Pages

Tuesday, September 14, 2021

The Passing Away Of Two Humble People

 

Today I want to talk about the passing of two humble and special people. I have been proud to be associated with Explore Mars, Inc. for almost 11 years. Debbie Cohen was part of this organization for all this time. She was very competent. She got things right. She was always warm, friendly, and helpful. She touched so many lives in a good way. Debbie, you left us much too soon. You will be remembered fondly and missed.

    Ray de Monia is someone whom none of us have met. Ray spent his entire life in the small town of Cullman, Alabama (between Birmingham and Huntsville.) By all accounts, he was a decent and well-liked person. Ray had what medical professionals call "a serious cardiac event." I would translate that as a serious heart attack. To save his life, he needed a bed in the Intensive Care Unit. His local hospital's ICU was full of Covid-19 patients. To the credit of the hospital staff there, they mounted a brave effort to find an ICU bed for him. They called 43 hospitals. They heard the same story time and again. Each hospital was overwhelmed with Covid-19 patients. They got him admitted to a hospital in Meridian, Mississippi. Ray died there. The consensus is that if he got to the ICU faster, he had a good chance of survival.

     My statistical system shows that as of this morning we have 680,274 coronavirus deaths in the US. Not counted in this death toll are all the people like Ray.

    When this pandemic began, I read The Great Influenza by Doctor John Barry of my university-Tulane. I'm not a genius with numbers like Dr. Pedro Peres, Dr. Seth Shostak, or Dr. James Kremer, but I am competent. I developed a model with over one million deaths in the US from Covid-19. My worst nightmare appears to be heading toward reality.

    Everyone, stay healthy and drive carefully. The last thing you want now is a situation where you need an ICU bed!

 

No comments: