“I guess they are expendable. I wonder if he took the R0 into account and the much higher ICU rates needed - which could overwhelm the system? What happens then? “
WE have just under 100,000 ICU beds in the US.
During flu season there is basically no excess capacity. It’s common to end up holding ICU admissions in the ED for a day or days waiting for a bed to open. Surgeries are cancelled.
It won’t take much at all to completely overwhelm the system.
——During flu season there is basically no excess capacity. ——
The patients occupying the ICU beds are in effect isolated to prevent the spread of their pneumonia. Deaths mostly result from pneumonia rather than flu. Flu is the precursor
Yes up until the mid eighties, all hospitals in the US had excess capacity.
There would always be extra beds on each unit.
It was part of the Civil defense plan to have those beds.
they were part of the protections the government had put in place to protect its citizens.
like highways that were wide enough to land planes in case of war,
like bomb shelters to house and protect the populations
Like stored food and water and necessities cached around the country.
like the plan that large fast food outlets would assist in feeding the populace.
and civil defense sirens to warn the population of war.
All these things were once considered mandatory care-taking by our government.
then the seventies and eighties happened, and MBAs and leftists really got their clutches into the heart of policy making in America.
“It won’t take much at all to completely overwhelm the system.”
Exactly right.