‘The worst is yet to come.’ How COVID-19 could wipe out many rural hospitals. Rural hospitals in Texas have been bracing for COVID-19’s ominous arrival in their communities, only to be hit with another potential killer: a lack of patients and revenue to keep essential services operating on slim margins.
Compared to urban coronavirus hot spots like New York, where hospitals have raced to meet the onslaught of infections, the spread in more remote communities has been mostly slow, thanks to social distancing efforts and a widespread lack of public transportation — for once, a benefit. But the measures have also slowed the flow of normal patients to a trickle, with potentially dire, long-term consequences for everyone who lives miles around.
In Dimmitt, Texas, a place known for family farms that raise cattle, cotton, corn and wheat, a rural 17-bed critical access hospital — one of 1,300 nationwide — serves the entire county’s 8,000 residents, who are spread across 900 square miles. Then COVID-19 arrived. It’s not just in Dimmit. Dr. The rightwing groups behind wave of protests against Covid-19 restrictions. A wave of planned anti-lockdown demonstrations that have broken out around the country to protest against the efforts of state governments to combat the coronavirus pandemic with business closures and stay-at-home orders have included far-right groups as well as more mainstream Republicans.
While protesters in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and other states claim to speak for ordinary citizens, many are also supported by street-fighting rightwing groups like the Proud Boys, conservative armed militia groups, religious fundamentalists, anti-vaccination groups and other elements of the radical right. On Wednesday in Lansing, Michigan, a protest put together by two Republican-connected not-for-profits was explicitly devised to cause gridlock in the city, and for a time blocked the entrance to a local hospital.
It was organized by the Michigan Conservative Coalition, which Michigan state corporate filings show has also operated under the name of Michigan Trump Republicans. NPR Choice page. Coronavirus hits home for defiant Central pastor: church member dies from illness, lawyer in hospital. The defiant pastor of Life Tabernacle Church, who has said the power of faith and the spiritual need to gather in person trumped Louisiana's attempts to restrict the size of crowds during the spread of the novel coronavirus, acknowledged Thursday that the global pandemic had reached inside his stained-glass chapel off Hooper Road.
One of his congregants is dead and a lawyer tapped to fight for his right to pack the church is ill. A 78-year-old parishioner of the Central church died Wednesday from the virus, though the Rev. Tony Spell called the coroner's determination "a lie. " A 59-year-old Baton Rouge man hired to represent the church has been hospitalized since Tuesday due to his own infection from the virus. It's not clear where either man contracted the virus, and, as of midday Thursday, the state had not opened a cluster investigation into the church, the governor said. "I went to Albertson's twice a day. "I am not aware of any investigation," he said. Success!
Error! ‘The worst is yet to come.’ How COVID-19 could wipe out many rural hospitals. Louisiana Megachurch Pastor Says Parishioner Did Not Die of Coronavirus, Despite What Coroner Says: 'That Is a Lie' Rev.
Tony Spell has reportedly denied that an elderly member of his Louisiana church died due to coronavirus, after Spell continued to hold packed services in defiance of public health restrictions meant to halt the spread of the virus. A local coroner said that the 78-year old church member died on Wednesday due to complications from COVID-19. On Thursday, The Advocate reported that attorney Jeff Wittenbrink, who is on the legal team representing Spell's Life Tabernacle Church, was recently diagnosed with the virus after attending services at the church. Spell disputed the coroner's findings, responding to local news outlet WAFB by saying, "That is a lie. " He also described his fallen parishioner as one of his "right hand men" and a "great member of the church. " "It's not a concern. Wittenbrink is said to have been hospitalized since Tuesday, when he became seriously ill after contracting the virus.
"I went to Albertson's twice a day. "True Christians do not mind dying," Spell told TMZ.