Weeks after Covid’s new Omicron variant began to surge across the US,
early-hit cities are beginning to feel its full, chaotic impact.

In Kansas, overwhelmed hospitals are turning away ambulances. In Los
Angeles, hundreds of police and firefighters are out sick with the virus..
In New York City, trash collection and subway services have been delayed
due to staff shortages. All across the country, schools that struggled to
stay open have few teachers left to teach.

“This really does, I think, remind everyone of when COVID-19 first
appeared and there were such major disruptions across every part of our
normal life,” Tom Cotter, director of emergency response at the non-profit
Project HOPE, told the Associated Press.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/covid-omicron-hospital-latest-figures-us-b1989587.html

So far, data have indicated that the Omicron strain causes milder illness
than previous variants, especially in vaccinated people – but its
transmissibility is staggering. In January 2021 – the pandemic’s previous
all-time peak in the US – the country was recording an average of about
251,000 new Covid cases per day. Today that figure is more than 656,000.

That contagiousness alone is causing a crisis in American healthcare.
Despite Omicron’s low proportion of severe cases, the sheer number of
cases it does cause is proving enough to overwhelm hospitals. In New York,
the State Department of Health has ordered 40 hospitals to stop performing
non-essential surgeries.

“We will use every available tool to help ensure that hospitals can manage
the COVID-19 winter surge,” Acting State Health Commissioner Mary Bassett
told WABC.

In Johnson County, Kansas, some filled-up hospitals have told incoming
ambulances to go elsewhere, and, with no beds left to offer, have asked
emergency room patients to convalesce in waiting rooms. Meanwhile,
paramedics work 80-hour weeks and wait for the Omicron wave to crash.

“What my hope is and what we’re going to cross our fingers around is that
as it peaks... maybe it’ll have the same rapid fall we saw in South
Africa,” Dr Steve Stites, chief medical officer at University of Kansas
Hospital, told AP. “We don’t know that. That’s just hope.”

Deaths are beginning to creep up as well. Though Omicron’s mortality rate
so far appears to dwarf those of previous variants, its astronomical
caseload means its death toll could still be significant.

In Cook County, Illinois (which includes Chicago), Covid was causing an
average of 7 deaths per day at the beginning of December. By 8 January,
that figure had risen to 31. In the same timeframe, the daily death count
in New York City has shot up from 11 to 56.

Those deaths have disproportionately fallen on the unvaccinated. In New
York City, the vast majority of Covid hospitalizations have been of
unvaccinated patients – a pattern that has only grown more extreme during
the Omicron wave, an analysis by The New York Times found.

Experts say they can’t tell whether Omicron in the US is winding down or
just getting started. The only thing that’s clear is that vaccines –
particularly boosters – protect people from suffering its worst effects.

“The unfortunate reality is, there’s no way of predicting what will happen
next until we get our vaccination numbers – globally – up,” Mr Cotter told
AP.

### - in terms of the above we appear to be around about a week 'ahead' of
you guys in the US?

plus the 'speed' at which this shit spreads is just fuckin' phenomenal??

things is pretty bad here but they's currently playing/talking it all
down, millions now infected and no one really knowing what's gonna
happen... all we DO know is that they've apparently thrown wide-open any
restrictions and are now, effectively anyway, 'encouraging' everyone to
get infected!?

that for better/worse we're going-for herd immunity!!!

but it's a helluva gamble...

geez...

?
>
> that for better/worse we're going-for herd immunity!!!
>
> but it's a helluva gamble...
>
> geez...

If you followed both sides, which is hard, because US media is total state-corporation leftist,
you would realize Dr. Faustus is going to hang for "War Crimes."

Now is the time to get on the subway and stay on it till you get sick.
Omicron is your ticket to dual immunity.
The article posted is propaganda, the testing centers are overwhelmed, but it's like Africa
sweeping right thru and giving everyone an "Electric Flu" thing. You can "feel" the weirdness.

If the left nuked the japanese and then practiced by killing the gay people, it's only logical
a worldwide bio weapons strike was giving the extreme erections for their child raping hobbies.

The left has a four count conviction for genocide.
Your a very good example of Stockholm Syndrome.

You, Thang and Chris calling Charlie a punk for 20 plus years.
The Gestapo shows up and you roll up your sleeves and whisper "Zeig Heil Fuhrer"

Charlie would have toughed it out. Death before dishonor.

Another Heart Attack From The Nazi Vax
https://twitter.com/i/status/1479851938263052288

Am I supposed to gloat Comrade Brian?

I think not. I'm going to die with my boots on, fighting.
God rest his soul.

Here is how GOD mocks people.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1480061804139069440

Almost Half Of New York COVID-19 Hospitalizations Not Due To COVID-19

Sunday, Jan 09, 2022 - 07:30 PM

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

Nearly half of the patients currently in New York hospitals with COVID-19 are not in the hospital because of COVID-19, the state said Friday.

Forty-three percent of the 11,548 hospitalized patients did not have COVID-19 listed as one of the reasons for admission, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office said.

Hochul, a Democrat who is seeking a full term in office, told a press conference that she wanted to drill down on the hospitalization numbers to see how many patients are actually being treated for COVID-19 versus merely having the disease, which often causes no or mild symptoms.

Some of the patients test positive for COVID-19 “but they’re in there for other reasons,” Hochul said.

“Think of all the other reasons people end up at a hospital; it’s an overdose, it’s a car accident, a heart attack.”

Hochul had announced on Monday that the state would be separating out hospitalizations for COVID-19 versus those with the disease, which is caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.

She said it was important to know the percentage of patients in each category as the number of hospitalizations rise.

“I just want to always be honest with New Yorkers about how bad this is. Yes, the sheer numbers of people infected are high, but I want to see whether or not the hospitalizations correlate with that. And I’m anticipating to see that at least a certain percentage overall are not related to being treated for COVID. But we’re still going to watch hospital capacity,” she said.

Most people admitted for non-COVID reasons who have COVID-19 are in New York City, with approximately half the hospitalizations there meeting that criteria, the data show. In some other areas, the percentage is much lower.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul speaks during a news conference in the Manhattan borough of New York City on Dec. 14, 2021. (Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

“About 50 percent are admitted with COVID and 50 percent admitted for COVID,” Dr. Steve Corwin, CEO of New York Presbyterian Hospital, which is in the city, told reporters. “Of the patients in the hospital, 50 percent are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated and 50 percent have two doses of the vaccine,” he added.

Partially vaccinated means a person has received one dose of the Moderna or Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines or has received two doses but two weeks have not elapsed since their second dose.

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former Food and Drug Administration commissioner who sits on Pfizer’s board, said the percentage was higher than he would have expected.

“Unclear why we’d see so much incidental infection. I’m hearing similar stats in [New Jersey] and [Connecticut] hospitals. Creates some concern [that COVID-19] could be spreading by contact with healthcare system itself,” he wrote on social media.

While many jurisdictions and hospitals do not make clear how many COVID-19 patients are being treated for other reasons, researchers found last year that approximately half of the hospitalizations showed just mild or no COVID-19 symptoms. Another study found four-in-10 children hospitalized with COVID-19 were asymptomatic, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, told reporters Friday that the recent increase in pediatric COVID-19 hospitalizations was due in part to non-COVID reasons.

“This is really a consistent problem we keep ignoring it as if it’s not an issue. It is an issue,” Dr. Scott Atlas, part of the White House COVID-19 response team during the Trump administration, told The Epoch Times previously.

Hochul told people who are only experiencing mild symptoms to stay home amid concerns of overburdening New York’s healthcare systems. She said that nearly 5,000 New Yorkers in the past 24 hours alone went to emergency rooms for COVID-19 testing.

“We have capacity. We have 2,000 locations where people can get tested. So, please do not go to an emergency room and tie up the resources, those individuals, so you can get a test. And don’t come in if you have very mild symptoms, either,” she said. “I know you’re anxious, I really understand this, but if you’re an adult that has very minor symptoms, you can handle a runny nose. You can handle your throat being a little bit sore, a little bit of cough. Just treat it as if you would have the flu. Follow the protocols, but please don’t overburden our emergency rooms.”