Critics Agree: MTG Greene’s Latest Question About COVID Stinks!

 Posted by at 8:35 am  Politics
Dec 082022
 

MTG Greene seems to be in a never-ending battle with Lauren Boebert and Louie Gohmert for the Congressional Olympic Gold Medal of Abject Stupidity.

But her latest pungent foray into the Stupidity Olympics battle really stinks.  No, really … it STINKS!

COVID has been plaguing the world for a couple of years now and this is NOT the first time this question has been raised and answered.  You would think that before posting a question like this that anyone would do a minimum bit of research – especially someone who serves the people as a Representative in Congress.

But noooo – not MTG!

I’ll try doing my best Bill Nye the Science Guy imitation to help her out.

Let’s start with a brief overview of the chemistry of farts (a topic you’ve probably wondered about a time or two, but never felt it worth your while to delve into.)

There are three different types of gaseous sulfur compounds that cause the stinky odor of our farts:

  • Hydrogen sulfide, which is very common, will produce a rotten egg smell.
  • Methanethiol will produce a smell similar to rotting vegetables or garlic.
  • Dimethyl sulfide is often described as smelling like cabbage but might add a sweetness to the overall smell of gas.

To understand why masks truly DO WORK to protect against COVID (but not preventing MTG from smelling her own farts) it turns out size actually DOES matter.  (Given MTG’s lurid history of multiple extramarital affairs that led to her recent divorce, you’d think she’d have at least a passing familiarity with this concept.)

Now let’s get down to the nitty-gritty:

The main sulphur-containing flatus component was hydrogen sulphide (1.06 (0.2) μmol/l), followed by methanethiol (0.21 (0.04) μmol/l) and dimethyl sulphide (0.08 (0.01) μmol/l) (means (SEM)).

https://gut.bmj.com/content/43/1/100

I agree – that’s way too much chemistry.  Here’s something a little bit easier to understand:

NOTE: Remembering that “orders of magnitude” is a logarithmic term based on power of 10 – so from the Tweet:

3.8 x 10⁻¹⁰ m = 0.00000000038 m.

1.25 x 10⁻⁷ m = 0.000000125 m.

Realizing that MTG is severely “intellectually challenged” – let’s go for something more graphic to help her grasp why masks work against COVID but not farts:

And even more akin to her Saturday morning cartoon-watching (I’m sure MTG enjoys animated graphics) something even simpler

But that doesn’t mean MTG wouldn’t be ruthlessly mocked for this level of stupidity, so let’s enjoy a few.

(To save space, rather than posting each individual Tweet in full, I’ll just post the response to MTG’S question with a link to its author.)

And don’t forget her stinky question:

“If a pair of underwear, really thick ones, high quality cotton, can’t protect you from a fart, then how will a mask protect you from covid??”

No surprise that beloved George Takei would come up with the perfect analogy to help her understand the concept using tools that she’s more familiar with:

If you wear a white hood, really thick, with eye slits, it still can’t protect you from being identified as a white supremacist.

Kristina Wong:

She’s comparing COVID to a fart smell. Because that’s what idiots do.

Lock Them Trumps Up:

Mainly because I don’t wear my underwear on my head. Next question.

Ralph Toivonen:

The same way socks aren’t designed to be used as condoms.

Bruno in the Bay:

Behold. A sitting Congresswoman thinks farts are highly contagious.

Chris D. Jackson:

How the hell did we go from leaders like John Lewis to MTG in just one generation.

How very sad.

TheLastAnemone:

Why is it any of your business if people choose to mask up to protect themselves and their loved ones from the flu or covid19 or smelling your stinky farts?

MYOB, stop being a bully and leave folks to decide for themselves what’s best for them.

Pithier variation from RsLie:

It’s called free choice, Marj!

FREE CHOICE!

Cartoonist Steve Bensen thought that maybe if MTG were provided a bespoke mask, she might actually be enticed to wear it.  He’s got a point:

Others had a more … hmmm … aromatic approach to mask customization:

When it comes to MTG regularly displaying her ignorance via Twitter, I think we’d all agree with Sunday Claus on this:

Of course, the actual reason MTG is not having any success with blocking out the smell of farts is easily explained with this one graphic:

 

So if MTG does not want to be known as the absolute DUMBEST person in Congress, she had better hope that Boebert and Gohmert don’t die!

 

 

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Marking a Sad and Solemn Milestone

 Posted by at 1:48 pm  Politics
May 132022
 

This week marked a tragic milestone in America’s history: One MILLION Deaths from COVID.

It’s appropriate that we revisit a previous post I did visualizing the extent of this tragedy with white flags planted on the lawn of The Mall in Washington.

But first, a graphic that puts the million deaths in some perspective

This is from a wonderfully done article in WaPo briefly following the arc of this tragedy:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/interactive/2022/how-many-people-died-covid-united-states-1-million-graphic/

REDUX: From my previous post of almost a year ago:

https://www.7thstep.org/blog/2021/09/26/solemn-sunday-commemorating-americans-lost-from-covid-19/

In the spring of 2020, Artist Susanne Brennan Firstenberg was incensed when Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R-TX) told Tucker Carlson, while discussing the raging COVID pandemic, that “There are more important things than living.”

Patrick even went further during that interview to suggest grandparents should be willing to die from COVID in order to save the economy for their grandchildren.

“That really disturbed me,” Firstenberg, who’s worked as a Hospice volunteer for over 25 years, told ABC News.  But it inspired her into action with creation of her first display of more than 267,000 small white flags on the four-acre D.C. Armory Parade Grounds in the fall of 2020, just outside RFK Stadium.

Moved by the overwhelming response to her first installation, she knew that second one would require a much larger venue.  She began discussions with the Federal Parks Service, and was successful in securing a site on the National Mall of more than 20 acres next to the Washington Monument.  It borders the White House, the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the World War II Memorial.

The installation, In America: Remember, was opened for viewing from September 17 thru October 3, 2021.

Firstenberg enlisted the services of Ruppert Landscape for 150 employees working with a corps of volunteers to place the flags in 143 geometric sections that create 3.8 miles of walking paths.  Scattered throughout the display are numerous white benches, making it easy for visitors’ quiet reflections.

The installation was designed to be interactive.  There were 10,000 Sharpies available for visitors to use to inscribe personal messages on the flags.

At the opening ceremony dedication, Lonnie G. Bunch III, the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, noted that the flag display is the largest installation on the Mall since the that of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, another collaborative art piece that was displayed multiple times during the height of the AIDS epidemic.

Firstenberg, compelled by outrage she felt for Trump and his fellow Republicans constantly downplaying the pandemic during the election, was  inspired to create her first installation at RFK Stadium.  She hoped her second installation will convince people to get vaccinated.

“The last thing I want to do is to have to buy more flags.”

ADDENDUM

While Firstenberg’s efforts certainly had an impact, sadly there remains a group of Trumpkin Luddites who have refused to follow the science Dr. Fauci and so many other distinguished healthcare professionals have so bravely provided.

From NPR, here is a graph of the estimate of adults who could have been saved if they had been vaccinated:

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/05/13/1098071284/this-is-how-many-lives-could-have-been-saved-with-covid-vaccinations-in-each-sta

And this is a map where most of the anti-vaxxer troglodytes lived:

I’m sure you can see a correlation between deaths (largely due to anti-vaxxers) by state and the Trumpkin voters.

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Somber Sunday: A COVID Nurse’s Letter to Her Patient

 Posted by at 10:04 am  Politics
Sep 192021
 

You probably have noticed that I’ve become more and more incensed with the willful stupidity of people who have refused being vaccinated against COVID.  This is compounded by the media incessantly telling us we should handle the anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers with ” kid gloves” and not shame them or make them feel guilty WRT their perpetuating the pandemic.

If this were not literally a matter of life and death, I might acquiesce.  But since it is, I won’t.

With that in mind, I’m going to do something I’ve not done before: use another person’s post, because I think it addresses the issue far better than I ever could.  It’s a letter by a nurse to her patient.

In general, I am NOT a fan of the Reddit website (for obvious reasons).  But they have niche sub-Reddits that can be interesting.  The one I’m referencing the “Herman Cain (Posthumous) Award”:

https://www.reddit.com/r/HermanCainAward/

It’s composed of Tweets and other postings generally mocking anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers.  It inspired another website that chronicles those who had posted anti-vaccine messages who are either hospitalized or have died from COVID:

https://www.sorryantivaxxer.com/

Not exactly my cup of tea, so I rely on others to do the vetting of these sites.  Occasionally there’s a very serious post that is worthy of sharing – and this is one:

https://www.reddit.com/r/HermanCainAward/comments/pqm303/an_open_letter_to_my_patient/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

She refers to it as her “TED Talk” – a pretty apt description.  But you’ll note that it’s written as a stream of conscious, which makes it a bit difficult to follow.  So a fellow Kossack reformatted it in an easier-to-read manner:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/9/18/2053011/-A-Letter-To-Her-Patient-by-an-ICU-nurse

 

WARNING: It might have discussions that could be Triggers for some, so proceed cautiously.  It’s long and understandably contains a number spelling and grammar errors.  I didn’t feel they should be corrected.  And as Daily Kos was fine publishing it in toto, I see no reason not to either.

 

An Open Letter To My Patient.

I’m sitting here in my car this morning, too exhausted to even start driving. I can’t get your face out of my head. These community hospital shifts are brutal.

I remember taking care of you 4 weeks ago.  You had gone to urgent care the beginning of august. Just barely in your 50’s. A few years older than me. No medical or surgical history. No vaccine. Diagnosed with Covid, sent home with meds. 2 days later EMS brought you in, hypoxic, in horrible condition. We quickly intubated you. You looked so bad. You suffered through proning. Acute kidney injury. Dialysis.

4 weeks ago we were hopeful. You were going for a peg and trach. We couldn’t get you off sedation or you would panic and decompensate. I don’t remember now what problem you were having that was making it so hard to get the trach done, I just remember it kept getting cancelled.

Fast forward 5 weeks later. I’m back at this hospital after my own bout of Covid. I’m back to work already. But I was vaccinated. you are my patient again. You are not doing well. They thought after the trach you would do better. You did for a couple of days. Then the first lung collapsed needing a chest tube. Then the second. Then more pneumonia. More dialysis.

You are a DNR now. Your wife is exhausted. We were supposed to make you comfort care tomorrow. You have 3 daughters. The youngest is just 14. We are waiting for her to come in.

You can’t wait for tomorrow. I get report to find out you tanked. They pushed atropine at 6pm to get your heart rate up, went up on the pressors.

Your wife has been told, she had just finally gotten to the laundry mat and put the clothes in. We tell her you won’t make the night. She’s hurrying as fast as she can.

I go in to see you. You are a shell. You don’t respond to anything anymore. You lay there, pale and gray, mouth hanging open. I wave a fly away from out of your mouth, it can’t seem to wait for you to pass.

Your wife and kids come in. They are barely holding it together. My eyes go to your youngest. She looks terrified and lost. I can’t imagine what this is like for her. I just want to hug her. I try to smile with my eyes from behind the mask, doing everything I can to give comfort.

In an ideal world you would be my only patient- but we have only half the nurses we should. We are all running.  Transferring patients to get more in. I have to go see my other unvaccinated Intubated Covid patient, also your age.

I squeeze your wife’s arm supportively and hurry to put on all my gear. You seem “stable” so I hurry to do what I need in my other room. Im not in there 5 minutes and your heart rate and blood pressure drop again.

The doctor sticks her head in to let me know. There’s nobody to go attend you, we are all drowning.

I hurry.

I come out and the doc asks me if we are waiting for any other family members to arrive- judging if we will make you “comfort” or keep trying to keep you alive.

I try to find a way to gently bring this up with your wife. She says at first no, nobody else is coming. Yes comfort measures are good. No more interventions.

You are air hungry, breathing too fast and alarming your vent. Doc gives me pain med orders to keep you comfortable, I go up on sedation and push meds.

Your 14 year old is holding your hand. She can’t watch me do it, she is terrified of needles and afraid I’m poking you. I show her I’m not, it’s just a syringe in your IV. Tears are in her eyes and she just can’t watch.

Doc tells me to turn of your pressors.

Your wife comes out and says wait- let me call his mom. Your mom was planning on coming tomorrow morning. I go up on your pressors and we wait for her.

This tiny frail woman comes in. She worries me. I’m a mom myself. I can’t imagine seeing my child like this, let alone watching him die.

I give everyone some time, then when they are ready I turn off the blood pressure meds. Your heart rate is already in the 40’s.

It doesn’t take very long, about an hour. Your heart rate gets slower and slower as your oxygen level reads less and less, until there is no more blood pressure reading or oxygen. I watch your rhythm change, I know it will be moments. I want to be in there with you and your family, but we don’t have enough staff. I sit on the monitor so I can keep silencing the maddening alarms.

Your family watches as you flatline.

A wail goes up that pierces my soul. It’s your girls. Your wife is trying to be strong for them.

I keep silencing the alarm, trying to find help to get the monitor turned off. I print your last EKG strip showing asystole. I call the doctor as I frantically mash buttons. Finally I get some help to turn it off once the doctor has come to pronounce you and take you off the ventilator.

Time of death, 3 hours into my shift.

Even flatlined and off the vent, you give one little sigh and belly rise after the doctor pronounces. I pray your kids didn’t see it, I don’t want them any more traumatized.

Your family stays a while.

I make my mandated call to the organ and tissue donor line. We go through the rote questions, even though we both know Covid will keep you from being a donor.

The lady on the other end asks me the cause of death. I give a dark laugh, Covid of course. I ask her is there any other kind right now? She sighs and says no.

I hang up and check on your family. I go through all my tough questions and paperwork.  Do you have a funeral home picked out? No? That’s ok you can call us with that information.

They ask what happens next. I tell them to take whatever time they need. Your wife asks me if we need the room.

I lie and tell her no. Where will you go, they ask. I let them know you will be transported to the morgue, pending funeral home pick up.

Your daughter gives a hitching sob.

I ask if there are any belongings. Your mom wants your ring. Your wife has your regular wedding ring at home. It’s just silicone on your finger now, but I give it to your mom. The only thing else here is the shorts you came in the ambulance wearing. Your wife doesn’t want them, she can’t bear to look at it. She tells me to just throw them away.

Your family is ready to go. They mill about outside your room, all but your oldest. She can’t bear to leave you. She sits by your bed, crying. Your youngest is shriveled in on herself, holding her stomach like somehow she can contain her grief that way.

I give my condolences to your family; it sounds hollow even to myself. What can I say? I tell your wife that your daughter can stay as long as she needs, they can go on home if they want.

This is where your wife loses it, her voice breaking and tears spilling out. “I don’t want her driving by herself. I need to know she’s ok and not alone”. I nod in understanding. I have a kid her age.

I have to go check on my other patient, I hear IV’s beeping and alarms going off. They never stop.

When I come back out, you are all that’s left in the room. I do your post mortem care. All of the lines and tubes and invasive things have to come out. I remove your chest tubes, your dialysis catheter, your central line, your internal fecal bag. Your trach we worked so hard to put in.

I try my best to clean up all the foul fluids and place bandages on you so you stop leaking so badly. I wash you and attach the tag to your toe. I get help and zip you into the body bag, naked but for that toe tag. Security comes and you finally leave this ICU, after entering it 7 weeks ago.

Housekeeping comes and does a stat clean- there are more patients waiting for your bed. Another nurse tells me your wife is so upset because one of your daughters has still been refusing the vaccine.

She says how can you risk putting me through this again? I wonder if it’s the one who couldn’t leave. I hope for her & your wife’s sake this changes her mind. I sigh, try to shake it off and go admit the next patient who can’t breathe.

EPILOGUE

TL:DR- all of this is a real account. None of it is exaggerated or made up. If anything I held back, for fear of revealing too much patient information. This doesn’t even talk about what it’s like when all these patients keep coming, all having the same outcomes.

My next admit from the floor is 74- both him and his wife caught Covid. His admit note says he was vaccinated but the doctor tells me no- they asked their kids and their kids told them not to get it.

He’s dying and all I can notice is the sassy earring he sports. He is confused and won’t keep his bipap on, rips it off and fights and screams for me to help him.

For all of you lurking who are vaccine hesitant or anti-vax- please read this. Think about your kids, your family. Think about their grief and exhaustion.

My patient was fit, healthy, working. He was a skeleton in that body bag.

For those of you posting in here, I’m glad for the support you give us, and for the positive reinforcement you give those that decide to get vaccinated.

I also hope this gives you some insight as to why it’s not so easy to just say “too bad so sad you didn’t get vaccinated”.

I don’t know if my patient was anti-vax, ignorant, or thought he wouldn’t be affected. I don’t actually care. What I care about is that poor 14 year old girl who will be traumatized for the rest of her life. Please get vaccinated. This is all so unnecessary.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

 

 

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Open Thread for August 6, 2021

 Posted by at 6:37 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Aug 062021
 

Yesterday it was still pretty cool but I know it won’t last. It’s been nice while it did, though.

Cartoon –

Short Takes

The Hill – Five big questions as Jan. 6 panel preps subpoenas
The Questions – 1. Will the panel hit roadblocks for subpoenaed documents?
2. Should lawmakers like McCarthy and Jordan be called to testify?
3. Could any Democratic witnesses offer testimony?
4. Will they go after former Trump officials?
5. Will there be an August hearing?
Click through for expanded speculation. Of course the first rule of lawyering is “never ask a question if you don’t know the answer,” and though this is not exactly a trial, it is a kind of court.

The New Yorker – New York State Weighs Ban on Male Governors
Quote – “If, at the end of fifty years, we have reason to believe that a male governor could behave in an appropriate manner, then the law would expire,” State Senator Carol Foyler, one of the bill’s sponsors, said. “If, however, it’s determined that New York could not tolerate a male governor at that time, there is a provision to extend the law for an additional fifty years.”
Click through – it’s short.

HuffPost – I’m An ICU Doctor And I Cannot Believe The Things Unvaccinated Patients Are Telling Me
Quote – I am angry that the tragic scenes of prior surges are being played out yet again, but now with ICUs primarily filled with patients who have chosen not to be vaccinated. I am angry that it takes me over an hour to explain to an anti-vaxxer full of misinformation that intubation isn’t what “kills patients” and that their wish for chest compressions without intubation in the event of a respiratory arrest makes no sense. I am angry at those who refuse to wear “muzzles” when grocery shopping for half an hour a week, as I have been so-called “muzzled” for much of the past 18 months.
Click through for full article.

Food for Thought (of course this doesn’t apply to anyone here!)

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COVID: A Year in Photos

 Posted by at 4:45 pm  Politics
Mar 132021
 

Well, it will be a LONG time before I use photos in a GIF that really require captions for clarity.

It wasn’t that terribly hard to find out how and teach myself, but the process is slow, tedious and boring!

When I learned that Pres. Biden was going to address the nation last Thursday, marking the one-year anniversary of our lockdown, I decided I would do a “photo essay” type of post.

But since it’s been a top story for over a year, I wanted to try to find some photos we haven’t all seen dozens of times – which was a challenge.

And then I wasn’t sure how to categorize them into sections since they obviously all had an underlying common thread.  So there’s some overlap between the different GIFs.

No doubt a common impact of COVID here and around the world is that it’s made our lives much more insular and lonelier.

Of course it’s had a profound impact on the medical community

And its repercussions on individuals, families, friends, institutions and government will cause ripples for years and years to come.

I will close with a photo I’m sure we’ve all probably seen, but if I had to pick just one iconic photo representative our lives in the time of COVID, it’d be this:

 

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