The premise of your question is based only on anecdotal evidence.
Well i only moonlighted in ERs but I spent plenty of time “visiting” ERs over some 20 years and was the OIC of an Army ER. Patients who come in blue and gasping for breath do generally get intubated straight away. I’ve done it myself, many times. It’s called “Respiratory Failure”. Obviously, I’m not seeing these patients but it sounds like the are decompensating quickly. Ok’d have to be pretty damn confident you knew what you were doing not to.
Now we are hearing they are holding off. Why? Because 80 or 90% just die in hours and the vent doesn’t help anyway? I don’t know, but maybe it’s a possibility. Maybe the people actually doing it have decided to stop tubing these people because the outcome is so miserable.
MomMD is still working, she is seeing these patients. Depressing was the word I’m pretty sure she used. “Nothing seems to work.” But you gotta remember they aren’t fixing cars. You can’t just throw things at these patients hoping they will work. That’s Institutional level panic behavior. There is data that will answer the question and we ain’t getting it.