There was a noticeable jump in 5-17 year old active cases, a slight rise in deaths, and an end of the week jump in hospitalizations, all three indicating our present situation is leaning toward a worst case scenario. Emergency rooms are already getting backed up to dangerous levels and Mayor Jacobs is asking that, as Dr. Beeper would put it," routine emergencies "find some other means of care as opposed to going to the emergency room.His weekly address is here. (link...)

My response, in Compass, is here:

"Apparently, early indications of the severity of this wave of Covid aren't looking too good. Waits are up at local emergency rooms. There is a shortage of workers. As you may or may not remember, this is what Dr. Shamiyeh considered to be the biggest long term threat of covid. As I recall, it was late 2020 when Dr. Shamiyeh first brought up the topic and has repeatedly sounded the alarm over this issue. The Mayor addressed the looming catastrophe on his weekly internet address.
The culprit, according to Mayor Jacobs, is a factoring equation called the Medicare Wage Index, which is a formula used to determine reimbursement rates to hospitals for their labor costs.
(link...)
You receive reimbursement based on what you are paying staff. Tennessee, a right to work state, does not have as strong a union presence as areas demanding higher wages. Hence, our wage scale is considerably lower than most communities we are competing against for these workers.Last report I read about the actual number of nurses we are short, it stood around 800 about two months ago. Based on the way the Mayor has added urgency to this issue, I'd say somebody with the Mayor's ear thinks that number is going to get worse. Honestly, the Mayor's attitude about this seems to be, "Why should I advocate for a raise for our nurses so we would receive more money from the Index, when the hospital administration will just have to turn around and pay the nurses with it?"
Since the only government entity that has addressed this issue with any level of expertise, The Knox County Board of Health, who, as you know if you were paying attention, established themselves on a worldwide level for innovative and effective response to covid, amidst some daunting circumstances, has been dissolved, and the Mayor refuses to attend the Advisory Board of Health meetings. As our local healthcare system continues to deteriorate, the local healthcare system exposes itself to collapse from smaller and smaller disease outbreaks
This is not a nationwide phenomena, it is the direct result of an incompetent covid response and a substandard vaccination rate. Knoxville is not the only community with tribal politics and cultish behavior, and the problems he claims are unrelated to his terrorist threats against the medical community, are problems to a greatly worsening degree to lower paid staff in regions promoting covid infection, like Knox County.
It appears 75% is a magic number when it comes to vaccination rate and moving a community past covid. Once 75% is achieved everything becomes manageable, at least for now. Doesn't mean the world is a perfect place, it just means they can have some sort of business as usual. The problem in Knox County staring us in the face is that Mayor Jacobs has poisoned the well of united public health efforts. There's no way to get to 75% by the Christmas variant, and there's no way of telling if that will be a severe enough strain to shut down the hospitals. Our county is playing with fire right now."

It would appear things are set up to get worse before they get better.