Why you should stay home for New Year's Eve

Because there's no room at the inn…or the intensive care unit...

A while back I read a story about all the scientists and medical experts who were originally wrong about how serious the COVID-19 pandemic would get; back then one expert said compared to the seasonal flu, COVID-19 would barely be a blip on the radar.

But according to the CDC, seasonal flu deaths in the United States have ranged from 12,000 to 61,000 over the last decade and last time I looked we were closing in on 339,000 COVID-19 deaths here in the US, so that blip-on-the-radar prediction missed by just a smidge.

Also, Dr. Anthony Fauci originally said we didn’t need to wear masks, but that was before they figured out how and how easily COVID-19 was transmitted and now Dr. Fauci thinks we ought to wear a mask about as often as Darth Vader.

All the medial experts quoted in the article were willing to admit they originally got it wrong. And as long as we’re talking about people who originally got it wrong; when all this first started I wrote a piece comparing the coronavirus to the seasonal flu.

Not the first time I took a swing and missed.

Because the experts changed their opinion as time went along, a lot of people have decided you don’t need to listen to the experts. (And by the way, I don’t put myself in that “expert” category; I’m just a guy who reads the news and then tries to regurgitate it in the most entertaining way possible, which now that I’ve written that sentence, sounds kinda gross to me, too.)

So where were we?

Oh, yeah…people who use the experts’ changing opinions as a reason to ignore what they have to say now.

I think the exact opposite.

Rational people are willing to change their minds as they receive new evidence; irrational people won’t.

COVID-19 was not called a “novel” coronavirus because someone would write a book about it; it was called a “novel” coronavirus because it hadn’t been seen before and the medical people were still figuring out how it worked.

It’s actually a good sign that experts change what they think as they receive new evidence, otherwise we’d still be throwing suspected witches into large bodies of water to see if they’d float, which we now know is irrational, but I still wouldn’t mind seeing us trying that system of justice on certain politicians.

For some reason, Mitch McConnell comes to mind.

Not picturing that dude as a strong swimmer, but who knows; maybe Mitch is Kentucky’s version of Mark Spitz and we ought to throw him in the deep end of some Olympic-sized pool and find out.

Anyway, COVID-19 deniers still refuse to change their mind despite mountains of new evidence like hospitals being swamped after Thanksgiving, which medical experts warned us might happen.

Do you have a reservation?

According to the LA Times, on Sunday night the LA County USC Medical Center did not have a single bed available for at least 30 patients who needed intensive or immediate care, had to shut its doors to ambulance traffic for 12 hours and some very sick patients had to wait up to 18 hours to get into the intensive care unit.

The front entrance of Community Hospital of Huntington Park was closed to the public on Monday, while the back entrance dealt with a steady stream of ambulances.

And on Monday, Memorial Hospital of Gardenia was running at 140% capacity.

Hospitals in LA are so crowded they’re putting patients in conference rooms and gift shops, which might come in handy because while you’re at death’s door you could buy yourself some nice flowers to cheer yourself up, especially since your family and friends won’t be allowed anywhere near you.

One of the reasons all hell is breaking loose is people ignored the warnings and gathered on Thanksgiving and as bad as things are, they will probably get worse because too many of us once again ignored the warnings not to travel or gather and did it again at Christmas.

I take all this kind of personal because my son Paul lives a couple blocks off Hollywood Boulevard and is right there at COVID-19 central. We’ve heard a lot of whining from the people who don’t want to wear a mask or observe social distancing, but those people think their personal rights include endangering my son.

And LA isn’t the only place being swamped with COVID-19 patients.

The Alabama COVID Tide

According to the Associated Press, Alabama hospitals are “like a bath tub that’s filling up.” Apparently Alabama is one of our most impoverished and unhealthy states (although I’d like to think Missouri could give Alabama a run for its money) with a high rate of obesity and high blood pressure – “Try the chicken-fried steak, y’all.” – which would be a much funnier remark if I didn’t personally love that dish and order it every time I see it on a menu.

Bottom line: if you’re already unhealthy, having COVID-19 makes it easier for those conditions to combine and help finish you off. So think about that before you add mozzarella to your bread sticks, which if memory serves, I did just last night.

And now a new strain of COVID-19 has made its way here from the United Kingdom, showing up in Colorado. Scientists think the new strain is actually more contagious than what we’re already dealing with, but also think the vaccines we have for the old strains will work. So scientists say there is no cause for alarm, but don’t be shocked if they change their opinions as they get more evidence.

It’s what scientists do.

So anyway, New Year’s Eve is tomorrow night and I thought I’d add my two cents worth and urge you to celebrate the 2021 New Year at home which will give you a much better chance of you and your loved ones being around to celebrate the New Year in 2022.  

Now here’s the moral of today’s story:

When you hear new evidence, be willing to change your minds and if if you’re going to have some chicken-fried steak, do it now before those 2021 New Year’s Resolutions kick in.

That stuff is delicious.

http://kingfeatures.com/comics/editorial-cartoons-a-z/