I think the song remains the same in this series. We have a nursing home crisis with which Governor Walz has shut down the state. Even though Governor Walz has “turned the dials” of our lives to moderate the torture, he has retained control of the dials and the shutdown continues to wreak enormous damage in the state.
On a personal note, I was thrown out of the daily Minnesota Department of Health press briefings on April 27. My assessment is self-interested, but I think the circle of media love surrounding our public health authorities has served the state incredibly poorly. I will have an update on the media angle in connection with my lawsuit against Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm and MDH press officer Michael Schommer this week.
New deaths appear to be declining. They have run 8 (June 8), 20 (June 9), 19 (June 10), 13 (June 11), 25 (June 12), and 9 (June 13). In Minnesota as of this morning, 1,019 of the 1.283 total deaths attributed to COVID-19 have occurred among residents of long-term care facilities. That is 79.4 percent of all such deaths.
Only 264 deaths have occurred among those outside long-term care facilities. Not surprisingly, the age of decedents skews heavily to the elderly. Hospitalizations and intensive care unit usage are declining. Our hospitals and health care chains have also been devastated by the shutdowns.
I have embedded the past two MDH press briefings (June 10 and 12, I think) below. At about 2:00 of the audio of the June 12 briefing in the third clip, Star Tribune reporter Jeremy Olson asks if they might have overdone it with the restrictive measures. I find the answers unbelievably inadequate and self-satisfied.
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