Whew!
I’ve gotten sorely lambasted by other medical FReepers for questioning Covid declarations (like “full” hospitals with sparse parking lots.)
I’m sure there may be transient surges that may tax some hospitals, and it’s real easy when you’re working in one to get tunnel vision and just glom on to the narrative.
My experience has been this: I work at a large south Florida Hospital. We had a heck of a big deluge of cases (real cases, not just positive test results) at the beginning, around March. Lots of critically ill, lots of deaths.
But that wave ended. We closed our dedicated covid unit. Now our ICU is full of OTHER patients, sometimes they have 1 or 2 covid. Overall, we are seeing much less severe presentations; asymptomatic or very mild. And this is one of the states with the LEAST severe covid restrictrions and controls. Desantis has done a wonderful job - MUCH better than any blue state tyrant.
This narrative that masks and social controls are going to stop it is IMO total BS. I’m a firm believer in the Great Barrington Declaration - focused protection. And making sure hospitals have the resources to handle transient surges.