Flagler County’s pandemic situation is improving on every front–falling case loads in the community and in the hospital, increasing vaccine deliveries, rising proportion of the county’s elderly already inoculated, and nothing but more voluminous vaccine deliveries ahead.
Health Care Business
Ask the Doctor: Returning Children to School Safely, All Those Post-Vaccine Reactions, HIV-Patient Eligibility
Dr. Stephen Bickel answers new questions about the anxieties of returning children to school in covid times, the effects (or non-effects) of the covid vaccine on various medical conditions, the eligibility of populations other than those 65-and-over for the vaccine, and more.
Two Flagler Beach Residents Arrested After Refusing to Comply With Mask Mandate at Commission Meeting
In a first at a local government meeting, two Flagler Beach residents were arrested Thursday evening after defiantly delaying a Flagler Beach City Commission meeting for 12 minutes, refusing to don a mask, in accordance with a city ordinance, and refusing to leave the commission room on their own. They were not arrested for a mask violation, but for trespassing after warnings.
Ask the Doctor: No, Vaccines Contain No Aborted Fetus Tissue, Socializing Without Masks, Politics of Vaccines
Dr. Stephen Bickel answers two dozen new questions, including about the politics and logistics of the vaccine rollout, whether vaccinated people may socialize without masks, and numerous specific questions about the vaccine and beyond it.
AdventHealth Palm Coast Will Build a $100 Million, 100-Bed Hospital on Palm Coast Parkway
In a surprise, AdventHealth officials today announced the system will build a $100 million, 100-bed hospital on the south side of Palm Coast Parkway, adjacent to Market Street, the assisted living facility, with construction starting in September.
As Covid Patient Load Keeps Breaking Records at AdventHealth Palm Coast, ER Director Gives Inside Look
As the Covid-19 patient load reaches 35–the hospital is licensed for 113 beds–Dr. Paul Mucciolo, AdventHealth Palm Coast’s ER medical director until last year, and the Chief of Staff since, details the hospital’s response and challenges to a record surge.
Ask the Doctor: Securing Your 2nd Vaccine Dose, Why So Little Supply, Death or Adverse Reactions
Dr. Stephen Bickel answers questions about the short supply of Covid vaccines, the potency of the first shot and what happens if the second shot is delayed, where to get the second shot, and specific questions on the vaccine’s content, adverse reactions and other issues.
Ask the Doctor: Visions of Vaccines Dance In Our Heads
FlaglerLive today is fortunate and proud to be launching the “Ask the Doctor” column, by Dr. Stephen Bickel, the medical director at the Flagler and Volusia Counties Health Departments. You are invited to submit your Covid, vaccine and other medical-related questions. Dr. Bickel will answer them here on a regular basis.
Is the Hobbled Distribution of Vaccines the Biggest Trump Screw Up Yet?
Some 7.7 million first doses of vaccines have been shipped to date (two million shots have been given), with a target of 16 million by the end of the year. This is warp speed?
More Than 2,900 Health Care Workers Died This Year. The Government Barely Kept Track.
Fatalities from the coronavirus among health workers have skewed young, with the majority of victims under age 60. People of color have been disproportionately affected, accounting for about 65% of deaths. Yet disinformation continues to paint the wrong picture about who’s dying.