Not sure if this is just more fear mongering or if they're trying to spread something, but it smells rotten…

Overwhelmed Southern California transferring coronavirus patients to Bay Area hospitals

Stanford and UCSF are among the hospitals treating COVID-19 patients from Imperial County along the Mexican border

The calls have been relentless. This patient needed to be flown by plane to the Bay Area for care — did he have a crew? That patient was awaiting transfer by helicopter to Santa Barbara for treatment. Could they swing it?

“Everyone’s tired because this has been going on for so long,” said Sergio Cardenas, a longtime flight nurse who now serves as Reach Air Medical Services’ program director in Imperial County, a swath of agricultural land wedged into the southeast corner of the state against Mexico and Arizona that has become the California county hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic. “We see this as a marathon, not a sprint.”

For years, the company has helped the state move patients from hospital to hospital, flying people who had suffered bad heart attacks or traumatic injuries that required more care than the county’s two hospitals could provide to places like San Diego or Palm Springs. Then COVID-19 hit. In recent weeks the company has been transferring patients overwhelmingly battling the highly infectious disease to distances farther than before — including to places such as Silicon Valley.

“COVID is a different animal,” Cardenas said.

According to the California Emergency Medical Services Authority, at least 15 people have been moved from Imperial to hospitals in the Bay Area. UCSF — which has relatively low numbers of coronavirus patients and can offer highly specialized care — said this week it had received at least three. Stanford has also accepted patients.

“As a state with a high risk of earthquakes and wildfires, this type of system enables us to respond to large-scale emergencies,” said Adrienne Green, UCSF Medical Center’s chief medical officer.

But with the number of coronavirus cases across the Golden State soaring above 237,000 and hospitals in Imperial County at capacity — and with nearby hospitals in Riverside and Los Angeles also filling quickly — the system has been tested as never before.

At least 500 patients have been transported out of Imperial County during the pandemic. One night, Cardenas said, his team mobilized five or six helicopters and three or four planes to move patients.

Before the coronavirus hit, transfers typically took three-and-a-half hours. Now, with flight nurses and flight paramedics having to put on and safely remove masks, gloves, gowns and goggles in the searing desert heat, the process can take hours longer. And at times, he’s had to tell hospitals they’ll have to wait because “we just don’t have anybody.”

Imperial has become the entryway for U.S. citizens living in Mexico seeking medical care. Around 7,000 people in the county have contracted the virus. More than 100 have died, with almost one in four people tested turning up positive.

Recently, Green said, Imperial County reached out to San Francisco’s public health department for assistance. So did Marin County, where an outbreak at San Quentin State Prison has sickened more than 1,000 inmates and sent officials scrambling to find hospital space, including by reopening a surge site at the beleaguered Seton Medical Center in Daly City. UCSF has taken at least four patients from the prison.

According to the state’s hospital data, Imperial, which has fewer than 300 beds and a couple of dozen ICU beds, was down to zero ICU beds on June 22, a figure that has since fluctuated but remained low. At the end of June, Riverside, which has roughly 385 ICU beds under normal circumstances, had filled nearly all of them. And health officials are warning that the more than 2,000 ICU beds in Los Angeles could be full in weeks.

Counties and hospitals keep track of not only how many beds they have available, but other resources like personal protective gear for health care workers and medication, like remdesivir, one of the first drugs that has shown promise to treat the virus but one that is in short supply.

“Because the number of COVID-19-positive inpatients at Stanford Health Care is still low (16 as of June 30), medication supply levels, including remdesivir, are not a concern in the decision to accept transfer patients,” Arthofer said.

“This is a new day and age, and it’s been a lot of learning for everybody,” Cardenas said. “A lot of people say take care of yourself, but even on your days off, you’re not really off because you’re trying to prepare mentally for tomorrow.”

https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/07/05/overwhelmed-southern-california-transferring-coronavirus-patients-to-bay-area-hospitals/

"Fact checks" courtesy of snopes, no doubt…

No, wearing a mask does not cut off your oxygen. Here are the facts

Health care professionals say wearing a face covering is one of the most effective ways to slow the spread of the coronavirus. So why do so many people refuse to do it? The Chronicle scoured social media for the most common excuses in circulation and ran them by local infectious disease experts to see whether they hold up. Here’s what they had to say:

Claim: “Masks cut off your oxygen.”

“People might feel uncomfortable and short of breath,” said John Balmes, a pulmonary physician and professor of medicine at UCSF. “The actual lowering of oxygen is highly unlikely.”

To combat this myth, which has been widely spread on the internet, medical workers nationwide have countered with their own social media posts showing their oxygen saturation levels and heart rates remain unchanged while wearing a variety of face coverings over an extended period.

“This is a common misconception being perpetuated that has no evidence behind it,” said Krutika Kuppalli, a Palo Alto infectious disease doctor and a biosecurity fellow with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

Fact check: Not true.

Claim: “Wearing face coverings puts you at risk for carbon dioxide poisoning.”

Some people worry that wearing a face covering for a long period leads to breathing in excess amounts of carbon dioxide. That is not the case. CO2 molecules diffuse easily through everything from bandannas to medical masks to N95 respirators, allowing for normal breathing. This is why you don’t typically see medical care workers keel over in the middle of their 10-hour shifts.

The state of California mandates that anyone older than 2 wear a cloth face covering in public settings where physical distancing measures are difficult to maintain.

People with preexisting respiratory illnesses, like asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease — who are at higher risk for serious complications if they get exposed to the virus — may have some difficulty wearing tight-fitting masks, such as N95 respirators. There’s an easy solution for that: Remove them periodically for relief.

Fact check: Not true.

Claim: “Masks don’t do anything.”

The CDC and World Health Organization caused some confusion in the early days of the outbreak by recommending that the general public not wear masks. The goal was to prevent hoarding and make sure that critically low supplies of medical face coverings went to frontline workers. But people interpreted this the wrong way.

Public health experts believe that masks are one of the most effective ways to prevent the spread of the virus. The coronavirus is transmitted by droplets when an infected person coughs, sneezes or talks. A protective face covering lowers the risk of infecting others and becoming infected. It’s that simple.

“Science is not static,” Kuppalli said. “What we knew three months ago is not what we know now. As we get more information, our recommendations are going to change, too.”

People can also have the virus without showing any symptoms. Most critically, the viral load is highest in the pre-symptomatic phase. With the surging rates of confirmed coronavirus cases in California, the experts say we need to operate under the assumption that everyone is potentially infectious.

Fact check: Not true.

Claim: “Masks make you sick.”

As the weather heats up, masks may get warm and damp, but there’s no evidence that such conditions lead to bacterial infections or any other illness.

The biggest risk with wearing them is not the mask itself but user error.

“You don’t want to be constantly touching the mask, moving it around your face,” Balmes said. “You’re bringing your hand up to the area where you can bring the virus up to your nose and mouth. Proper attention to how you wear a mask and mask hygiene is important.”

Fact check: Not true.

Claim: “Wearing a mask infringes on my freedom of speech.”

Several audiological studies have concluded that the presence of face coverings — including surgical masks — does not have a detrimental effect on speech understanding in normal-hearing people. While decibel reduction and frequencies affected are dependent on the type of material used and the thickness of the mask, your words will still get through loud and clear.

Fact check: Not true.

There are plenty of other benefits of wearing a mask circulating on social media as well. These include:

• Protection from harmful UV rays.

• Shows you respect others.

• You don’t have to worry about that piece of broccoli stuck in your teeth.

• Easily avoid people you don’t like.

• You can mouth bad words in public.

• Wearing a mask is more comfortable than wearing a ventilator.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Is-wearing-a-mask-bad-for-you-We-asked-the-15386582.php