Meet Idaho Governor Brad Little dressed for work!
Deseret News, 10/18/2021
An Idaho doctor has a stark message for the Gem State — the coronavirus is no longer a pandemic, it’s an endemic, “which is a recognition of the reality that COVID-19 is with us to stay.”
On Dec. 14, 2020, Dr. Steve Nemerson, chief clinical officer for Saint Alphonsus Health System, said the “D-Day in the battle against coronavirus” was upon Idaho.
During an Idaho Department of Health and Welfare briefing Tuesday, the doctor had a less hopeful message.
“Sadly, today I’m here to tell you that we lost the war, that COVID-19 is here to stay,” he said.
Look at this latest spike.
10/11/2021 update, "Idaho Governor Brad Little gets testy, refuses to take responsibility for his Covid inaction", starts here.
Idaho Statesman, 10/9/2021
“It is frustrating that politicians in Idaho are not helping,” Inslee said, according to The Spokesman-Review.
Inslee also said on MSNBC, “When the Idaho politicians refuse to act with common sense measures, it not only endangers Idaho citizens, it endangers Washington citizens.”
Idaho Gov. Brad Little fired back.
“Governor Inslee blames Idaho, yet Spokane County and the surrounding area on his side of the border continue to be hot spots for virus activity with the lowest vaccination rates in Washington, despite Governor Inslee issuing vaccine and mask mandates,” Little said on Twitter.
Let's take a look at the big picture here.
Washington has a rate of 32 Covid cases per 100,000 residents.
Idaho has a rate of 66 Covid cases per 100,000 resident, more than double that of Washington's.
62% of Washington residents are fully vaccinated.
42% of Idaho residents are fully vaccinated.
53% of Spokane County (Washington) residents are fully vaccinated.
In neighboring Kootenai County (Idaho), just 37% of residents are fully vaccinated.
October 3 update starts here
California New Times, 9/30/2021
Set aside the fear that Idaho’s intensive care unit is overwhelming. Alternatively, the state emergency department is currently choosing which COVID-19 patients to save and which to give up. The situation is so bad that desperate patients are crossing the border looking for a hospital bed in Washington State and besieging a hospital in Spokane.
Idaho coroners and funeral halls keep corpses away due to lack of room. Victims of car accidents and other emergencies, on the other hand, have not received the usual attention. And people can forget about selective surgery. Without vaccination to stop this often deadly virus, the situation in Idaho would have been a pure tragedy. However, the Idaho disaster is a tragedy that builds on the collapse of its citizens. You can only quiver at the immorality that underlies a recent statement by Idaho Governor Brad Little and his state legislative leaders. They blamed President Joe Biden’s order for workers in large corporations to be vaccinated or tested weekly. [emphasis added]
October 1 update starts here
Spokane Spokesman-Review, 9/29/2021
Little’s Coeur d’Alene visit comes at a time when North Idaho and Eastern Washington hospitals are overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients. Many medical facilities don’t have enough staff to treat people with conditions that aren’t immediately life threatening.
[snip]
Just 58% of Idahoans 12 and older have gotten at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Within the Panhandle Health District, which covers North Idaho, only 47% of residents 12 and older have gotten at least one dose.
Monoclonal antibody treatments are incredibly expensive, too, Little said. He said it costs the federal government about $2,000 to treat one person with monoclonal antibodies while getting vaccinated costs the government $20.
Little said even though Idaho hospitals are overwhelmed or struggling to treat everyone who needs medical care, he’s not going to impose a mask mandate or a vaccine mandate. He said he doesn’t think either action would be effective in Idaho.
September 30 update starts here
"I got my vaccine. I rolled up my sleeve, I did my civic duty. Yet I have a hip that came apart," she told Gov. Brad Little.
The surge in COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations forced the expansion of crisis standards of care statewide. Overburdened by too many sick people and too few staffed beds, several Idaho medical facilities have moved to cancel or postpone all non-emergency surgeries, like the one Gloria needs for her damaged hip.
"I am laying here in pain, and I can't get an operation to get it fixed because you’re holding these hospitals open for all of these unvaccinated, selfish, ignorant people who wouldn't get a shot," she said.
Is that fair? she demanded to know.
New York Times (arrows added)
September 29 update starts here
Daily Beast, 9/28/2021
As the morgues and ICUs in Idaho overflow with COVID patients, Republican Governor Brad Little said he was “exploring legal action to protect the rights of business owners and their employees" from “President Joe Biden’s plan to fine private employers with 100 or more employees that do not mandate the COVID-19 vaccine or routine testing.”
That’s an insane stance rooted in his desire not to give his challenger, Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, any cause to attack him as she guns for his job.
9/26/2021 update, "Idaho Governor Brad Little uses surname as guide to state's Covid response", starts here.
Washington Post, 9/25/2021
To combat the virus spread, Idaho Gov. Brad Little, a Republican, recently mobilized the National Guard to help overwhelmed hospitals. The state has also expanded access to monoclonal antibody treatment and sent money to providers to help alleviate staffing shortages.
But Little has resisted issuing a statewide mask mandate — his lieutenant and political rival, Janice McGeachin, has tried to ban them entirely — and has threatened legal action against the Biden administration’s vaccine requirements for businesses, even while describing the shots as “our ticket out of the pandemic.” His office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Original 9/14/2017 post, "Idaho antivaxxers demand freedom to wreak havoc on health care system", starts here.
New York Times, 9/13/2021
Washington State is reeling under its own surge of coronavirus cases. But in neighboring Idaho, 20 miles down Interstate 90 from Spokane, unchecked virus transmission has already pushed hospitals beyond their breaking point.
“As they’ve seen increasing Covid volumes, we’ve seen increasing calls for help from all over northern Idaho,” Dr. Daniel Getz, chief medical officer for Providence Sacred Heart, said in an interview. As he spoke, a medical helicopter descended with a new delivery.
At a time when Washington State hospitals are delaying procedures and struggling with their own high caseloads, some leaders in the state see Idaho’s outsourcing of Covid patients as a troubling example of how the failure to aggressively confront the virus in one state can deepen a crisis in another.
Idaho's 7-day average of new Covid cases is as high as it's been since Christmas Eve 2020.
All but 3 of Idaho's 44 counties are at extremely high risk of Covid spread.
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