EVANS: An Open Letter To Louisiana’s Legislators

Editor’s Note: this letter, by former city councilman Shane Evans of the city of Central, who also happens to be an investigator for the East Baton Rouge coroner’s office, is one of the more damning indictments of Louisiana’s COVID-19 emergency regime, which hopefully will end later today, that we’ve seen, and it also proves something we’ve been afraid of for some time. Feel free to share it widely, as what’s in it is highly unlikely to be picked up by the state’s legacy media.

My name is Shane Evans. I am a former elected official in my hometown of the City of Central, located in East Baton Rouge Parish. I served as a councilman during a period of growth in a community that has several rabid anti growth factions, as well as through the 2016 flood and recovery. I understand angry constituents, and I know that each of you have been subjected to some considerable wrath over the petitions to rollback the Governor’s emergency proclamations. I am guilty of it as well with my own rep. I will save you from that in this email. Instead I hope to provide you some facts that you can each use in your own decision to participate in the effort to open this state to a more normal pace of life for our citizens.

I serve as the Chief of Investigations for the East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner’s Office. We serve a population of approximately 450,000 people. I have access to fact-based data on how and who this pandemic is affecting. I also have data on how and who the Governor’s proclamations are affecting who have not died of the coronavirus. I am simply offering data from East Baton Rouge as a representative sampling for our state for your consideration.

First, let’s look at some data on natural deaths from January 1, 2019 through September 16, 2019 compared to the same date range in 2020:

  • In 2019 1/1/19 ->9/16/19, in EBR Parish, we worked 2187 natural deaths.
  • During the same date range year to date (ytd), in 2020, we have worked 2954 natural deaths.
  • For purposes of this comparison, I will subtract the 433 EBR Parish COVID-19 deaths, and that leaves us with a non – COVID-19 natural death figure of 2521.
  • 2020 ytd in EBR Parish alone is seeing a non – COVID19 natural death number of 334 more than this same time frame in 2019 (and prior years).
  • In EBR, we have had ZERO COVID-19 related deaths in the age range of 1-28 years old, which more than covers school-aged children and young adults.

Before I move on, I will provide a likely reason for this record setting pace of natural death. It is the only logical explanation I can provide, and that is the denial of primary, routine health care that our citizens endured during much of this year. I know that many of you likely had visits and non-emergency procedures postponed. We visit our doctors routinely so they can catch serious issues before they arise. Medical providers are still limiting family or friends accompanying the patient during their doctors visits as they struggle with occupancy limits on waiting rooms. Those family and friends are often primary caregivers, and manage medications and treatment plans for the patients. Their family and friends are not being allowed in the room, to hear from the doctors. Nursing homes are still not allowing family and friends to visit, nursing home residents are being fed, cleaned, and kept inside their rooms. Not socializing with other residents. Not allowed to leave a tiny living space. It sounds like prison to me. Yet, despite the Governor’s best efforts to “protect our most vulnerable”, they continue to be the vast majority of those who are infected, become sick and die from COVID-19. We are seeing a quickly-moving trend to move people into hospice, rather than stay in the hospital so that their families have access to them in their last days so that they can say goodbye.

Next, let’s look at some other concerning numbers that we are seeing in EBR:

  • 2019 – 1/1/19 through 9/16/2020 overdoses – 95
  • 2020 – 1/1/2020 through 9/16/2020 overdoses – 174

Our previous record year for overdoses was 2019 with a final total of 126. We are on pace to DOUBLE that number in 2020. I will let each of you draw your own conclusions as to cause, but my own is that our citizens have become unemployed, stressed, isolated, and desperate for escape while being subjected to the government’s “cure” for the COVID19 pandemic.

Advertisement

EBR Parish Homicides:

  • 2019 – 1/1/2019 through 9/16/2019 homicides – 58
  • 2020 – 1/1/2020 through 9/16/2020 homicides – 93

Now comes the hard part. I am going to show you how the “cure” is affecting our youth. The population that is least affected by this disease is who we are seeing some of the most devastating data from. I will use a start date of March 15 for both 2019 and 2020 to be as accurate in this as possible.

2019 first:

  • high school aged (14-19 years old) EBR homicide victims – 3/15/2019 through 9/16/2019 – 5
  • expanded to college aged kids (14-21 years old) –  3/15/2019 through 9/16/2019 – 6

2020:

  •   high school aged (14-19 years old) EBR homicide victims – 3/15/2020 through 9/16/2020 – 13
  •   expanded to college aged kids (14-21 years old) –  3/15/2020 through 9/16/2020 –24

I implore you to do whatever is necessary to restore the social, athletic, extracurricular activities of our young people to NORMAL as soon as humanly possible. The kids getting killed are inner city, low socioeconomically supported at risk youth that need SCHOOL and all the extra, engaging things that go with it. We have largely left considerations for our children behind in our efforts to protect at risk people who are basically locked in jail cells in their nursing homes. Those lockdown efforts to prevent infection have not worked. We now see casinos at 75%, filling with customers that mostly are at risk of serious outcomes if they contract COVID-19, while our youth are still restricted from living their lives.

I am an analyzer. I want to be able to have and share facts that can help all of us make smart decisions. While my days at work have been filled with the sharing of sorrow with families that have lost loved ones to this virus, my personal conclusion is that the government applied cure is shaping up to be far more harmful than the disease itself.

Please consider taking immediate action to restore the lives of your constituents.

If any of you need supporting documentation or have additional questions, I will be glad to help.

Respectfully,

Shane Evans

Advertisement

Advertisement

Interested in more news from Louisiana? We've got you covered! See More Louisiana News
Previous Article
Next Article

Trending on The Hayride