Behind Hospital Doors: The Outbreak
Louisianans are a tough bunch. They’ve ridden out hurricanes, bailed out floods, and rebuilt every time. Now, they’re facing a much harsher test: a disaster no one can predict. “It’s like preparing for an invisible hurricane,” one nurse said. “But we don’t know when landfall will be.” What they do know is that no matter how prepared they are, it’s not enough. Not this time.
Louisianans are a tough bunch. They’ve ridden out hurricanes, bailed out floods, and rebuilt every time. Now, they’re facing a much harsher test: a disaster no one can predict. “It’s like preparing for an invisible hurricane,” one nurse said. “But we don’t know when landfall will be.” What they do know is that no matter how prepared they are, it’s not enough. Not this time.
For Governor Jon Bel Edwards (D) it was the one distinction he didn’t want. Louisiana, new research confirms, now has the world’s highest average daily growth rate of the coronavirus — a stunning 65.7 percent in the first 15 days since a diagnosis. Only Washington State and New York have more per capita. At a press conference Wednesday, Edwards did his best to contain the panic, but admitted, “The trajectory of our case growth continues to be very alarming. We have not begun to flatten the curve yet, and that is the number one message that I’m trying to deliver to the state of Louisiana. We have a long way to go.” Realizing that his state, like so many others, would be suffering overwhelming losses, he called on Louisianans to pray and fast.
As my home state comes to grips with the news, a lot of people have questions. How did this happen, for starters? How did Louisiana go from an average number of cases to a global hotspot? Dr. Catherine O'Neal, an infectious disease expert and chief medical officer of Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, thinks the answer can probably be traced to an event that’s almost synonymous with New Orleans.
“It’s always hard to know exactly how an area gets an influx of cases so quickly,” she explained Wednesday on “Washington Watch.” “We do know that there are certain things that are accelerators, and there are many hypotheses right now that that Mardi Gras was an accelerator. We definitely went through a mass of big social gatherings in Louisiana and also lots of travelers. So people from other countries, people from all of the United States coming to New Orleans, which is where we’re seeing the most cases and then going back to their home states… So I have to believe that Mardi Gras probably played some role in accelerating the case number here.”
But even now, as Louisiana starts to be overrun by cases, some people still seem to be dismissive of the threats, the government’s guidance, or the reality of the virus. That’s tragic, Dr. O'Neal agreed, because behind the doors of every hospital are men and women fighting for their lives. “Those of us in Baton Rouge,” she explained, “have been watching with some trepidation — and also preparing our staff and physicians to be ready… Starting last week,” she said, “we [started to see] just a huge increase in patients who are coming in with respiratory distress, needing ventilators for respiratory distress. We’re a couple of weeks behind New Orleans but seeing that same thing that they saw several weeks ago — which is a life-threatening illness in people who should not be presenting such severe disease. It’s disturbing to see,” she admitted.
The biggest problem, Dr. O'Neal pointed out, is how the virus attacks. “[It] starts to multiply in the back of your throat, but then it goes down into your lungs and causes a severe pneumonia. When people can’t breathe on their own, we’re left with just a couple of options. Sometimes you can provide oxygen… But many of these patients require time on the ventilator to breathe. And we don’t have enough ventilators to take care of all of the patients that we expect to have if [people] don’t stay home and isolate.” If Americans keep plunging head-first into parties, large crowds, or church services, the result will be deadly. “We are not going to have enough ventilators to treat everybody who’s ill.”
As experts know, the virus is devastating. “But it’s not about the virus,” Dr. O'Neal insisted. “It’s about the volume. If we continue to see this increase in volume day after day, we’re going to run out of equipment to take care of patients. If we slow the virus down, then we can treat every patient as we would want to treat them according to our standards of care. But if that volume comes at us too quickly, we’re going to run out of the supplies we need, including the ventilators we need to care for our family members. And then when they get here, we won’t have the tools to help them.”
If those aren’t compelling enough reasons to stay home, Dr. O'Neal has another: the health of our doctors and nurses. “Look,” she said, “we all need to go to the grocery store. We all still have to go to the pharmacy.” But otherwise, if you’re out in the community spreading the virus, “you’re putting the only people we have to take care of these patients at risk. "So isolate,” she insisted. “Every bit of distancing counts.”
Originally published here.
One Church Witnesses Disaster
It won’t happen here. That’s what Arkansas Pastor Mark Palenske thought when the coronavirus started claiming its first victims. Turns out, he was wrong. “When something like [COVID-19] touches the other side of the world, your first inclination is to assume that time and distance are on your side," he wrote. "That false assumption caught up with Dena and I this past week.” Struggling with symptoms he and his wife can’t shake, the Greers Ferry pastor has a message for America: take this crisis seriously.
Like a lot of churches across America, he closed First Assembly’s doors when the first guidance came down. But by then, it was too late. A children’s ministry event in early March had already given the virus the foothold it needed to explode across the tiny community. Now, two weeks into a catastrophic event for the church, Pastor Palenske is dealing with a congregation ravaged by the pandemic. So far, 37 of his members have tested positive and a beloved greeter — Bill Barton — is dead. The combination of church-wide grief, shock, and suffering has been overwhelming.
“There was very little in my training for the ministry that covered the full measure of what our church family has dealt with in the past few weeks,” Mark admitted in a Facebook post on Sunday. The idea that his county of 25,000 would have the second highest number of coronavirus cases is mind-numbing. Still, he warns, others must learn from them how dangerous even a small gathering can be. “We must keep the affected population to as a low a number as possible,” he urged. “Our singular act of stubborn independence can have far-reaching effects on someone else’s life.”
Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson (R), who’s been astonished at the number of cases in his state, says he’s had meetings with “hospitals, counties, legislators, [and his] public health team.” And what we’re seeing, he warned, “is the calm before the storm. I know that many people don’t see this as a calm, but I think the way that it’s phrased, makes us understand that we’re still on the lower end of the slope as it goes up.”
Unfortunately, not everyone has learned their lesson. Yet. In Baton Rouge, where at least one church continues meeting against the order of the state and federal governments, the consequences could be cataclysmic. Let me reiterate what so many people like Pastor Palenske are desperate for Americans to understand. This crisis is deadly serious. And while I know there are still faith leaders out there who doubt the motivation behind the shutdown, I assure you, churches are not being targeted. The CDC’s standards have been applied across the board to every organization, non-essential business, sanctuary, school, and other facility.
Of course, there are other countries — like China — who are using the virus as an excuse to crack down on faith even more. That isn’t the case here. We have a president, vice president, and administration more committed to religious freedom than any other. From my conversations with the White House, I can assure you they wouldn’t take these measures if they weren’t absolutely necessary to stop the spread.
And fortunately, as we’ve discovered over the last few weeks, faith leaders don’t have to sit at home twiddling their thumbs and waiting for worst to pass. There are plenty of creative ways for church leaders to continue ministering to their congregations and their communities. If you need ideas or suggestions, visit our website: FRC.org/church. In the meantime, do your part. The best way you can love your community is to protect it.
Originally published here.
Clinging to the Passed: Senate Votes to Rush Aid
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) didn’t exactly get the birthday present she was hoping for. Instead, the Democrat, who turned 80 yesterday, was forced to watch the other chamber vote unanimously to pass a coronavirus relief package that largely ignored her last-minute grab bag of environmental, abortion, gender equity, union pork. “She exploited the opportunity of a deadly pandemic to inject the virus of [political extremism] when America was on its knees,” the New York Post argued. And lost.
With the language headed over to the House, the San Francisco Democrat still has an opportunity to play spoiler. But after the universal outrage from her stunt this week, Americans — many desperate for the help the bill promises — will not respond kindly. For now, at least, Pelosi seems content trying to take credit for a piece of legislation she openly sabotaged.
Of course, she and her Senate counterpart, Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), did manage to peel off some money for pet projects — like the $25 million to fix up D.C.‘s Kennedy Center. It’s $10 million less than Pelosi asked for but still astounding, Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) fumed on “Washington Watch,” especially when so many people are losing their jobs and worried about putting food on the table.
More importantly, though, are the battles Pelosi lost. After pushing to pad the pockets of Planned Parenthood, Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) added explicit language to protect taxpayer dollars from abortion. As part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, he included text that makes it clear the country’s biggest abortion business isn’t eligible for any of the small business loans other “nonprofits” could access.
In another dose of good news, Senate Republicans also made sure that the Hyde amendment applied to every major provision of the bill — something FRC had been watching behind the scenes. As it currently stands, not a single penny from the aid package can be spent on abortion, proving that — at least in the Senate — it’s possible to put aside these ridiculous ideological wars and help our country in crisis.
Americans have learned a lot about their leaders in this debate — and it’s not over. As NRO’s editors point out, “Congressional Democrats have not risen to this occasion. They saw an opportunity to advance goals on the environment, racial diversity, and Planned Parenthood funding that, whatever their other merits, do not belong in this bill. And they have been willing to slow down the process toward these ends.” For the sake of our nation, let’s hope that gamesmanship doesn’t continue in the House, where members have a chance to send a bill to the president’s desk by Friday.
As all eyes shift to Pelosi’s chamber, so will FRC’s. As we have through this whole process, our team will be monitoring the situation over the next 24 hours to make sure the House doesn’t give an inch on pro-life ground. Stay up to date with the latest developments on our social media platforms, the FRC blog, and by listening every day to “Washington Watch” from 5:00-6:00 p.m. (ET).
Originally published here.
This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.
