Oregon Governor Kate Brown will deploy some 1,500 National Guard soldiers to aid hospitals flooded with coronavirus patients, citing the spread of the Delta variant as the state’s already short supply of ICU beds dwindles.
“To support our hospitals overstretched by patients during the Delta surge, I’m deploying 500 Oregon National Guard members, initially, to hospitals across the state,” Brown announced on Friday, adding that, eventually, “up to 1,500 Guard members will be available to support our hospital workers as needed.”
I cannot emphasize enough the seriousness of this crisis for all Oregonians, especially those who might need emergency or intensive care.
As of this morning, there are 733 Oregonians hospitalized with severe cases of COVID-19, including 185 in the ICU.
I cannot emphasize enough the seriousness of this situation, which is why I am deploying up to 1,500 @OregonGuard members to support hospitals across the state. pic.twitter.com/U2M69PPXbk
— Governor Kate Brown (@OregonGovBrown) August 13, 2021
The first 500 troops will be deployed on August 20 and will assist the St. Charles, Mercy, Asante and Providence hospital networks, while more are set to follow in the coming weeks, a spokesperson for Brown told local media. In addition to helping to administer coronavirus tests, the Guard will provide “materials handlers and equipment runners” to support hospital operations and logistics.
While the governor said that more than 2.5 million Oregon residents have been vaccinated against the virus, more than half of its population, she added “the harsh and frustrating reality is that the Delta variant has changed everything,” insisting “we must take action” against the more contagious mutation.
The state will also request “support and funding” from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Brown said, but offered few details about how those funds might be used.
The decision comes as Oregon sees a significant spike in coronavirus infections and hospitalizations. As of Friday, 743 Covid-positive patients are in Oregon’s hospitals, 185 of them in intensive care and 89 currently on ventilators, according to health department data. That leaves only 71 ICU beds free across the whole state.
Using some of the most recent data available, a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation published in 2018 found that Oregon had among the lowest ICU space per capita in the US, with only about 1.6 beds per 1,000 residents. While that usually means the state avoids a large excess ICU capacity, allowing it to make efficient use of its beds, Becky Hultberg of the Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems noted “that’s a good thing until you’re in a pandemic,” when ICU space is quickly filled by seriously ill patients.
On Wednesday, Brown reimposed a statewide indoor mask mandate, including for the fully vaccinated, arguing that “the latest science is clear that both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals are able to spread the Delta variant.” That move mirrored a similar guidance issued by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last month, which advised universal face coverings in areas of high viral transmission regardless of vaccination status, prompting a spate of revived mandates across the US.
Oregon is far from the only state to mobilize National Guard forces to assist with the Covid-19 response, with governors across the US making similar use of their troops since the early days of the pandemic. Earlier this month, Guard soldiers in Virginia wrapped up operations after a 460-day deployment to assist with vaccinations, testing and hospital logistics, similar to moves made in California, New York and a number of other states last year.
https://www.rt.com/usa/532013-oregon-national-guard-hospitals/
Medical tyranny meets Martial Law.
.
Couldn’t be that f-king smoke out there, so thick you can cut it with a knife, causing people with preexisting respiratory diseases to make them have to go on a ventilator?
Nah.
Or maybe Delta variant is a code word for f-king smoke filled with mistletoe, hemlock, poison ivy, poison oak, poison mushrooms.
Everybody knows that breathing smoke with God knows what in it, is actually good for you.
My thoughts exactly, Henry. They’re using the people affected by the fire and smoke as an excuse to play the coronavirus card and to bring in the National Guard.
The bastards truly never let a good crisis for to waste.
Sounds like bullshit to me ….. more jacked up propaganda from the commie leftists.
Are you familiar with the commie rightists?
.
Of course! Corruption across the board-however it’s my observation that there are much more on the left.
What gets me is you’re arrogant enough to still believe there is any difference between the left side of that bird, bolsheviks and marxists, and the right side of that bird, the fascists. The shit coming out of that bird belongs to them both. Is there an air conditioned part of hell for the pedophile that only rapes ten children instead of a hundred? Are you trying to sucker us into divide and conquer?
It is like this. There is no left, there is no right, no democrats, no republicans, no conservatives, no liberals. All there can be is the law or no law. The law can’t be left or right if it is the common law because it is just simply fact and fact is just fact. The problem here is not that goofy ass ignorant notion of left and right, white hat, black hat, good guy, bad guy. They are all f-king bad. There is no such thing as a lesser of an evil and we are not going to play the false left/right paradigm game. We want neither and we despise both.
My observations are it is the Bill of Rights and freedom and liberty or it is the unlawful United States Corporation, the unlawful 14th Amendment, subjugation and servitude. And all the rest can only come from someone not wanting that Bill of Rights.
What, are you a f-king Trumpster? Sorry, but we are not that f-king stupid. You are seeking to creep into the wrong sandbox here. Jump left, jump right, or just get the f-k out if you can’t get on board with the written ratified law of we the people, ratified December 15, 1791. It is written at a third grade level and it dispels the false left false right of that two winged bird and all the shit squirting out its ass.
Haha! Nice retort galen. I’ve been sick to the teeth of hearing this left/right BS for decades now. Whiles there’s lots of dummies out there repeating this stuff we know there’s also a lot of infiltrators seeding this crap in online forums & comments sections. They are becoming more & more obvious by the day…
In addition to helping to administer coronavirus tests, the Guard will provide “materials handlers and equipment runners” to support hospital operations and logistics.
Anytime the Military is involved in public “relations”, it’s a cluster f_k.
The power grab
has startedcontinues.maybe they are expecting the vaxecuted to start dropping like flies
I am no scholar by any means, however, that being said I am completely overwhelmed by how stupid people are.
I think I am going to start selling bridges.
Chances are I will run out of bridges in no time.
I’m going to ride my unicorn to all the sales.
Excellent point Mary.
How much you wanna bet the hospitals are not overwhelmed
But possibly under staffed
And if they are overwhelmed, it’s with vaxxed sickies , or smoke inhalation
So now Covid is smoke inhalation