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At least 13 shot — two fatally — across NYC as gun surge continues

By Amanda Woods

September 2, 2020 | 9:34am | Updated 

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Paul Martinka

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SHOOTINGS

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At least 13 people were shot across Gotham on Tuesday and early Wednesday — two fatally and one clinging to life — as the citywide surge in gunplay continued.

A 24-year-old man was shot in the leg around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday on the grounds of Harlem’s Grant Houses, on Broadway near LaSalle Street, cops said.

He was taken to Mount Sinai Morningside with non-life-threatening injuries.

About 40 minutes earlier, Darien Simpson, 20, was blasted in the chest on Howard Avenue near Pacific Street in Weeksville, Brooklyn, cops said.

He was rushed to Interfaith Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

The circumstances of the shooting were not immediately clear.

Just before midnight, a 33-year-old man was shot once in the face and once in the left arm on Bristol Street near Dumont Avenue in Brownsville, police said.

He was taken to Brookdale University Hospital Medical Center in stable condition, and described hearing shots and feeling pain.

About a half-hour earlier, a 19-year-old man was shot in the left leg and buttocks on the grounds of the Langston Hughes Houses on Sutter Avenue, cops said. He is listed in stable condition.

And around 10:20 p.m., a 26-year-old man was blasted in the head — leaving him clinging to life — on Park Avenue near Carlton Avenue in Fort Greene, cops said.

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Robert Mecea

He was taken to NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital in critical condition.

Cops did not immediately have details on that shooting.

In total on Tuesday, 10 shooting incidents were reported with 11 victims, according to preliminary numbers released by the NYPD.

On that date in 2019, the city saw only one shooting with one victim.

So far this year, the city has seen a staggering 89 percent increase in shootings and a 98 percent increase in shooting victims from last year’s figures, cops said Wednesday morning.

A total of 1,024 shootings have been reported with 1,259 victims, cops said. At this time in 2019, there were 542 Incidents with 636 victims.

Two people were killed in Gotham on Tuesday — Javon Bradley, 28, who was gunned down across from a Harlem Whole Foods, and an unidentified 29-year-old man who was shot multiple times as he sat in a 2019 Volkswagen at Prospect Avenue and Elsmere Place in the Crotona neighborhood of the Bronx.

No homicides were reported on that day in 2019.

...a lengthy record with more than 100 arrests...who is in charge?

VIDEO: Suspect in custody after reportedly striking 92-year-old woman in the face, knocking her to the ground

Sick behavior

Image source: Twitter video screenshot

Police arrested a 31-year-old male in connection with a viral video showing a suspect shoving an elderly woman to the ground in New York City.

What are the details? 

Surveillance footage captured the moment a suspect struck the woman in her face. According to AM NY, the incident took place June 12.
The 92-year-old woman, who remains unnamed, hit her head on a fire hydrant and was taken to nearby Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital for treatment. Reports say the woman is in stable condition.
The woman was walking with a pushcart, minding her own business, when the suspect — Rashid Brimmage — reportedly shoved her to the ground in an unprovoked attack.
On Tuesday, local police announced that Brimmage had been taken into custody in connection with the incident and charged with assault.

What else? 

WNBC-TV reported that Brimmage has a lengthy record with more than 100 arrests.
The station reported that Brimmage received a desk appearance ticket for his most recent offenses due to the city's bail reform project.

"He is an NYPD co-response client, which means police have responded with social workers when dealing with him," the station notes. "Brimmage has an extensive history of being emotionally disturbed in police encounters as well."
The elderly woman reportedly isn't his first victim, either. Authorities allegedly arrested Brimmage three times since February for similar crimes.
"Police fear Brimmage will receive yet another desk appearance ticket for the latest incident, freeing him to attack at random again," the senior official said, according to the station.

What did the elderly woman say? 

WABC-TV reported that the elderly woman — who remains unnamed at the time of this reporting — is "frightened to tears" following the attack.
"I'm not going to walk there on my own, and it's very upsetting," said the victim, a retired school teacher. "It's very upsetting."

The elderly woman said that she initially thought she'd been struck by a brick.
"Hit me on the right scalp, on the right side of my head, and, of course, I fell down on the street," she said. "There were a couple of young women there. They helped me up. They said, 'I'm going to call an ambulance.'"
The woman said that before the attack, she felt "very safe in the city," but admits that she's now afraid to leave her home. 

'Deeply disturbing' report into Ontario care homes released

• 2 hours ago

Related Topics

• Coronavirus pandemic

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

Image captionLong-term care homes in Canada have been hard hit by the pandemic

A Canadian province has launched an investigation into five Ontario elder care homes following the release of a "deeply disturbing" report. 

The Canadian armed forces report found instances of insect infestations, poor hygiene practices, and neglect, among other concerns.

In one home, patients who had tested positive for Covid-19 were able to wander the premises.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said the document was "gut-wrenching".

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called it "deeply disturbing". 

Mr Ford said a full investigation has been launched into the allegations, which included claims that facilities smelt of rotten food, infested with cockroaches and flies, and that elderly people were left for hours "crying for help with staff not responding". 

One death has also been referred to the provincial coroner for investigation.

Results of the inquiry will be shared with police in case results lead to criminal charges, Mr Ford said. 

• How big is the epidemic in care homes?

"There are things in there that are extremely troubling and we need to take action," he told journalists during his regular coronavirus briefing on Tuesday. 

Canada's military has been assisting in a number of elder care homes that have been overwhelmed by outbreaks of the virus. 

Government statistics suggest that as much as 80% of all the coronavirus-related deaths in Canada are linked to long-term care homes and residences for the elderly. 

There are currently 150 long-term care homes in Ontario experiencing an outbreak, out of over 620 homes. Some 1,675 troops have been assisting in five care homes in the province, and a further 25 in Quebec, according to CBC News.

People of all ages can be infected by the virus. But it is especially dangerous for older people and elder care homes in many parts of the world have been especially hard-hit by the pandemic.

Image copyrightAFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Image captionOver 1,000 Canadians soldiers are assisting in long-term care homes

Mr Ford said that the pandemic has "exposed the deep, deep cracks in long-term care homes".

Officials have spoken of overworked and poorly paid staff in many facilities across Canada. 

What does the report say? 

Canadian military personnel had been in the five care homes - amongst the hardest hit in Ontario with Covid-19 outbreaks - since 22 April. 

The report raised numerous concerns about conditions in the homes based on observations taken over two weeks. 

It compiled cases of re-use of unsterile equipment like catheters, of use of expired medications, patients with Covid-19 allowed to interact with healthy residents, abusive behaviour, improper use of personal protective equipment, insect infestations, the delayed changing of soiled or incontinent patients, and forced feedings. 

It also documented instances where patients were left calling help with no response for up to two hours. 

At one facility, the Eatonville Care Centre, patients who had tested positive for Covid-19 were left to wander the facilities, the military report said. The care centre has seen at least 42 deaths from Covid this year, according to Canadian media.

Mr Ford said the situation in the five care homes in the military report is stabilising with the support of soldiers and other personnel. 

A class action lawsuit was brought against one of the facilities, Orchard Villa, on Monday, alleging deficiencies dating back to 2017 and contributing to the current conditions. 

What did Dr. Fauci know om January 11, 2017?

Dr. Fauci revealed his fears of a 'surprise outbreak' back in 2017 and warned the upcoming Trump administration would face 'challenges' with infectious diseases in a Georgetown speech

• Dr. Anthony Fauci warned of a 'surprise outbreak' three years before the COVID-19 pandemic 
• His speech about 'Pandemic Prepardness' was made in February 2017 at Georgetown University  
• Fauci said the upcoming administration would 'no doubt'  face challenges with infectious diseases  
• He added that he's more worried of an influenza pandemic than the HIV crisis and bio-terror attacks  
• Several healthcare professionals have and continue to discuss novel outbreaks   
• Worldwide COVID-19 cases have surpassed one million and 64,000 deaths

Dr. Fauci backed funding for controversial Wuhan lab studying origin of coronavirus

By Joe Tacopino

April 29, 2020 | 1:14am | Updated 

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Dr. Anthony FauciAP Photo / Alex Brandon,File

Dr. Anthony Fauci, a member of the coronavirus task force, had previously backed funding for a controversial lab in Wuhan, China, that has been studying the coronavirus in bats, reports said.

Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases had shelled out a total of $7.4 million to the Wuhan Institute of Virology lab — which has become the focus of theories about the origin of COVID-19, according to Newsweek.

The National Institutes of Health, which oversees the NIAID, shut down all funding to the lab last week.

“At this time, NIH does not believe that the current project outcomes align with the program goals and agency priorities,” a deputy director at the agency wrote in a letter obtained by Politico.

There is “increasing confidence” among officials in the Trump administration that the Wuhan Institute of Virology lab is the original site of the virus. A report by Fox News said embassy officials warned in January 2018 about inadequate safety there.

The NIH defended its funding of the lab in a statement to Newsweek.

“Most emerging human viruses come from wildlife, and these represent a significant threat to public health and biosecurity in the US and globally,” the statement read.

“Scientific research indicates that there is no evidence that suggests the virus was created in a laboratory.”

Wuhan virus Medicare payouts: pneumonia $5000; diagnosed Wuhan virus $13,000; ventilator $39,000.

Hospitals get more money for COVID-19 Medicare patients — then payout skyrockets if they go on ventilators, fact check confirms

But one authority said it's 'very unlikely that physicians or hospitals will falsify data or be motivated by money to do so'

Photo by Blake Nissen for The Boston Globe via Getty Images

 DAVE URBANSKI

Hospitals and doctors get paid more for Medicare patients diagnosed with COVID-19 — or if it's presumed they've contracted the virus save for laboratory-confirmed tests — and then the payout triples if those patients are placed on ventilators, a USA Today fact check confirms.

What's the background?

Minnesota state Sen. Scott Jensen — a Republican and a physician — made the claim to Fox News' host Laura Ingraham on April 8, the paper said, adding that the claims was published April 9 by The Spectator, and then WorldNetDaily followed suit on April 10.
On April 14, New York City's total coronavirus death toll saw a major spike after officials added more than 3,700 fatalities to the count "including people who had never tested positive for the virus but were presumed to have died of it."
On April 15, Jensen noted on his Facebook page: "How can anyone not believe that increasing the number of COVID-19 deaths may create an avenue for states to receive a larger portion of federal dollars."

Four days later, he said via video on his Facebook page that "hospital administrators might well want to see COVID-19 attached to a discharge summary or a death certificate. Why? Because if it's a straightforward, garden-variety pneumonia that a person is admitted to the hospital for — if they're Medicare — typically, the diagnosis-related group lump sum payment would be $5,000. But if it's COVID-19 pneumonia, then it's $13,000, and if that COVID-19 pneumonia patient ends up on a ventilator, it goes up to $39,000," USA Today reported.
More from the outlet:

Jensen clarified in the video that he doesn't think physicians are "gaming the system" so much as other "players," such as hospital administrators, who he said may pressure physicians to cite all diagnoses, including "probable" COVID-19, on discharge papers or death certificates to get the higher Medicare allocation allowed under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act.Past practice, Jensen said, did not include probabilities.

He noted that some states, including his home state of Minnesota, as well as California, list only laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 diagnoses. Others, specifically New York, list all presumed cases, which is allowed under guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as of mid-April and which will result in a larger payout.

Jensen said he thinks the overall number of COVID-19 cases have been undercounted based on limitations in the number of tests available.

How coronavirus relief factors in

USA Today said coronavirus relief legislation created a 20% premium, or add-on, for COVID-19 Medicare patients, citing the American Hospital Association Special Bulletin on the topic.
The outlet said there have been no reports of hospitals exaggerating COVID-19 numbers to receive higher Medicare payments, adding that Jensen did not return an email request from USA Today for comment about his claim.

Affirming Jensen's claims

But the outlet said Marty Makary — a surgeon and professor of health policy and management at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health — noted in a Tuesday email that "what Scott Jensen said sounds right to me."
Snopes also investigated the claim and concluded it's plausible Medicare pays in the range Jensen mentions but without a "one-size-fits-all" disbursement, USA Today said.
PolitiFact reporter Tom Kertscher wrote, "The dollar amounts Jensen cited are roughly what we found in an analysis published April 7 by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a leading source of health information," USA Today added.
The outlet also called attention to Ask FactCheck's report saying "the figures cited by Jensen generally square with estimated Medicare payments for COVID-19 hospitalizations, based on average Medicare payments for patients with similar diagnoses."
"Jensen said he did not think that hospitals were intentionally misclassifying cases for financial reasons," Ask FactCheck reporter Angelo Fichera noted, according to USA Today. "But that's how his comments have been widely interpreted and paraded on social media."
Still Ask FactCheck's conclusion was that "recent legislation pays hospitals higher Medicare rates for COVID-19 patients and treatment, but there is no evidence of fraudulent reporting," the outlet said.
Julie Aultman — a member of the editorial board of the American Medical Association's Journal of Ethics — went a bit further, telling PolitiFact it is "very unlikely that physicians or hospitals will falsify data or be motivated by money to do so," USA Today reported.
(H/T: The Daily Wire)

When government controls your healthcare they just let you die. Beaucrats should not be permitted to make such decisions!

New York tells first responders not to bother reviving people without a pulse amid the coronavirus

'They simply let you die'

Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

 PHIL SHIVER

New York state has issued a guideline to emergency first responders advising them not to resuscitate patients who don't have a pulse when they arrive on the scene.

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The updated advisory was issued in a state Health Department memo issued last week, according to the New York Post. The memo called the change "necessary during the COVID-19 response to protect the health and safety of EMS providers by limiting their exposure, conserve resources, and ensure optimal use of equipment to save the greatest number of lives."
Emergency medical service workers, who normally spend up to 20 minutes attempting to revive people found in cardiac arrest, were outraged over the change, the Post reported.
"They're not giving people a second chance to live anymore,'' Oren Barzilay, head of the city union, which includes uniformed EMTs and paramedics, said. "Our job is to bring patients back to life. This guideline takes that away from us."

"Now you don't get 20 minutes of CPR if you have no rhythm," a veteran FDNY EMS worker added. "They simply let you die."
The order follows guidelines issued earlier in the month by the Regional Emergency Services Council of New York that advised emergency services workers not to transport cardiac arrest patients who cannot be revived on the scene to the hospital.
The drastic measures come as New York City hospitals have been inundated with patients during the coronavirus pandemic, often leaving few or no intensive care unit beds.
The city has evidently made the determination that potentially disseminating the disease through resuscitation is too great a risk. ABC News reported that in guidelines issued last month, the American College of Cardiology assessed that while the chances are survival are slim for those who go into cardiac arrest outside of a hospital, the "wide dissemination" of coronavirus particles is probable.
The veteran EMS worker acknowledged to the Post that only 3 or 4 people out of 100 are successfully revived through CPR and other aggressive intervention methods both on the scene and at the hospital.
"[But] for those 3 or 4 people, it's a big deal," the worker added.