A simple device that clips on to your finger could save your life from the dangerous COVID-19 pneumonia, according to an article in The New York Times on April 20.
A device known as a pulse oximeter, which registers your oxygen levels, can be bought over the counter at a drugstore or from Amazon.
According to Dr. Richard Levitan, an emergency room doctor from New York’s Bellevue Hospital, many of the patients that have been flooding the hospitals of New York City and Queens during the COVID-19 pandemic were much sicker than they realized.
COVID-19 is disproportionately striking African and Spanish-speaking people around the country and in New York City African people are twice as likely to die from the virus than white people, according to an ABC news report on April 17.
Dr. Levitan reported that many people were coming to the emergency room only when they were gasping for breath.
Many did not realize they had already been suffering from severe pneumonia for as long as a week or more and were near death at the time of the hospital visit, the article which appeared in The New York Times on April 20 stated.
Dr. Richard Levitan continued, “To my amazement, most patients I saw said they had been sick for a week or so with fever, cough, upset stomach and fatigue, but they only became short of breath the day they came to the hospital. Their pneumonia had clearly been going on for days, but by the time they felt they had to go to the hospital, they were often already in critical condition.”
“Here is what really surprised us:” the doctor went on, “These patients did not report any sensation of breathing problems, even though their chest X-rays showed diffuse pneumonia and their oxygen was below normal. How could this be?”
He goes on to explain that the pneumonia caused by COVID-19 is different from the pneumonia usually seen by doctors.
COVID pneumonia causes “silent hypoxia,” meaning oxygen deprivation. It is “silent” because of its dangerous, hard-to-detect nature. Unlike the more common pneumonia which shuts down your ability to breathe early on, with COVID pneumonia your body compensates by making you breathe faster and you might not even realize you are doing so.
“When COVID pneumonia first strikes,” Dr. Levitan wrote, “patients don’t feel short of breath, even as their oxygen levels fall. And by the time they do, they have alarmingly low oxygen levels and moderate-to-severe pneumonia (as seen on chest X-rays). Normal oxygen saturation for most persons at sea level is 94 percent to 100 percent; COVID pneumonia patients I saw had oxygen saturations as low as 50 percent.”
They killed us with ventilators and issued “do not revive” orders
It is also important to be able to monitor your oxygen levels because “In New York’s largest hospital system, 88 percent of Coronavirus patients on ventilators didn’t make it,” according to an article in The Washington Post on April 23.
A special report from the Reuters news service, April 23, states that doctors are starting to rethink “when and how to use mechanical ventilators to treat severe sufferers of the disease—and in some cases whether to use them at all. While initially doctors packed intensive care units with intubated patients, now many are exploring other options.”
An April 17 Vox News report states that “in New York City, the American epicenter of the outbreak: Black New Yorkers are dying at twice the rate of their white peers; Latinos in the city are also succumbing to the virus at a much higher rate than white or Asian New Yorkers. The same trends can be seen in infection and hospitalization rates, too.”
During the height of the pandemic in New York, New York state officials issued protocols on April 17 that directed emergency service workers not to attempt to revive anyone without a pulse when they arrived on a scene during the Coronavirus pandemic, according to the New York Post on April 22. This order was not rescinded until April 21, the Post stated.
So they put African people on the deadly ventilators and did not attempt to revive us at the height of the period when we were dying by the scores and hundreds every day.
On every front of our lives they kill us, oppress us and control our lives whether in the hospital or on the street.
This is why the African People’s Socialist Party calls COVID-19 the colonialvirus!
“This is not a medical problem. This is a political problem,” states Chairman Omali Yeshitela.
In response the Party has built The People’s War Campaign to take political and economic power over our own lives and fight for reparations.
We are organizing for power! Join the movement of African people around the world fighting for self-determination through the total liberation of Africa and African people everywhere.
Until African people led by the African working class seize power we will never have control over our lives whether in natural disasters or everyday life.
Join the African People’s Socialist Party at apspuhuru.org.
We are winning!
