{"id":78499,"date":"2023-03-07T07:06:31","date_gmt":"2023-03-07T07:06:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/07\/opinion-the-pandemic-and-its-incentives-beds-and-coffins\/"},"modified":"2023-03-07T07:06:31","modified_gmt":"2023-03-07T07:06:31","slug":"opinion-the-pandemic-and-its-incentives-beds-and-coffins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/07\/opinion-the-pandemic-and-its-incentives-beds-and-coffins\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: the pandemic and its incentives &#8211; beds and coffins"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [ad_1]<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div data-advadstrackid=\"449249\" data-advadstrackbid=\"1\" class=\"rioti-target\" id=\"rioti-964954823\"><a href=\"http:\/\/portugaladvisory.com\/\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"adv-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\", Opinion: the pandemic and its incentives &amp;#8211; beds and coffins\" width=\"800\" height=\"90\" src=\"http:\/\/www.riotimesonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Porugal-Advisory-Banner_1.jpg\" class=\"lazyload\" bad-src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\"\/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.riotimesonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Porugal-Advisory-Banner_1.jpg\" alt=\", Opinion: the pandemic and its incentives &amp;#8211; beds and coffins\" width=\"800\" height=\"90\"\/><\/noscript> <\/a><\/div>\n<p>By Paula Schmitt*<\/p>\n<p>(Opinion) The Rolling Stone journal printed an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/tv-movies\/tv-movie-recaps\/woody-harrelson-snl-monologue-anti-vax-rant-conspiracy-theory-1234686880\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">article<\/a> accusing the actor Woody Harrelson of \u201cspreading anti-vax conspiracies\u201d after he delivered a monologue on Saturday Night Live.<\/p>\n<p>In his speech, Harrelson jokes a few silly and unbelievable script that ought to be thrown out earlier than being made right into a film.<\/p>\n<p>The film-that-wasn\u2019t had the next plot: \u201cThe biggest drug cartels in the world get together and buy up all the media and all the politicians and force all the people in the world to stay locked in their homes, and people can only come out if they take the cartel\u2019s drugs \u2014 and keep taking them, over and over.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Rolling Stone journalist didn\u2019t just like the joke; I think it was as a result of he noticed himself in it.<\/p>\n<p><em>(Woody Harrelson in motion)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>But he might not have preferred it as a result of he didn\u2019t perceive it. That\u2019s what occurs to people who find themselves paid to not perceive \u2014 they find yourself not understanding for actual.<\/p>\n<p>This is a widely known psychological phenomenon.<\/p>\n<p>Take the case of a placebo: an inert substance with none lively element, which might nonetheless deal with and even remedy an sickness if the individual is satisfied of its energy.<\/p>\n<p>But there may be an thought that might assist the Rolling Stone journalist perceive each the joke and the pandemic: \u201cShow me the incentives, and I\u2019ll show you the results.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s article is the primary in a sequence that may lay out an inventory of essential incentives in figuring out the path this pandemic will take and the outcomes it would obtain.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll draw the reason on behalf of these paid to not perceive.<\/p>\n<p>Then I\u2019ll clarify the drawing \u2014 my humble homage to Woody Harrelson (an previous crush) and Rolling Stone ({a magazine} that printed two of my articles in its Brazilian version: one about <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/schmittpaula\/status\/1557902460802535431?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lebanon<\/a> and one other concerning the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/schmittpaula\/status\/1603203176743804929?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CERN laboratory<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>First, an vital warning: the joke I\u2019m about to elucidate just isn&#8217;t humorous.<\/p>\n<p>The very first thing to know about this pandemic is that Covid has actually been rewarded. The extra Covid, the larger the <a href=\"https:\/\/money.com\/covid-19-hospital-cost-by-state\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">prize<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>One of these incentives began by setting the development from the underside in hospitals: beds reserved for Covid obtained far more public cash than beds reserved for another illness.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf a Medicare patient is diagnosed with \u2013 or even presumed to have contracted \u2014 coronavirus, hospitals across the United States are given more money from the federal government to treat that patient, economic assessments show [\u2026].\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe amount paid can triple if the patient needs a ventilator,\u201d says Fox News in an<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/health\/hospitals-medicare-patients-cost-coronavirus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> article<\/a> from May 2020, when the president was Donald Trump, not Biden.<\/p>\n<p>The scheme, admits the report, makes \u201csome wonder whether there is a financial impetus to overstate coronavirus numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At the start of the pandemic, official Trump administration charges decided that beds for Covid ought to obtain at the least 20% extra tax-payer cash.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cImagine two Medicare patients, one with Covid-19 and another not, with pneumonia in the same ICU.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMedicare will pay, for example, US$10,000 for the pneumonia patient who doesn\u2019t have Covid-19 and US$12,000 for the patient who does,\u201d says Doug Badger, visiting fellow for home coverage research at The Heritage Foundation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur verdict: True,\u201d says the USA Today fact-checking <a href=\"https:\/\/eu.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/factcheck\/2020\/04\/24\/fact-check-medicare-hospitals-paid-more-covid-19-patients-coronavirus\/3000638001\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">piece<\/a> on the subject.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHospitals and doctors do get paid more for Medicare patients diagnosed with Covid-19 or if it\u2019s considered presumed they have Covid-19 absent a laboratory-confirmed test, and three times more if the patients are placed on a ventilator to cover the cost of care and loss of business resulting from a shift in focus to treat COVID-19 cases.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In Brazil, it was no totally different. As this<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gazetadopovo.com.br\/parana\/quanto-custa-estado-uti-covid-19-pandemia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> article<\/a> from Gazeta do Povo says, within the state of Paran\u00e1, \u201ceach bed reserved for Covid-19 yields to the hospital an \u201cindemnity\u201d of R$800 per day for the dedication to not occupy it, leaving it free for Covid sufferers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen the bed is occupied [with a Covid patient], the daily rate increases to R$1,600.\u201d In different phrases, hospitals had been paid to not obtain individuals with any sickness apart from Covid.<\/p>\n<p>The religion within the Covidian sect graced even those that didn&#8217;t have any Covid sufferers in any respect as a result of hope in Covid by no means dies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe state [of Paran\u00e1] still pays a daily rate of R$300 for infirmary beds activated for patients infected or simply suspected of having the coronavirus, regardless of whether they occupy them or not.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As we are able to see, what counts in these examples just isn&#8217;t the affected person nor even the mattress the affected person does (not) occupy. What actually issues is the Covid file within the official statistics.<\/p>\n<p>That quantity is priceless. Or dear, because it so occurs.<\/p>\n<p>There was one other benefit for hospitals that favored covid over different ailments: \u201cWhile the average occupancy time of a general ICU is 4.5 days per patient, confirmed cases of Covid-19 have required intensive care for, on average, 13.5 days.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In S\u00e3o Paulo, personal hospitals had no cause to complain \u2014 the pandemic was very worthwhile.<\/p>\n<p>According to a <a href=\"https:\/\/g1.globo.com\/sp\/sao-paulo\/noticia\/2020\/05\/08\/prefeitura-de-sp-fecha-parceria-com-11-hospitais-privados-para-alugar-leitos-que-receberao-pacientes-de-covid-19.ghtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">report<\/a> by G1, mayor Bruno Covas introduced that he would quadruple the ICU beds for Covid and pay R$2,100 per day for every mattress. For context, the minimal month-to-month wage in Brazil is R$1,320.<\/p>\n<p>In different areas of Brazil, Coronapalooza was additionally successful.<\/p>\n<p>The Di\u00e1rio do Nordeste newspaper <a href=\"https:\/\/diariodonordeste.verdesmares.com.br\/metro\/leito-de-uti-custa-r-80-mil-por-mes-veja-o-que-e-preciso-para-ter-uma-unidade-covid-19-no-ceara-1.3059320\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a> in March 2021 that \u201cthe associated fee to keep up a Covid ICU mattress is R$2,666.67 per day, so the month-to-month funding in the sort of tools varies from R$80,000 to R$82,600.<\/p>\n<p>The quantity is double what is required to keep up a ward emptiness, whose day by day expenditure is R$1,233.33, totaling between R$37,000 and R$38,200 per thirty days.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If you assume it\u2019s odd {that a} respiratory sickness pays extra per mattress than a automotive accident or most cancers, wait till you discover out what you get in case you are fortunate sufficient to die from it.<\/p>\n<p>In the United States, FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fema.gov\/disaster\/coronavirus\/economic\/funeral-assistance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pays<\/a> as much as US$9,000 in help for many who die of Covid (or with Covid \u2013 \u2013 a \u201cdetail\u201d I intend to write down about at some point).<\/p>\n<p>According to a number of native stories, no serpentine bureaucratic meandering is required to launch that monetary help \u2014 one wants a relative, a health care provider, or a funeral director to certify the reason for demise as Covid.<\/p>\n<p>In S\u00e3o Paulo, the federal government of Jo\u00e3o Doria did one thing related: six month-to-month installments of R$300 to households who misplaced at the least one member attributable to Covid.<\/p>\n<p>The official authorities <a href=\"https:\/\/www.saopaulo.sp.gov.br\/noticias-coronavirus\/governo-de-sp-anuncia-auxilio-de-r-300-a-parentes-de-vitimas-da-covid-19\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">web site<\/a> has a web page explaining the way it works, nevertheless it seems offline. I made a print of the excerpt that seems within the duckduckgo search, the place it&#8217;s attainable to see Jo\u00e3o Doria\u2019s generosity in all its splendor.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_469982\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-469982\" style=\"width: 848px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The first thing to understand about this pandemic is that Covid has literally been rewarded. The more covid, the bigger the prize. (Photo internet reproduction)\" width=\"848\" height=\"477\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.riotimesonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Covid.jpg 848w, http:\/\/www.riotimesonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Covid-300x169.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.riotimesonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Covid-768x432.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.riotimesonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Covid-696x392.jpg 696w\" src=\"http:\/\/www.riotimesonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Covid.jpg\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 848px) 100vw, 848px\" class=\"wp-image-469982 size-full lazyload\" bad-src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\"\/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-469982 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.riotimesonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Covid.jpg\" alt=\"The first thing to understand about this pandemic is that Covid has literally been rewarded. The more covid, the bigger the prize. (Photo internet reproduction)\" width=\"848\" height=\"477\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.riotimesonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Covid.jpg 848w, http:\/\/www.riotimesonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Covid-300x169.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.riotimesonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Covid-768x432.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.riotimesonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Covid-696x392.jpg 696w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 848px) 100vw, 848px\"\/><\/noscript><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-469982\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The very first thing to know about this pandemic is that Covid has actually been rewarded. The extra covid, the larger the prize. (Photo web replica)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As <a href=\"https:\/\/g1.globo.com\/sp\/sao-paulo\/noticia\/2021\/06\/29\/governo-de-sp-pagara-seis-parcelas-de-r-300-a-quem-perdeu-parente-por-covid-19.ghtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a> by G1, the profit is cumulative, and the extra deaths within the household, the upper the fee.<\/p>\n<p>It is cheap to think about that fraud and forgery will need to have taken place.<\/p>\n<p>Ingenious minds definitely had no drawback discovering ethical justifications to lie about the reason for demise \u2014 what\u2019s the hurt in inventing a illness in somebody who has already died if that lie makes the state of affairs simpler for these nonetheless alive?<\/p>\n<p>Why not honor the lifeless with a greater coffin or extra flowers on the wake? And if \u201ctaxation is theft,\u201d why not recuperate a few of what has been stolen?<\/p>\n<p>All indications level to 1 conclusion: the reality didn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n<p>Government, authorities, and vaccine pushers wanted a statistical justification from the lifeless and their family, and so they rewarded those that gave it to them.<\/p>\n<p>I personally know of a number of dozen, maybe greater than 100, circumstances during which family had been pressured to simply accept \u201cCovid\u201d as the reason for demise of somebody who didn&#8217;t have covid, a lot much less died from it.<\/p>\n<p>In at the least ten circumstances, the household needed to rent a lawyer and file a lawsuit to right the demise certificates and be sure that the reason for demise entered on the doc was the precise trigger, not the popular trigger.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll end this text with some good news.<\/p>\n<p>In the primary 12 months of the Covid pandemic, deaths from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article\/flu-has-disappeared-worldwide-during-the-covid-pandemic1\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">influenza<\/a> within the United States had probably the most important drop in historical past.<\/p>\n<p>Check this out: In the 2019 to 2020 flu season, there have been 22,000 deaths. The 12 months earlier than, there have been greater than 34,000 deaths.<\/p>\n<p>But within the first 12 months of the pandemic, the influenza virus bought scared by Covid and disappeared nearly fully, killing solely 600 individuals.<\/p>\n<p>What a aid.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-454300 lazyloaded td-animation-stack-type0-2\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 169px) 100vw, 169px\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.riotimesonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Paula-Schmitt-e1668178793819-80x80.png 80w, http:\/\/www.riotimesonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Paula-Schmitt-e1668178793819-300x300.png 300w, http:\/\/www.riotimesonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Paula-Schmitt-e1668178793819-420x420.png 420w, http:\/\/www.riotimesonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Paula-Schmitt-e1668178793819.png 450w\" alt=\", Opinion: Brazil, a democracy under Attack\" width=\"169\" height=\"169\" src=\"http:\/\/www.riotimesonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Paula-Schmitt-e1668178793819-80x80.png\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 169px) 100vw, 169px\"\/><\/p>\n<p><em>* Paula Schmitt is a journalist and author with an MA in Political Science and Middle\u00a0 Eastern Studies from the American University of Beirut. She is the creator of the fiction guide \u201cEudemonia\u201d and the non-fiction \u201cSpies\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>She received the Bandeirantes Radiojournalism Award, was a Middle East correspondent for SBT and Radio France, and was a political columnist for Folha de S.Paulo and Estado de S. Paulo.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>*This article was initially printed in Portuguese on the political web site <a href=\"https:\/\/www.poder360.com.br\/opiniao\/a-piademia-e-seus-incentivos-parte-1\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Poder360.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/>[ad_2]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ad_1] By Paula Schmitt* (Opinion) The Rolling Stone journal printed an article accusing the actor Woody Harrelson of \u201cspreading anti-vax conspiracies\u201d after he delivered a monologue on Saturday Night Live. In his speech, Harrelson jokes a few silly and unbelievable script that ought to be thrown out earlier than being made right into a film. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":78501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-78499","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nightlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}