Macabre Kansas City News Highlights COVID Morgue Space Questions

The New York Times places the US COVID death count 849K so far. 

No matter what readers might believe, there is no denying that the global pandemic is real and it has caused massive death and suffering. 

Thankfully, there has been progress in mitigating the impact of the virus. 

Nevertheless . . .

As pandemic stats spike locally we notice an inordinate amount of reporting on a morbid facet of the plague: A question about where to store the bodies.

Don't get it twisted, TKC adores dark humor and this journalistic topic brings to mind a 90s classic rock anthem.

However . . . 

Even during the worst parts of the pandemic in 2020/21 morgue space wasn't an issue locally and a reasonable person doesn't have to deny the seriousness of the pandemic in order to dispute this narrative and possibly realize this news item is flavored with a great deal of theatricality.

In fairness and for the sake of public health discussion, we share the MSM side of the story . . .

Hospitals in the Kansas City area are now talking to the medical examiner and county health officials about how to handle the excessive death. Already they have sought help tracking down more ventilators.

“They are running out of morgue capacity,” said. Dr. Sanmi Areola, director of the health department in Johnson County, the state’s most populous county. “It does not take being an expert in public health to know that things are pretty bad."

The county has been looking for new testing sites and expanding hours at exiting ones. The positivity rate now tops 30%.

“Quite frankly the numbers we are getting in are exceeding all capacity at all levels," said Dr. Elizabeth Holzschuh, director of epidemiology at the county's Department of Health and Environment.

She noted that since the beginning of the year, more than 30 county residents have died of COVID-19, with the vast majority of them unvaccinated.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com news link . . .

Metro morgues facing capacity issues during Covid-19 outbreak

MISSION, Kan. (AP/KCTV5) - Nursing homes are facing COVID-19 outbreak, schools are closing and hospitals in the Kansas City area are seeing so many deaths that they are raising alarms about morgue capacity. The problems come as Kansas yet again shattered its record for new confirmed and probable cases.