4 ms·
If won't overwhelm if the elderly or high risk are isolated and protocols are strict with that segment
by not_a_moth 7y ago
If won't overwhelm if the elderly or high risk are isolated and protocols are strict with that segment
- maccam94 7y agoThere is still risk for people outside the high-risk segment. Let's say that it's only 0.2% risk of death without a ventilator for the general population (based on https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-03-11/covid-19-risk-healthy-young-person https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-03-11/covid-19...). Let's say in the USA that we're talking 150M infected people who aren't high risk (65% or ~200M of the population is between 15-65). That's 300,000 people who will need ventilators (potentially for multiple weeks -- https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/forefront/prevention-and-screening-articles/wuhan-coronavirus https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/forefront/prevention-and-sc...). "The latest study available estimates there are about 62,000 ventilators in hospitals nationwide. That figure is seven years old — so the actual number could be higher." -- https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/03/14/815675678/as-the-pandemic-spreads-will-there-be-enough-ventilators https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/03/14/8156756... So yeah, you don't want all of those infections happening the same month or else hundreds of thousands of people will die.