Louisville judges now putting defiant COVID-19 patients on house arrest
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Some people in Louisville are being diagnosed with COVID-19 and then refusing to stay home, defying orders from doctors, city and state leaders. Now, judges are issuing court orders in attempt to hold them legally liable and Metro Corrections officers are being asked to distribute the GPS monitoring gear.
On Monday, an officer was sent home after reporting to work with an increased temperature. That officer was in contact with one of the house-arrest COVID-19 patients last week. He is hoping to be tested for the virus this week.
Court documents obtained by WHAS11 FOCUS investigative team reveal Jefferson County citizens are being court ordered to stay at home.
One male patient, despite being positive for coronavirus went shopping March 21, according to court documents.
The coronavirus , which causes the disease COVID-19, is contagious and considered a federal “quarantinable” communicable disease.
Under state law, Louisville Metro Public Health and Wellness has the authority to issue an “order of isolation.” The order and evidence is presented to a circuit Judge who then signs or denies the order.
The sheriffs serve the order and Louisville Metro Department of Corrections Officers place a GPS monitoring device on the patient. If the patient leaves their home or violates the conditions of the detention they could be arrested or face charges.
There are concerns about officers who must come in contact with the patients to hold them accountable.
FOP Lodge 77 spokesperson Tracy Dotson said, “We are more than capable of handling anything the city throws at us, but in order for us to be confident in doing that, we need to know that we’re being taken care of as much as possible. We don’t think it’s too big of an ask to be tested and to do the proper equipment that we need to do this job and to do the ask that the city and the judges are asking us to do.”
Dotson said the officers who are serving the HIP equipment are not adequately protected while coming into direct contact with the patients. They are given a mask, goggles and chemical-resistant coverall suit.
But Dotson says that isn’t enough. He wants the officers to be tested for COVID-19 after coming in contact with the infected patients. Right now, the officers are continuing to work their shift normally.
“If there was an issue it could spread rapidly. There is no particular assignment or duo of officers are in charge of this one particular thing,” he explained.
The officer now at home in self-isolation is hoping to be tested for COVID-19 sometime this week.
Photo Credit: ksdk.com
Woman, 90, dies from coronavirus in Belgium after refusing a ventilator and telling doctors: ‘I had a good life, keep this for the younger’
A 90-year-old coroanvirus patient has died in Belgium after selflessly refusing a ventilator and instructing doctors to ‘keep this for the younger’ patients.
Suzanne Hoylaerts from Binkom, near Lubbeek, was hospitalised on March 20 when her condition rapidly deteriorated after contracting COVID-19.
It comes amid a global shortage of ventilators during the coronavirus pandemic, a key piece of equipment in the battle against the respiratory disease.
Hoylaerts sought medical attention after suffering from a lack of appetite and shortness of breath. She was admitted to hospital where she tested positive for the virus and was placed in isolation, meaning her daughter was unable to visit.
She reportedly told doctors at the hospital: ‘I don’t want to use artificial respiration. Save it for younger patients. I already had a good life.’
Hoylaerts passed away two days after she was hospitalised, on March 22.
Her distraught daughter Judith told Dutch newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws: ‘I can’t say goodbye to her, and I don’t even have a chance to attend her funeral.’
According to Judith, the family were baffled as to how their mother could have contracted the virus as she had stayed at home and was complying carefully with lockdown measures.
Belgium has now recorded 705 deaths according to the latest official toll.
The country’s toll on Tuesday represented a jump of nearly 200 fatalities from that given the previous day, which stood at 513.
The small EU country, with a population of 11.4 million, now has 12,775 cases of persons tested positive for COVID-19, of whom 4,920 have been hospitalised, including 1,021 in intensive care.
A 12-year-old girl Belgian girl confirmed infected with the coronavirus became the youngest person in Europe to die from the disease, officials said today.
Ventilators are crucial to helping severely ill coronavirus patients to recover. They are machines which pump oxygen in someone’s lungs when they become unable to breathe on their own.
Photo Credit: dailymail.co.uk
Frightened Doctors Face Off With Hospitals Over Rules on Protective Gear
Just after 6:30 on a recent morning, Dr. Henry Nikicicz, an anesthesiologist in Texas, finished an emergency intubation of a man in his 70s who was suffering severe respiratory distress. Then the doctor’s own trouble began.
Stepping out of an elevator after finishing the procedure, Nikicicz put his respirator face mask back on when he saw a group of people walking down the hallway toward him — reflexively trying to protect himself, and them, should anyone have been infected by the coronavirus.
In the days that followed, Nikicicz said, he was told that his job was at risk because policy at the hospital where he works, University Medical Center in El Paso, prohibited the use of protective masks in the hallways.
“Wearing that mask is essential for me,” Nikicicz, 60, who has asthma and hypertension, said in an interview.
After he refused to back down, Nikicicz was removed from the schedule, effectively suspending him from work without pay.
As infection from the coronavirus spreads — and with it, fear — hospitals are facing extraordinary tension between health care providers and administrators. The tension comes against the backdrop of sickness and death for health care professionals, in China, Italy and Spain, and now more than 200 health care workers sick in New York.
Mostly, staff and administrators are fighting over masks, whether they should be worn outside of treatment rooms, and which kind of masks — thinner surgical ones, or heavier respiratory masks. Should they be worn at all times? Only in procedures or while visiting patients? There is also some quibbling over testing and isolation: whom to test and when, and whom to isolate, given limited bed space? Whom to send home if a staff member has symptoms, and whom to require to work?
Some hospitals allow masks outside of treatment rooms and some even make them mandatory. But a number of others say they aren’t necessary at all times and don’t allow them. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidance has changed several times. Currently, it says medical professionals don’t need to wear masks all the time. It also says that if there’s not enough protective equipment available, homemade solutions like bandannas or scarves are OK for health care workers to wear.
On Tuesday, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, a leading member of the federal government’s coronavirus response task force, told CNN that the CDC was considering another change: It is reviewing its guidelines on whether the general public should wear masks.
Amid the confusion, furious and terrified, doctors and nurses say they must trust their own judgment. Administrators counter that doctors and nurses, motivated by fear, are writing their own rules.
Some doctors believe that hospital administrators are simply trying to protect their institution’s image and don’t want to be seen as a facility where dangerous germs are rampant.
When Nikicicz insisted on wearing a mask, he received a text from his boss, the chief of anesthesia, accusing him of overreacting. The text read: “UR WEARING IT DOWN A PUBLIC HALL. THERES NO MORE WUHAN VIRUS IN THE HALLS AT THE HOSPITAL THAN WALMART. MAYBE LESS.”
On midday Monday, the hospital confirmed in a statement that “Dr. Nikicicz has been removed from his rotation/work schedule for insubordination.” But then, later in the day, after the hospital was asked for comment, Nikicicz said he was told by his boss that he had been reinstated and could wear a surgical mask around the hospital and an N95 for procedures.
The circumstances leading to tension vary around the country.
An emergency room doctor, Dr. Ming Lin, wrote on Facebook that he was fired Friday from his job at PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center in Bellingham, Washington, after making public his concerns about insufficient protections and testing at the hospital.
The hospital said it had no comment about Lin’s dismissal.
Administrators at a different hospital in Seattle, the Cherry Hills campus of Swedish Medical Center, threatened to indefinitely suspend an anesthesiologist, Dr. Oliver Small, for wearing a surgical mask when not directly involved in patient care, such as walking the hallway.
“He got called into meetings with administration of Swedish because they don’t want to panic employees into thinking they need to wear masks for protection,” Small’s wife, Jessica Green, wrote on Facebook last week. “He is wearing a surgical mask as a precaution in case he is an asymptomatic carrier of COVID, as many people are, and he does not want to risk infection in uninfected patients.”
The hospital asked him to attend a meeting in which administrators told Small he could take off the mask or stop coming to work, Green wrote, adding, “What is wrong with our health care system????!!!”
Small confirmed the story but said that the hospital had since changed its position on masks and that he was “very pleased” by the outcome. Since the incident, the hospital now allows “universal masking” — the ability to wear masks in any patient area.
The hospital said it had no comment about Small. It said it has changed its policy as “we learn more about this disease.”
“Despite a limited body of evidence showing its effectiveness, and while keeping a strong focus on reuse and conservation, we have decided to implement universal masking as a reasonable strategy, as long as our mask supplies allow,” the hospital said in an email statement.
The intensifying tension falls into a larger context: In recent years, doctors have felt increasingly like employees working for cost-cutting companies putting profit ahead of medicine. That tension appears to have found an almost volcanic moment with the coronavirus pandemic.
“There’s been a loss of autonomy and a denigration going on for a couple of decades now. We’ll take a lot,” said Dr. Christopher Garofalo, a family doctor in North Attleboro, Massachusetts, who holds several regional leadership positions in medicine, including serving as the state’s delegate to the American Medical Association.
More than half of physicians now are employees of hospital systems or big groups, he said, a systemic change that has left doctors feeling less empowered and frustrated.
COVID-19, he said, “is causing it to erupt.”
Doctors at a handful of institutions provided communications from administrators that show a faceoff with doctors.
An email sent from a midlevel manager at the Cleveland Clinic, one of the nation’s elite hospitals, to a group of doctors warned them not to “go rogue” and wear surgical masks around the hospital.
“These are emotional times, and we need to control our emotions,” it said.
Dr. Jim Merlino, a top administrator and the chief transformation officer at the Cleveland Clinic, said the language was “not good communication.”
He also said that while he was aware that some doctors at his institution and around the country were frustrated, he contended the vast majority were not.
“People are afraid and what we have to do is set the record straight: It’s OK to be afraid, but let’s accept we’re making the right decisions,” Merlino said. “We have to tamp the fear down. Otherwise we’ll never survive this.”
He said decisions should be made based on clear scientific evidence. The Cleveland Clinic interprets that current evidence as concluding that it is not necessary to wear surgical masks unless dealing with a high-risk situation.
But other administrators interpret the evidence differently. Stony Brook University Hospital on Long Island just changed its guidelines to require such masks.
“We are now recommending that all caregivers wear a surgical mask with ear loops while at work. This practice should be used in open hospital spaces,” the new guidance reads.
via: https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/frightened-doctors-face-off-hospitals-191355544.html
Photo Credit: Ivan Pierre Aguirre/The New York Times
Tamron Hall interviews Nurse Melissa Scott who quit her job on Instagram
I believe there’s your story her or his story then there’s the truth. Which one do you believe? I know one thing. Not everything needs to be posted on social media. I get it it’s hard especially with what’s going on with the coronavirus. We all just need to stop take a deep breath and calm hell down!
Browns’ Odell Beckham caught in ‘Tiger King’ controversy?
Among the more popular shows to binge-watch during the coronavirus pandemic is Netflix’s seven-part documentary series “Tiger King.”
For those who haven’t seen it, the series focuses on big-cat collector Joe Schreibvogel, who now goes by the name of Joe Exotic. Eccentric doesn’t begin to describe the gun-toting, mullet-wearing former country music singer, or the life he leads as a big cat collector, breeder and zoo keeper.
Among the people to visit his zoo in Oklahoma was N.J. native Shaquille O’Neal, an admitted big-cat enthusiast, who made the trek in 2014 and used a recent podcast to distance himself from Joe Exotic.
Sounds like Cleveland Browns wide receiver Odell Beckham could be in a similar situation, according to cleveland.com:
One of the people prominently featured (in the series) is Doc Antle, the owner of Myrtle Beach Safari, who has a long list of celebrities who have visited his business. According to Antle’s Instagram page, among the famous visitors are Floyd Mayweather, Beyoncé and OBJ.
You may remember Beckham posted a video of himself petting a tiger and playing catch with a chimpanzee at Myrtle Beach Safari in January of 2019, when he still played for the New York Giants. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals used Beckham’s video as a chance to further its cause:
“These sensitive and much-abused animals belong with their families in nature, not pimped out as props by shameless roadside zoos. We’re sure that Odell Beckham Jr. had no idea that the sleazy safari park where this young chimpanzee is kept has a lengthy record of violating federal law and uses great apes and big-cat cubs in cheap publicity stunts like this. These encounters are incredibly dangerous, and PETA urges everyone — including Beckham, who certainly doesn’t want another injury — to steer clear of cruel facilities that exploit animals.”
WFAN reached out to Antle after Beckham posted his video:
Doc Antle, director of Myrtle Beach Safari, which provided the animals in the video, told WFAN.com that while the facility has been investigated for federal violations, it has never been cited for any violations. He added that the animals are well cared for and live in groups with other animals of the same species. “This is not a backyard zoo,” Antle said. “This is a really magnificent wonderful place.”
Article via NJ.com
Hey All You Cool Cats and Kittens!
NikkieTutorials Said She Had A Less-Than-Kind Experience With Ellen DeGeneres When She Was On The Show About Her Coming-Out
“It’s really nice that you came over and said hello to me… She didn’t.”
Beauty YouTuber NikkieTutorials appeared on a talk show last month in the Netherlands called De Wereld Draait Door and revealed some behind-the-scenes information about her experience with Ellen DeGeneres.
The star appeared on DeGeneres’s talk show earlier this year to talk about her celebrated coming-out video. The ~tea~ is now being heavily discussed in English-speaking online forums and channels.
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The Dutch vlogger, whose real name is Nikkie de Jager, seemed to hint to host Matthijs van Nieuwkerk that DeGeneres was not as nice as she hoped she would be.
When van Nieuwkerk asked what it was like for her on the show, de Jager hesitantly said, “It’s really nice that you came over and said hello to me… She didn’t.”
TooFaced Cosmetics Creator Fires His Sister Following Her Remark About Nikkie Tutorials coming out!
And when the Dutch interviewer pressed her more about it, she said the show felt like “a whole different world.”
“What I’ve experienced here and in other countries [is] that it’s really a whole different world. It’s more distant,” she said.
She added that it was nonetheless a “huge honor” to be given a stage as big as The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
In
January, de Jager was invited on the show after her YouTube video about
coming out as transgender went hugely viral. She revealed that she was
blackmailed by someone who threatened to publicly out her.
However, de Jager told DeGeneres then that she was ultimately grateful to have come out because it was so warmly and widely received by her fans.
She also thanked her immensely for giving her an additional platform to talk about being trans.
“Thank you for letting me be here because if there’s one person to get this message across globally — and you like no other know what it’s like to come out — just thank you for this honor,” she told DeGeneres at the end of her interview.
Her Dutch interview happened weeks ago, but it has now made its way to Reddit threads and YouTube controversy/discussion pages.
It’s only fueled chatter about the beloved American TV host. Tabloids have reported that her smiley persona onscreen is not one she maintains off the air. There are also reports that she mistreats her staff members.
De Jager’s fans who watched the newest interview say they’re inclined to believe the YouTuber.
“You can tell in the interview that she was so dissapointed [sic] about Ellen, like it breaks my heart,” a YouTube commenter wrote.
“I believe her. Ellen just seems odd to me, in a way I can’t quite explain. Her TV persona seems very…fabricated,” another added.
BuzzFeed News has reached out to de Jager. BuzzFeed News has also reached out to DeGeneres’s reps for comment.
Article via Buzzfeed
NikkieTutorials Comes Out~When Should You Tell Your Significant Other About Your True Gender?
Tampa megachurch pastor arrested after leading packed services despite ‘safer-at-home’ orders
TAMPA, Fla. – The pastor of a Tampa megachurch is facing charges after refusing to close its doors despite a “safer at home” order in effect in Hillsborough County, meant to stop the spread of COVID-19. The sheriff says up to 500 people were in attendance at Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne’s Sunday services.
Sheriff Chad Chronister and State Attorney Andrew Warren on Monday announced that an arrest warrant had been issued for Pastor Howard-Browne. He faces misdemeanor charges of unlawful assembly and violation of public health emergency order.
The River at Tampa Bay Church held two services Sunday, Chronister said, and even offered bus transportation for those services. The church’s livestream showed a packed crowd cheering and applauding.
“They have access to technology allowing them to livestream their services over the internet and broadcast to their 400 members from the safety of their own homes, but instead they chose to gather at church,” Chronister said during a press conference.
Howard-Browne, 58, was taken into custody Monday afternoon in Hernando County, where he lives, and released 40 minutes later after posting a $500 bond.
His attorney later took issue with the Hillsborough County order, claiming it allows companies like Amazon to operate while shutting down churches.
“Not only did the church comply with the administrative order regarding six-foot distancing, it went above and beyond any other business to ensure the health and safety of the people,” insisted Liberty Counsel founder and chairman Mat Staver. “Contrary to Sheriff Chronister’s allegation that Pastor Howard-Browne was ‘reckless,’” the actions of Hillsborough Country and the Hernando County Sheriff are discriminatory against religion and church gatherings.”
Friday, Sheriff Chronister said, deputies had tried to speak to Howard-Browne on at least two separate occasions about the “dangerous environment” the church was creating. He said HCSO command staff went to the east Tampa church, but they were advised by church leaders and legal staff that Howard-Browne was refusing to see them and also refusing to cancel the Sunday church services.
“I think it’s unfortunate that the pastor here is hiding behind the First Amendment,” State Attorney Warren offered. “One, it’s absolutely clear that emergency orders like this are constitutional and valid. Second of all, leaders from our faith-based community across this country have embraced the importance of social distancing.”
On Sunday, Howard-Browne defended his decision to keep the church open in a video posted to his YouTube channel, claiming the building had the technology to eradicate any virus.
“We brought in 13 machines that basically kill every virus in the place,” Howard-Browne said. “If they sneeze it shoots it down like at 100 miles per hour and it will neutralize it in a split second.”
The church provided the following statement on their website:
“We feel that it would be wrong for us to close our doors on them, at this time, or any time. In a time of crisis, people are fearful and in need of comfort and community.”
Chronister stressed that the warrant was not an attack on religious freedom, and noted there are other Tampa Bay-area churches who are following the social distancing guidelines set by the CDC. He said his concern now is whether the novel coronavirus may spread following the crowded services.
“I was appalled and also frightened at the fact that those individuals [were] thinking and believing they are doing the right thing. How many people are they going to infect if they have COVID-19?” he asked. “There is nothing more important than faith especially during a pandemic, but like every other church here in the Bay Area, do it responsibly.”
During his announcement of the arrest warrant, other leaders from local churches also joined him. Pastor Ken Whitten from Idlewild Baptist Church pointed out that quarantining is mentioned in the Bible.
“It was practiced by people,” he said. “The issue here is not religious freedom. Churches are not the ones being singled out. Everything is shut down. There is no basketball. There is no hockey. All of us our doing our part. I’m a pastor that believes God heals…this is not a faith issue. This is a responsible friend issue.”
RELATED: Coronavirus cases in Florida increase by 500 to over 5,000
Reverend Thomas Scott of 34th Street Church, a former chairman of the Board of County Commissioners and Tampa City Council member, said his church began streaming online and on Facebook.
“We value the importance of the laws of the land and we value the importance of social distancing, and more importantly, protecting our parishioners — make sure they are not in harm’s way and spreading this deadly disease throughout the community,” he said. ” To us, COVID-19 and social distancing is very important. It’s also important for the religious community to govern themselves, according to the laws of the land.”
Chronister and Warren also appealed to River parishioners, asking them not to gather in their pastor’s absence. The state attorney even quoted Mark 12:31 in making his point.
“There is no more important commandment than to love thy neighbor as thyself,” Warren preached. “Loving thy neighbors is protecting them, not jeopardizing their health by exposing them to this deadly virus.”
Photo Credit: HCSO
Dogs are being trained to sniff out coronavirus
Extensive testing for the novel coronavirus is a crucial weapon against the pandemic, as seen in countries like South Korea, which was able to significantly flatten the curve and Germany, which is testing an average of 500,000 people a week. COVID-19 screening can help authorities get a better picture of the number of active cases in hot zones and provide early care to everyone testing positive, especially the elderly and those with preexisting health conditions.
The problem many countries have to face is that there aren’t enough test kits to go around. But what if dogs could sniff out people who are infected and pinpoint them in a crowd?
The charity Medical Detection Dogs partnered with Durham University and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) on a trial to see if dogs can sniff out COVID-19 patients.
The charity has trained dogs to spot malaria, cancer and Parkinson’s patients, as each disease has its own scent, BBC reports. LSHTM head of disease control Professor James Logan said that research proved dogs could detect malaria infections by odor with a level of accuracy “above the World Health Organization standards for a diagnostic.”
That doesn’t mean good boys will be as good as recognizing a particular smell for the novel coronavirus, of course. But if they are, they could be used in all sorts of cases to sniff out potential carriers within large groups of people. The dog test would then be confirmed by an actual COVID-19 test.
The dogs could be ready in six weeks, assuming the trial yields positive results. However, this method of testing will be of limited use, considering it can’t be scaled to meet current needs. But the dogs might be useful down the road to prevent the reemergence of COVID-19 and catch future outbreaks early.
The charity is studying ways to “safely catch the odor of the virus from patients,” according to its boss, Dr. Claire Guest. It’s not just safety for humans, but also from dogs. A 17-year-old Pomeranian tested positive in Hong Kong. Initially, it wasn’t clear whether the dog had the disease, but successive tests showed he developed antibodies for the infection. The dog was released back home after testing negative, but then died of old age.
Separately, a French medical body urged per owners to wash their hands after petting them, as the risk of catching the new coronavirus from animals has yet to be ruled out.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/03/30/dogs-are-being-trained-to-sniff-out-coronavirus/
Photo Credit: nypost.com
17 family members reportedly get coronavirus after attending funeral
A British family is urging people to take social distancing measures seriously after 17 of its members apparently caught the coronavirus at the funeral of a relative who died of the illness, according to a report.
Almost the entire extended family of Sheila Brooks, 86, who died Feb. 9, attended her funeral two weeks ago — and within days, her niece Susan Nelson, 65, who had no underlying health issues, also died, South West News Service reported.
Before long, 16 other relatives fell ill, including Nelson’s husband, daughter Amanda, 34, a niece and a great-uncle, after attending the service in Yardley Wood, according to the news outlet.
“It was my [great] aunt’s funeral so a lot of the wider family were there,” said Amanda, who also suffers from Addison’s disease, an adrenal insufficiency, and is isolating at home.
“She died back in February, but we have just had so many people contract the virus that I can only think it was from then. We now have someone else in our family in hospital that’s probably not going to survive it,” she continued.
“My 21-year-old cousin has it, right the way up to a great-uncle that is 88 and is showing some symptoms. It’s a whole section of us, none of us seems to have been missed out of it just yet. It’s a bit strange,” she said.
“I would say around 17 family members have been displaying symptoms since going to that funeral. It’s hit young and old in our family,” Amanda added.
“Our beautiful, caring mum was the center of the family. We are a very close, large family and this has destroyed us.”
Nelson’s son Carl, 42, said she was admitted at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham on March 23.
“She was coughing a lot, very breathless and showing all the traditional symptoms,” he said. “They said the next 48 hours were critical before they called me back a few hours later to say it was very close to the end and one member of the family could be with her.
“Because I had none of the symptoms, I couldn’t go and my sister was too unwell battling the illness herself,” he said. “People can end up dying on their own. Fortunately, my dad Robert was able to go and be with her when she died.”
Carl added: “We can’t have any other families to go through what we are going through at the moment.
“It’s about getting the message out. It’s about seeing the faces of loved ones and thinking this is real,” he added.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/03/30/family-of-17-reportedly-gets-coronavirus-after-attending-funeral/
Photo Credit: SWNS