"One Thing We Have Learned Is that COVID Is an Asshole"

[marmar]

"One Thing We Have Learned Is that COVID Is an Asshole"
Doctors and nurses at the intensive care ward in Leipzig University Hospital are fighting desperately to save the lives of corona truthers. It can be a thankless task.

By Tobias Großekemper in Leipzig
19.11.2021, 18.23 Uhr


(Der Spiegel) At 6 a.m. on a Monday morning, the start of the early shift, there are 19 extremely ill patients in the COVID-19 intensive care ward of the Leipzig University Hospital. And one dead body.

The man died a few hours ago in room B1115 and the corpse is lying on a bed, shrouded in a black plastic body bag. It will stay there for another two hours, in a room with two other patients. They are still alive, but have been put into artificial comas, sedated with benzodiazepines and opiates. Artificial lungs are supplying their blood with oxygen while dialysis machines have taken over the function of their kidneys.

At around 8 a.m., the morticians arrive and take away the body. There is no room set aside for mourning, no candles, no last moments of togetherness. That’s what it’s like to die in the coronavirus intensive care unit, where deaths are mounting as the fourth wave breaks over the country.

A total of 55 nurses work at Station IOI-C, and 12 of them are on duty on this Monday morning, along with an assistant who brings material into the room, picks up blood samples and returns with the results. With 18 patients already in the ward, it has actually reached full capacity, but new ones keep coming.

....(snip)....

Monday morning, 6:15 a.m., 19 patients in the station

"One thing we have learned is that COVID is an asshole," says Knauth, just beginning his third early shift in a row. He has two more ahead of him. The rings under his eyes tell you all you need to know about his work schedule: four late shifts, then a day off, five early shifts, two late, two early. And any time he doesn’t have off is full of stress. "You can have the perfect patient for seven hours, with all the values stable and everything going well. And then COVID will just rip him away."

....(snip)....

Leitner walks into a room saying: "Peace, freedom and no dictatorship." It is the battle cry of the those in Germany who oppose all measures to combat the coronavirus pandemic. The doctor dives into his work, but then looks up after a bit and says: "In my next life, I’m going to be a corona truther." He pauses briefly. "I’ll print T-shirts, make my money and then retire, that’s what they do." Sarcasm can be a helpful tool in surviving the madness. ...........(more)

https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/the-violence-of-the-fourth-wave-one-thing-we-have-learned-is-that-covid-is-an-asshole-a-9da60dbf-6311-472a-9fdf-60a6442b1235

[tblue37]

1. K&R for visibility. nt

Long & fascinating, though horrifying, article. Thanks for posting.

[ShazzieB]

4. It sounds like antivaxxers are everywhere, in every country.

The German antivaxxers in this article sound just like the American ones, too. Just as stupid, just as opinionated, just as resistant to accepting reality.

We tend to blame our antivaxxers on Trump, but I think that must be an oversimplification. This insanity seems to know no geographic boundaries, so it must be coming from multiple sources. Wtaf.

[kiri]

7. Impfen vaccinate

Based on a child's rhyme:

Impfen hin, impfen her
rundherum,
Es ist nicht schwer.

Quickly deleted from an anti-vax site.

[dchill]

2. It's all so mind-breakingly heartbreaking.

[ShazzieB]

5. Heartbreaking and maddening.

I would have a really hard time not going off on certain people. It's probably a good thing I'm not a nurse.

[iluvtennis]

3. KnR. n/t

[IronLionZion]

6. I like the nurse who would tell people the truth about pandemic crisis actors if they gave her money

people actually gave her money and then she would tell them the pandemic is a real crisis and they are not actors.