It’s Been Quite A Week — Here Are Some Things You Might Have Missed

October 24th, 2020 by Tom Lynch

From the Department of There’s No Accounting For Stupidity

Since 1980, the population of Idaho has grown from about one million to nearly 1.8 million, considerably outstripping the rate of growth of its neighbors Montana and Wyoming. Over the last 14 days, all three states have seen large spikes in Covid-19 cases, according to the New York Times’s Covid Map and Case Count. And they’re not alone. All the Midwest and Pacific region states are seeing similar surges. Their governors are faced with balancing increased restrictions with the personal freedom inherent in pioneering individualism.

Nowhere did this daunting task become more evident than Thursday in Idaho, a state that has seen a 55% rise in cases in the last two weeks and where, minutes after hearing local hospitals were approaching full capacity necessitating moving patients to Seattle, of all places, the regional health board voted to repeal the local mask mandate.

The regional board, composed of seven appointed members with no requirement to have any medical experience, voted 4-3 to end the mandate. Health District epidemiologist Jeff Lee had just finished describing how the state’s hospitals were becoming “overwhelmed” by the surge in cases. For example, even after doubling up patients in rooms and buying more hospital beds, the hospital in Coeur d’Alene had reached 99% capacity. But, not to worry, it’s just an eight hour, 493 mile ambulance ride from Boise to Seattle.

“We’re facing staff shortages, and we have a lot of physician fatigue. This has been going on for seven months — we’re tired,” Lee said.

He introduced several doctors who testified about the struggle COVID-19 patients face, the burden on hospitals and how masks reduce the spread of the virus. But that didn’t matter to the Board’s majority who just did not see the sense in masks, no matter what the experts said.

To put a period on the “Health” Board’s meeting, member Allen Banks got to the heart of the matter by denying the existence of Covid-19. Lecturing the medical professionals who testified, he said, “Something’s making these people sick, and I’m pretty sure that it’s not coronavirus, so the question that you should be asking is, ‘What’s making them sick?”

That penetrating question came from a gentleman with a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Colorado, who for 30 years has worked in medical research in biotechnology and pharmaceutical development.

Dr. Banks would make a wonderful addition to the White House Coronavirus Task Force.

How cold is cold enough?

Have you stopped to consider the logistics of delivering upwards of 200 million doses of a future Covid-19 vaccine? That’s a lot of syringes. If you laid them end to end they would stretch from the North Pole to the South Pole, about 13,000 miles.

And the vaccine would have to be kept cold, very cold. Just how cold you ask? Try minus 103 Fahrenheit. That’s nearly four times colder than your home freezer, colder even than Antarctica in the dead of winter.

This is a complex challenge. For months, manufacturers, federal and state governments, and large health care systems have been quietly planning how to navigate this ultra “cold chain” that stretches from vaccine manufacturers to hospitals, nursing homes, doctors’ offices, and many far-flung clinics. Now that Pfizer has announced it plans to apply for emergency-use authorization designation in late November for its vaccine currently in Phase 3 trials, solving the cold problem becomes more urgent.

The nation’s governors wrote the Trump Administration last Sunday expressing concerns about the supply of ultracold freezers and dry ice — already experiencing shortages. Pfizer says it has developed specially designed, temperature-controlled shipping packages, using dry ice, to keep its vials at roughly minus 103 below Fahrenheit for up to 10 days. But what happens if the doses are not used in ten days? This is what is confounding the governors.

This issue is even more difficult than it appears, because the vaccines of both Pfizer and Moderna, another leading vaccine developer in Phase 3 trials, require two shots within 21 and 28 days, respectively. The situation is eased somewhat, because Moderna’s vaccine, at around minus 4 Fahrenheit, does not require the same ultra-cold storage temperature as Pfizer’s.

Might be a good time to buy stock in a maker of dry ice.

High Deductibles: Another nail in the rural hospital coffin

Since 2010, more than 130 rural hospitals have closed, 15 thus far in 2020. One mostly overlooked reason is the health insurance deductible. Depending on the plan (employer-sponsored, ACA Marketplace, etc.) a family deductible can range from $0 (but the out-of-pockets are huge) to well over $8,000.

Families in rural communities often face deductibles in the $2,000 to $4,000 range. And when family members require hospitalization, it often happens they cannot pay the deductible. Rural hospitals are forced to eat this less than tasty bill, send it to a collections company, or set up a payment plan with the patient. They prefer the payment plan route, but this significantly delays getting the money, and the bill is often reduced because of the patient’s economic circumstances. So, the hospital goes further in the red and its patients go further in debt. The pandemic has only exacerbated this problem.

Just another example of our nation’s dysfunctional health care “system.”

How to get rid of an irritating federal employee

Despite a great swath of the public thinking otherwise, federal employees can be fired, although it is true that this happens rarely. Of the 2.1 million federal employees about 10,000 are terminated annually, according to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB).

Firing a federal worker is similar to what would occur in the private sector, with one twist. In both settings, best practice recommends, and the federal system requires, the three step verbal warning, written warning, termination process. The twist comes after that. Federal employees can appeal to the MSPB, and the appeals can take a long time to adjudicate.

This past week, the Trump administration threw an interesting log on the fire when the President issued an Executive Order stripping long-held civil service protections from employees whose work involves policymaking. This will affect tens of thousands of workers, and will reduce them to being, for all practical purposes, “at will” employees, meaning they can be fired for cause or not for cause at a moment’s notice.

Under this order, federal scientists, attorneys, regulators, public health experts and many others in senior roles would lose rights to due process and in some cases, union representation, at agencies across the government.

These are not politically appointed employees who require confirmation to their positions, whom the president can terminate or have terminated by whim. Rather, they are professionals who serve as a cadre of subject-matter experts for every administration. I will let you consider the possible ramifications of this Executive Order, which to me seem profound. The Order, while not affecting a majority of the government, could upend the foundation of the career workforce by imposing political loyalty tests.

It is possible, with less than two weeks before election day, this may be more symbolic than real, because the Order requires agencies to indicate employees who would be affected by 19 January 2021, a day before the next inauguration. If Joe Biden wins the election he would be unlikely to follow through on the president’s order. But if Donald Trump is re-elected, this tectonic Order will monumentally reshape the federal service.

Think about that. Please.

 

 

 

 

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