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It's true - China's numbers, unsurprisingly, really don't give light to how badly they were impacted. I remember reading about how they were building brand new

It's true - China's numbers, unsurprisingly, really don't give light to how badly they were impacted. I remember reading about how they were building brand new hospitals to cope. Literally building a brand new hospital. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/31/pictures-china-builds-two-hospitals-in-days-to-combat-coronavirus.html https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/31/pictures-china-builds-two-ho... Looking back on that, it's interesting to think about how that should have been a major warning sign of things to come for the rest of the world.

antiSingularity 5y ago
They also released vidoes of people literally dropping in the street "with Covid".
- tibbydudeza 5y ago
  Or scenes where a white van stops and couple of folks in Hazmat suits jumps out and then proceed to drag infected people away.
  - Symbiote 5y ago
    Not quite "dragged", but this happened to a friend of mine. Her country was on the safe (no isolation) list when her plane landed in China, and she then boarded a long distance, overnight train. Her country then announced their first positive case. When she left the train, two men with hazmat suits and a van were on the platform to meet her. They took her to an isolation hotel room with an alarmed door. (Not an actual lock, as I understand, so she could leave if there were a fire. But an alarmed door.)
  - fidesomnes 5y ago
    > infected supposedly. snatch and grab is never done for anyones safety.
tailspin2019 5y ago
> Literally building a brand new hospital. We built multiple temporary hospitals in the UK too. And albeit not so widely reported, temporary morgues. To be honest I assumed a whole bunch of countries were doing this...
- rataata_jr 5y ago
  Temporary hospitals were a thing here in India as well. Marriage halls, schools and unis were repurposed to have lots of beds for covid patients.
- Retric 5y ago
  Yes, the important bit was they where the canary in the coal mine for the pandemic. However, it’s really difficult to be proactive here as avoiding an issues means people assume it isn’t a problem. Shutdowns likely saved millions of lives in America but as people are only aware of the downsides they see not the horrors that where avoided.
- pjc50 5y ago
  The reporting on this has been very weird. UK news had massive coverage of deaths in Italy, then when it started hitting the UK hard, it went invisible. I'm not sure the UK emergency Nightingale hospitals were actually _used_, since (obviously) you can repurpose a building but you can't just find a few thousand healthcare staff at short notice. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-56327214 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-56327214
  - makomk 5y ago
    I don't think the Nightingales were used much, but that was mostly because the existing hospitals managed to free up more beds than originally anticipated and all the available staff ended up there. Naturally, the government got endless flack for this, as is often the case when a government puts measures into place for a contingency that doesn't come to pass. (Also, relying on freeing up beds may not have been a good decision in hindsight - one of the ways this was achieved was by aggressively kicking people with potential hospital-acquired Covid infections out into care homes full of people at high risk of dying if they caught Covid, with ugly consequences.)
bingohbangoh 5y ago
We had the Navy hospital boat and transformed the Javitz center (where Comic Con happens) to be hospitals. Both went virtually unused. [In NYC]
- ceejayoz 5y ago
  Not because we didn't need them, though. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/nyregion/ny-coronavirus-usns-comfort.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/nyregion/ny-coronavirus-u... > On top of its strict rules preventing people infected with the virus from coming on board, the Navy is also refusing to treat a host of other conditions. Guidelines disseminated to hospitals included a list of 49 medical conditions that would exclude a patient from admittance to the ship. > Ambulances cannot take patients directly to the Comfort; they must first deliver patients to a city hospital for a lengthy evaluation — including a test for the virus — and then pick them up again for transport to the ship. https://www.businessinsider.com/why-nycs-largest-emergency-hospital-javits-center-pretty-much-empty-2020-4 https://www.businessinsider.com/why-nycs-largest-emergency-h... > But much to the frustration of healthcare workers, since that announcement, Javits has taken in nowhere near its capacity. As of April 7, the convention center had admitted only 66 patients. This was due in large part to the strict admission requirements. At first, a patient could only be transferred to Javits if they were convalescing, or in the recovery period. The fear was that Javits didn't have the ICU beds, operating rooms, or equipment necessary to handle patients who might relapse or need surgery because of an underlying condition.
- 8008135 5y ago
  Better to have it and not need it?
fsslrisrchr 5y ago
That and that they closed their industrial heartland made me take COVID seriously at least a month earlier than anyone else. Not much I could do but wait, but at least I didnt find myself rushing for toilet paper (I learned during snowdays in GA that Americans rush for the milk and toilet paper in emergencies)

antiSingularity 5y ago

They also released vidoes of people literally dropping in the street "with Covid".

tibbydudeza 5y ago
Or scenes where a white van stops and couple of folks in Hazmat suits jumps out and then proceed to drag infected people away.
- Symbiote 5y ago
  Not quite "dragged", but this happened to a friend of mine. Her country was on the safe (no isolation) list when her plane landed in China, and she then boarded a long distance, overnight train. Her country then announced their first positive case. When she left the train, two men with hazmat suits and a van were on the platform to meet her. They took her to an isolation hotel room with an alarmed door. (Not an actual lock, as I understand, so she could leave if there were a fire. But an alarmed door.)
- fidesomnes 5y ago
  > infected supposedly. snatch and grab is never done for anyones safety.

tailspin2019 5y ago

> Literally building a brand new hospital. We built multiple temporary hospitals in the UK too. And albeit not so widely reported, temporary morgues. To be honest I assumed a whole bunch of countries were doing this...

rataata_jr 5y ago
Temporary hospitals were a thing here in India as well. Marriage halls, schools and unis were repurposed to have lots of beds for covid patients.
Retric 5y ago
Yes, the important bit was they where the canary in the coal mine for the pandemic. However, it’s really difficult to be proactive here as avoiding an issues means people assume it isn’t a problem. Shutdowns likely saved millions of lives in America but as people are only aware of the downsides they see not the horrors that where avoided.
pjc50 5y ago
The reporting on this has been very weird. UK news had massive coverage of deaths in Italy, then when it started hitting the UK hard, it went invisible. I'm not sure the UK emergency Nightingale hospitals were actually _used_, since (obviously) you can repurpose a building but you can't just find a few thousand healthcare staff at short notice. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-56327214 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-56327214
- makomk 5y ago
  I don't think the Nightingales were used much, but that was mostly because the existing hospitals managed to free up more beds than originally anticipated and all the available staff ended up there. Naturally, the government got endless flack for this, as is often the case when a government puts measures into place for a contingency that doesn't come to pass. (Also, relying on freeing up beds may not have been a good decision in hindsight - one of the ways this was achieved was by aggressively kicking people with potential hospital-acquired Covid infections out into care homes full of people at high risk of dying if they caught Covid, with ugly consequences.)

bingohbangoh 5y ago

We had the Navy hospital boat and transformed the Javitz center (where Comic Con happens) to be hospitals. Both went virtually unused. [In NYC]

ceejayoz 5y ago
Not because we didn't need them, though. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/nyregion/ny-coronavirus-usns-comfort.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/nyregion/ny-coronavirus-u... > On top of its strict rules preventing people infected with the virus from coming on board, the Navy is also refusing to treat a host of other conditions. Guidelines disseminated to hospitals included a list of 49 medical conditions that would exclude a patient from admittance to the ship. > Ambulances cannot take patients directly to the Comfort; they must first deliver patients to a city hospital for a lengthy evaluation — including a test for the virus — and then pick them up again for transport to the ship. https://www.businessinsider.com/why-nycs-largest-emergency-hospital-javits-center-pretty-much-empty-2020-4 https://www.businessinsider.com/why-nycs-largest-emergency-h... > But much to the frustration of healthcare workers, since that announcement, Javits has taken in nowhere near its capacity. As of April 7, the convention center had admitted only 66 patients. This was due in large part to the strict admission requirements. At first, a patient could only be transferred to Javits if they were convalescing, or in the recovery period. The fear was that Javits didn't have the ICU beds, operating rooms, or equipment necessary to handle patients who might relapse or need surgery because of an underlying condition.
8008135 5y ago
Better to have it and not need it?

fsslrisrchr 5y ago

That and that they closed their industrial heartland made me take COVID seriously at least a month earlier than anyone else. Not much I could do but wait, but at least I didnt find myself rushing for toilet paper (I learned during snowdays in GA that Americans rush for the milk and toilet paper in emergencies)