewed the prior treatment that had not produced the expected results that had ultimately lead to questioning the original diagnosis. No firm diagnosis was evident, but the focus was trending which made the second specialist want to try a new therapy.

But that’s just the background. The reason healthcare costs are so high follows.

The patient had health insurance. The doctor visits and diagnostic testing costs were submitted, as usual, for payment. After about 3 weeks, the insurance company notified the patient that they were declining one of the laboratory tests as unnecessary. The second specialist was recruited to explain to the insurance company what he was looking for, why he ordered the test, what the result would do to help the patient find her diagnosis, and on, and on. The insurance company declined, again.

In fact the insurance company fought the payment of the lab test for the next 9 months, through several submissions to be paid, 2 levels of review and 3 appeals. For a lab test that cost them $145.70.

What the insurance company won’t tell us is how many full time employee man-hours (and at what hourly rate) were used in the submission and appeal process to finally capitulate and pay the bill.

For 2018, the total direct written premiums to health insurance totaled $714 billion.

Healthcare.gov health insurance issuers (essentially medicare) deny, on average, 18% of all claims and across the board 13% of all insurance claims (private and medicare) are denied.

There are over 900 insurance companies in the USA.

About 270 million USA citizens have health insurance (estimated 300 million qualify).

So, here we have one patient out of 270 million fighting one insurance company out of 900 over $145.70 in an industry that nets over 1.4 trillion/year in revenue.

I’m tired and you can do the numbers, but who is scamming who?

Your grumpy uncle Dave.

Coronalie-29, CDC Malfeasance

World 1185053/453360632=2.6%
USA 229293/9007298=2.5%
KS 2109/193288=1.1%
Mo 4837/359022=1.3%
TX 24648/1512531=1.6%

The patient that received one of the first vaccines in the State of Alabama was reported to be 94 years old. I thank him for his service to this country and the world. But he shouldn’t have received the vaccine ahead of others.(1)

As a retired Emergency Department physician, I have to say that this is the stupidest idea and worst triage I could imagine. And it is said to be in agreement with CDC recommendations.

Triage for an epidemic should go something like this.

  1. Those injured, ill or at risk, in order from most critical to least critical but a good candidate to survive. Implying a result that is a productive member of society.
  2. The highest and most likely to infect the largest portion of the population.
  3. Critical infrastructure such as healthcare workers, police and fire/rescue (a subset of #1 and #2).
  4. The most susceptible to a spreading epidemic.

Sorry, but this patient does not meet any of these criteria.

  1. He is least likely to survive an infection.
  2. He is least likely to infect the largest portion of the population.
  3. He is not critical infrastructure, nor productive to society at large.
  4. He is susceptible to becoming infected. He can be masked, anti-socially distanced and have his hands washed to prevent infection.

The problem with #4 is that we still do not know who or how the highly susceptible are susceptible. Persons living in a household that have an infected clinically ill patient, persons exposed to known cases of COVID-19 infected persons and those not following masking, antisocial distancing, and strict hand washing don’t always succumb.

In this situation, the Alabama State Health Department and the CDC are guilty of squandering away the opportunity to effectively combat The Great Coronavirus Epidemic of 2020. This is just plain malfeasance (to use a word I learned from my favorite TV character, Sheriff’s Deputy Barney Fife.(2))

From your Grumpy Uncle Dave.

  1. WWII POW gets Birmingham’s first COVID-19 vaccine. Alexandria Hein. Foxnews.com. 12/16/2020. Retrieved 12/16/2020 from https://www.foxnews.com/health/wwii-pow-gets-birminghams-first-covid-19-vaccine
  2. Barney Runs for Sheriff. The Andy Griffith Show Wiki contributors. Retrieved 12/16/2020 from https://mayberry.fandom.com/wiki/Barney_Runs_for_Sheriff

Coronalie-28, And Ransomware?

Baltimore cancelled school completely, recently.(1,2) It seems some hacker gained access to the school network and password protected it so that the network was inaccessible to students, staff, teachers and techies. It’s one of the new cutting edge crazes in the world of black hat hacking (as opposed to white hat hacking, look ’em up). The techie contacts the school, in some manner, and offers to un-password protect the network for $$$$$. The article reported that the shutdown was not related to the Great Coronavirus Epidemic of 2020. I have another opinion seeing that the crime has just been reported to law enforcement. In other words, they don’t know.

In my mind, having had some experience with virtual learning, I can see Beavis and Butthead sitting on the sofa laughing their collective asses off because now they don’t have to turn in the virtual algebra assignment that was required during their COVID-19 quarantine due that day that they haven’t done, yet.

More Unintended Consequences but apparently this is not the first rodeo for BCPS district.(3)

From your grumpy Uncle Dave.

  1. Cyberattack shuts Baltimore schools for two days. New York Post contributors. FoxNews.com. November 29, 2020. Retrieved November 29, 2020 from https://www.foxnews.com/us/baltimore-schools-shutdown-for-two-days-after-cyberattack.
  2. Baltimore gets hit by ransomware again, the schools this time. Pieter Arntz. Malwarebytes Labs. N0vember 30,2020. Retrieved 12/17/20 from https://blog.malwarebytes.com/reports/2020/11/baltimore-gets-hit-by-ransomware-again-the-schools-this-time/
  3. FBI Investigating Baltimore City Ransomware Attack, As Internal Network Continues To Have Issues. Pat Warren. WJZ CBS Baltimore. May 10, 2019. Retrieved 12/17/20 from https://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2019/05/10/fbi-investigating-baltimore-city-ransomware-attack/

Coronalie-27, Along Comes State Run Medicine

Apparently a Doctor in Oregon lost his license to practice. The State Medical Board felt that his approach to the coronavirus epidemic was wrong and yanked it.

“…he and his staff skipped masking and denoted the coronavirus pandemic — which has infected over 14.5 million Americans and killed more than 281,000 in the U.S. – as a ‘common cold.'”(1)

But on 12/4/2020, the WHO, CDC and others reported 9,007,298 confirmed cases and 229,293 deaths. That is a mighty big change for 2 days!(2)

“The board therefore found the doctor constitutes an immediate danger to the public, and presents a serious danger to the public health and safety.'”

At a time when there is a national need for heath care providers.(3)

Doesn’t that give you confidence in our government with regard to regulating the distribution of any vaccine or treatment that might come along?(4)

From The grumpy Uncle Dave.

  1. Oregon doctor who refused to wear mask has medical license suspended. Caitlin McFall. FoxNews.com. Posted 12/5/2020, retrieved 12/6/2020 from https://www.foxnews.com/us/oregon-doctor-license-suspended-not-wearing-mask
  2. The Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering (JHU CSSE). Last Updated December 4, 2020. Foxnews.com contributors. Retrieved 12/6/2020 from https://www.foxnews.com/category/health/infectious-disease/coronavirus
  3. Hospitals overwhelmed: Exhausted staffs, surging COVID-19 cases push nation’s limits. Ken Alltucker. USA Today. Published 10/31/2020, updated 11/2/2020 and retrieved 12/6/2020 from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/10/31/coronavirus-surge-hospitals-nurses-staff-bridge-care-gap/6081153002/
  4. Azar believes ‘vulnerable’ populations should get vaccine first, but governors have final say. Peter Aitken. Foxnews.com. Published 12/6/2020 and retrieved 12/6/2020 from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/azar-prioritize-vulnerable-populations-vaccinations