Legalectric

This is so disturbing to me, I wrote about it before I became speechless — in the Red Wing Republican Eagle:

Letter: Willful disregard and willful ignorance in Pierce County

I’m fuming. I just read with shock and disbelief that there’s a second case of COVID-19 in Pierce County. The cause of my shock and disbelief stems from the article which said that, “band and choir students were in New Orleans March 9-14, which also was spring break. The person attended the senior high school choir trip, according to the message.”

A school trip March 9-14? COVID was in the news in January and February. There were very public self-isolation and social distancing recommendations, including warnings not to travel, the first week of March. Yet the Ellsworth trip went forward the second week of March?

This display of willful ignorance and willful disregard for people’s health, perhaps their lives, is hard to accept. School administrators, trip organizers and the school board are responsible for the health and safety of those in their care. Parents are responsible for their children. The “children” are senior high students, some maybe “adults,” but in any case, old enough to be thinking for themselves. The responsibility for this ill-advised trip is a shared responsibility.

Thinking “it can’t happen here” or “it won’t happen to me”? There is no rational basis for such ideas, and science says otherwise, it can and will happen. Look around. It is happening, it is happening to people you ostensibly care about, and it is happening to the community around you.To go forward on a school trip when there’s a burgeoning pandemic with isolation, distancing, and no-travel recommendations, it is just so irresponsible. It goes beyond poor judgment – it is willful disregard and willful ignorance – selfish “me first” disregard and ignorance that puts people in harm’s way.

Get to work to fix this mess. What are you doing to help your friends and neighbors who are now or who will become sick, for those who are quarantined and unable to care for themselves? It’s time for continuing education in science, situational ethics, critical thinking, and public health for the district officials, staff, and students alike, with a healthy dose of public service.

Carol A. Overland

Red Wing

Too little, too late. Too much time wasted lying, denying, and profiteering.

DO YOU HAVE A HEALTH CARE DIRECTIVE?

JUST DO IT, NOW. CONTACT YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER ABOUT THEIR FORMS, THEIR PROCESS, AND GET YOUR HEALTH CARE DIRECTIVE ON FILE WITH THEM.

Here in SE Minnesota, it’s Mayo Clinic. Here is their “Living wills and advance directive” page.

Here, as an example, is link to Mayo’s advance directive form , complete with directions, things to think about. Here’s the pdf:

And anyone alive right now is thinking about COVID. It’s the right time to make sure you’ve got your ducks in a row, and that means, for example, aforementioned Health Care Directive.

I’ve been sick now for nearly 3 weeks. I’ve had serious long-term sinus issues before, most notably during the Goodhue Wind hearing, March 15-17, 2011. It was so bad that I couldn’t talk, could only squawk, and it was excruciating for everyone there. I wasn’t in pain, just a bit lethargic and a fuzzy brain, but utterly neutralized with no ability to speak! Not a good place to be for an attorney in a hearing! At that time I had no access to health care, only the Red Wing Care Clinic on Tuesdays. That sucked so bad, particularly having to get to the Care Clinic on that one specific day (I left the hearing early to get there, and of course nobody bothered to tell me they decided to start early the following day, GRRRRR). Getting access to regular health care was life changing, no doubt about it.

Flash forward to this year. We were on vacation mid-February to the end of February. Sunday, March 8th, I developed the symptoms of sinus, NO fever, but productive cough, flowing sinuses and nose, and general malaise. Same thing Alan had developed March 3, and he got over before I got sick. By the following Friday, I figured I’d need Z-pak again, so went in, knowing CORVID was around. I got checked out, and was treated for my sinus crap, but was told that because we were coughing and had traveled to Portland and lower Washington, we should be checked out for COVID. OK, whatever, we got checked out, and cleared, not justifying COVID testing (which Mayo had just ramped up that Monday, 3/16).

FOR THE RECORD: If I have CORVID, can’t breathe, and arrest, I’m DNR, DNI, DNT, it’s over, let me go. NO VENTILATOR!!!

NOW is an important time to do your Health Care Directive, f/k/a Living Will, to talk it over with family and friends, and figure out what you want. Most health care providers have their own forms, process, but whatever it is, be sure to do it. Then make sure a copy is on file with provider, with your point people, and a copy on the fridge so emergency responders can find it, one in your bag/glove compartment too. Make sure your point people can handle making the decisions YOU want made, and can advocate fiercely for you (i.e., my mother’s health care provider did not want to follow her wishes to stay out of the hospital, and even Dr. Order of “do not hospitalize” as she was on hospice, it was a fight that shouldn’t have happened).

Just do it! Contact your health care provider today and make sure you have a current Health Care Directive. Your state may also have a Durable Health Care Power of Attorney that gives power of decisions to your point person and beefs up your Health Care Directive. As attorney, I’ve done hundreds of Wills, DHCPoAs and directed folks to their health care providers, this is so important to do, and yes, especially now. JUST DO IT!

Goodhue County resident in their 20s is county’s first presumptive COVID-19 case, health department says

I’m having this “WTF WERE THEY THINKING?” experience. The Ellsworth School District had a choir and band trip that LEFT on March 9, returned on March 14, to New Orleans. This trip LEFT after the pandemic was blooming, after recommendations to self-isolate and for social distancing. There’s just no excuse for this, putting people at risk. And now, the second person from that trip has been officially diagnosed with COVID.

Update: Pierce County COVID-19 cases now number three

From the article:

Band and choir students were in New Orleans March 9-14, which also was spring break. The two people attended the senior high school choir trip, according to the message.

The group consisted of 44 students, 14 parents and two teaching staff, the email said. When the group left on March 9, all Wisconsin schools were still in session. The group returned the day after the governor’s Friday afternoon announcement closing schools and five days prior to the actual mandatory closing of Wisconsin schools.

Listen to this rationalization and denial:

“The trajectory of the virus changed dramatically from the time in which the group left to their point of return. At the time in which the group left for the trip to New Orleans, the State of Louisiana was not listed as an area of community spread. The first case in Louisiana was actually reported on March 9th, the day the group left,” the district email reads. “Spring break was a time in which many of our families traveled throughout the country and to other countries. Due to the many changes that took place in an extremely short period of time, the decision was made to not have all district students return to school after spring break for the three days available prior to the governor’s closing date of March 18, 2020. ”

Is “self-isolation” and “social distancing” so hard to understand? “Do not travel” is pretty self-explanatory. Putting people at risk like this is so wrong, living in denial is no excuse. Willful ignorance, willful disregard…