People are dying still thinking the COVID-19 virus is a hoax. When it is clear a COVID-19 patient will not survive, hospital staff can only stop the drips, turn off the ventilator and wait. I started this sketch after hearing that doctors had to use Halloween masks since they had run out of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE). Doctors and nurses resorted to using plastic page protectors as face shields as well as ski goggles, plastic garbage bags and duck tape.
If our first responders were sent to war they would be given the necessary equipment like guns, helmets and grenades but doctors and nurses had to make do with what they could find or cobble together. They had to rely on sewing circles to create cloth masks. It is a sad reminder of our countries priorities. The stock market seems more important than human life. Pfizer Chief Executive Officer Albert Bourla sold company shares worth $5.56 million, the same day the drug maker reported positive data on its experimental Covid-19 vaccine.
I began too wonder if vintage plague masks could be retrofitted to act as PPE. The beak-like masks were once filled with aromatic items like herbs, straw, and spices which were intended to protect the wearer from putrid air.
With hospitals across the county reaching a “tipping point,” where some patients have to wait for someone to die before they can be treated. Texas has the most COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the U.S., according to the COVID Tracking Project. In Star County Texas, a committee was formed which would decide which COVID-19 patients are likely to die and those patients would be sent home to die with family. Most people die alone unable to be visited by family.
As of November 9, 2020, hospitalizations are rising in 47 states, according to data collected by The COVID Tracking Project, and 22 states are seeing their highest numbers of COVID-19 hospitalizations since the pandemic began. Research found that a 1% increase of COVID-19 patients in a state’s ICU beds will lead to about 2.8 additional deaths in the next seven days. Hospitals in Northwest Wisconsin were full to capacity, as of November 12, 2020 with 100% of its beds filled in the region. Approximately 300 hospital staff in the area are on work restrictions due to exposure to Covid-19. The worst is yet to come.