Instead…
&
&
Etc.
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Our town recently decided to end its contract with the paramedic/ambulance service after over 50 years. It’s replacing it by putting the fire department in charge of two ambulances, with only one paramedic and one EMT, but they are planning on training one more assistant to work part-time. To handle “more than 1,300 medical calls last year”. Plus all the medical transports, etc. that the ambulance company does.
An insider tells me the people at the hospital are pissed. And so are the people at the ambulance place, because nobody told them, they heard it from the news first.
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What another dumb cunt.
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I was supposed to have an appointment with my spinal pain specialist a month ago, but it was cancelled for assorted reasons.
Today, I tried to rebook it. This usually involves a lengthy delay as the Melbourne-based specialist only visits Tasmania occasionally. But today I was in luck; they had a free slot tomorrow.
Then they told me that they couldn’t make the appointment because my referral from the GP had expired. So, call the GP in Beaconsfield to get it renewed.
Whereupon the receptionist at the GP tells me that (a) my doctor has quit, and (b) the sole remaining doctor is run ragged, has not taken on the patients of the retiring doctor and is not accepting new patients.
So there is no way to get the referral renewed, and getting a referral from a different doctor would require finding a GP willing to accept new patients.
Which, as far as I can tell, do not exist north of Launceston.
—
Meanwhile…
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After several years of plague induced delay, my Mum and her husband Jim are due to finally come and visit me later this month.
So, of course, Jim just caught Covid. Quadruply-vaccinated, but he’s in his eighties. Doing okay so far, and Mum hasn’t caught it yet.
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God I hate this man…
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wishing him a slip in the shower and related brain hematoma
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All of us on the day he dies…
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And the UK:
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Journal of the Corona Year — Unmasked
5/01
Yesterday I started my first trip since the mask mandate was overturned by someone in Florida. As I generally rule of life I try not to be guided by people from Florida. I planned on wearing a mask.
So far in my life I have successfully avoided what are known as “ride-sharing services.” I could not overlook their own exploited drivers, the struggling taxi drivers, and the general behavior of Uber. But perhaps my concerns are of the previous decade. It seems the furor over ride-sharing services has died down and been replaced by an unavoidable inevitability.
The destination of my trip is St Paul Union Depot. Taxi service in that area has progressively gotten worse over the years. And the taxi companies themselves have devolved into a grotesque imitation of ride sharing. So this time I resolved to try Lyft and see what happens. I opted for Lyft, even though the classicist in my wants to correctly pronounce the name “Liooft.”
Because the R train is shut down in my neighborhood this weekend, I decided to use Lyft for the first time to get to Penn Station. This would be a test. I used the “scheduled a ride” feature the night before to see if actually worked. It did.
The driver was wearing a mask and had a plexiglass barrier between us. I’m not sure if the barrier was to protect him against COVID-19 or against poorly behaved passengers. During the 30 minute journey I asked him a few questions about the finer points of using Lyft. Such as, “how do I pay you?” He was very helpful. I gave him a heavy tip.
I asked him if there was any difference between Uber and Lyft. He said he drove for both and they are indistinguishable. But it doesn’t matter to me. I cannot use a company with a name that highlights the Deutschlandlied.
The Moynihan Train Hall is immaculate and now fully open. As I recall there were still parts closed off six months ago. In the station and then on the train, I’m happy to say that most people were wearing masks.
At the end of every conductors’ welcome announcement, they said masks were no longer mandatory but still recommended.
Washington Union Station is still a filthy dump. There is not one working water fountain in the entire place. The layer of dust on the Au Bon Pain canopy is thicker than ever. Many of the boutiques are still closed, some permanently. The Pret a Manger has reopened, but I knew better. I went to Blue Bottle Coffee for a latte and a salted brownie cookie. They were the best things I ate or drank all day.
Sunday morning came while rolling through Ohio and Indiana. I was sitting by myself in the spacious Superliner seats and my ears were getting sore. I took my mask off. I put it on again as soon as we arrived at Chicago.
Most people were wearing masks east of Chicago. Once I got off the train at Union Station masks seemed to disappear instantly.
Chicago Union Station seems more back to normal. Nuts on Clark has reopened. The area around the station still seems as dead as last year, but it was a Sunday. The only open coffee shop was the Starbucks in the station. I ordered a latte. It was made too hot and had sugar added to it. Why?
At St Paul Union Depot I was picked up by my Lyft. The driver was not wearing a mask and there was no barrier between us.
I would estimate 15% of the Twin Cities population are still wearing masks indoors.
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Note that the toll is continuing, and the current ruling class strategy is not to stop the deaths, but rather to normalise and obscure them.
So the next million are well on their way. Then the next, and the next…
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Just for context there since it’s not mentioned in the article and it’s very easy to misinterpret, those numbers quoted for Fauci at the time were a) talking about models covering early 2020 until August 2020, and b) he mentioned in other places that it also depended on widespread mitigation efforts.
At the end of August 2020 total deaths were just short of 200k according to United States COVID - Coronavirus Statistics - Worldometer . Surprisingly accurate at the time, given how the “widespread mitigation efforts” thing kept getting sabotaged.
And then the winter surge happened…
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Basketball. A few thousand screaming people in an indoor venue. No masks required, of course.
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