AZ Ranks 2nd Among States for COVID-19 Deaths and It's the Leading Cause
On the deaths front, we have two marks of shame. First, Becker's Hospital Review lists Arizona as having the second highest death rate in the country. Over the course of the pandemic we've had 0.94 deaths per 100K residents, and averaged 68.4 deaths daily. We're exceeded only by Michigan (1.17 & 117.3).
Second, over the last year COVID-19 was the leading cause of death in Arizona. It has killed more people than heart disease or cancer. Dr. Joshua LaBaer, executive director of Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute, pointed out that this doesn't even include people who had conditions that went untreated because our medical system was overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients.
Speaking of overwhelmed systems, the Arizona Public Health Association says our hospitals are now in "crisis standards of care." That's because they are full of COVIDiots who refuse to get vaccinated. As a result, if you go to the hospital they will decide whether to treat you based on a scoring system that rates how likely you are to survive. Nice!
E.J. Montini notes that Washington is a state similar in size and composition to Arizona, yet they have 13,000 fewer deaths than we do. What makes the difference? They have a governor who is trying to do something to protect his constituents.
Meanwhile, back in State 48 our governor—whom I've criticized regularly in this blog—continues to prosecute his public illness campaign. The latest move is to sign an executive order banning any entity anywhere in the state from mandating vaccinations (except certain healthcare situations).
The order was signed quietly but was unearthed by a 12 News reporter. It begins with five pages of WHEREAS clauses talking about how terrible COVID-19 is in the state and how badly we need better information gathering.
In the THEREFORE section it creates rules to improve information gathering, but then throws in:
No person shall be required by this state, or any city, town or county to obtain a COVID-19 vaccine but a health care institution licensed pursuant o ARS. Tile 36, Chapter 4 may require the insitution’s [sic] employees to be vaccinated.
This clause comes out of nowhere and in no way follows from the WHEREAS clauses like it's supposed to. It's kind of unbelievable.
Tucson Mayor Regina Romero isn't having it. She said in a tweet:
Arizona Governor @dougducey needs to focus on the crisis at hand and do his job as COVID-19 cases rise and ICU beds dwindle. Attorney @GeneralBrnovich already told Gov. Ducey what he doesn’t want to hear. He has no authority to preempt local actions through executive orders.
Yet he continues to try and do so. Good for Mayor Romero for standing up to this putz.
