Covid – A Cautionary Tale

 Yes, another Covid post. I know, if you are like me you are rather tired of Covid. Someone even was so bold as to state that she was done with Covid on national TV. She has gotten some flak about that. Perhaps with good reason.

We are still seeing protests, in multiple countries, against vaccine mandates or mask mandates. I don't presume to know what the path of the virus will be. And that is the gist of this post. I would like to relate to you one story that happened to a Minnesota resident. It is a sad story, to be sure, like so many other Covid stories.

This man contracted Covid in October 2021. He lived in a small town and was admitted to his local hospital where they put him on a ventilator. Eventually he was moved to Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids, which I presume was a larger facility than the first hospital, otherwise they wouldn't have moved him. He was unvaccinated. I do not know why he chose not to get the vaccine.

He remained on a ventilator until January 2022 at which point Mercy wanted to take him off, making the determination that he was not going to survive. His wife sued to stop the hospital and eventually found a hospital in Texas that admitted him. The doctors there said they had never seen such a malnourished patient. A week after he was moved he died.

There is some speculation that the family will sue Mercy Hospital. As hard as the result of this man's path was I think that this is not the fault of the hospital. This path was the result of his choice. I can't imagine that anyone on a ventilator for 2 ½ months is going to maintain a healthy weight. I know people who have had milder cases of Covid who also lost a lot of weight and they were not in the hospital.

This man had had Covid before. This was his second go around. Perhaps that is why he chose not to get the vaccine. I know people who have had Covid who feel that they have acquired enough immunity to be able to beat it again. That didn't work out for him. The second case ended in his death. It is something to consider if any of you out there are in the same boat.

We hope that the virus is weakening, because omicron appears to be less severe. But we really can't be sure of that. So perhaps it is still too early to let down our guard. Get vaccinated, wear masks and avoid large crowds of unmasked, unvaxxed people.

Stay safe. 

2022 - A New Year

Yes, really, a new year. I know you might be fooled because it looks so much like last year. The pandemic is still raging, with hospitals overwhelmed with people still refusing to get vaccinated. Our political divide is just as great, with most Republicans still believing that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, when in point of fact it was Donald Trump who was trying to do the stealing.

We still can't seem to find what really made our country great. In fact we still seem to be on the edge of losing what made our country great. I can only hope that this year will see the United States finding her democratic roots. Because we have many challenges facing us in the future and we can do that better together.

If you have Netflix there is a new movie out, “Don't Look Up”. I will be honest and say that I didn't really like the move that well. But perhaps that was because it was rather painful to watch. It hits too close to home.  But if we don't watch, and don't take to heart its message, we may very well suffer the fate of the characters in the movie, as Leonardo points out. Here is Leonardo DeCaprio speaking on the film's message.

Let's hope we make better choices in the New Year.