4 ms·

> Most of the nations where these kinds of restrictions are in place aren't in danger of getting their hospitals swamped to that degree. Literally all develope

> Most of the nations where these kinds of restrictions are in place aren't in danger of getting their hospitals swamped to that degree. Literally all developed nations had their hospitals swamped. In western europe this is no longer an issue since many have gotten vaccinated.

choward 5y ago
Literally all developed countries have had some of their hospitals swamped at some point during most flu seasons and yet we don't act like the world is ending every year.
rsj_hn 5y ago
Is that really true? In the U.S., I know Seattle was briefly swamped and NYC was briefly swamped. But you are talking about a few cities being swamped for a few weeks. Not the entire nation's hospitals being swamped for a few months. I remember reading that Arizona hospitals were "overwhelmed" but the only actual data I saw on that was a peak of 90% ICU capacity. There was a story about the maricopa county morgue being too full, but that turned out to be mostly bureaucratic incompetence. The problem might be inefficient load balancing on hospitals, so even if, say, 80% of ICU beds are taken, you will get some hospitals that run out of beds while others have lots of excess capacity and an inability to efficiently share the load. It would be interesting to get systematic data on this, together with some ideas on how to improve load balancing.
_dain_ 5y ago
I seem to remember various huge warehouses and hotels being requisitioned by local governments and medical authorities for a projected mass surge in corona patients, which never materialized. These emergency triage centres sat empty and unused. It was somewhat embarrassing. Yes, some places had temporary surges for which they were unable to cope, early in the pandemic. Wuhan, parts of Italy, New York, a few others. But it never happened in a systematic way. If hospitals truly believed that overcrowding were a looming threat, they would not be laying off nurses as they are in many American localities.

choward 5y ago

Literally all developed countries have had some of their hospitals swamped at some point during most flu seasons and yet we don't act like the world is ending every year.

rsj_hn 5y ago

Is that really true? In the U.S., I know Seattle was briefly swamped and NYC was briefly swamped. But you are talking about a few cities being swamped for a few weeks. Not the entire nation's hospitals being swamped for a few months. I remember reading that Arizona hospitals were "overwhelmed" but the only actual data I saw on that was a peak of 90% ICU capacity. There was a story about the maricopa county morgue being too full, but that turned out to be mostly bureaucratic incompetence. The problem might be inefficient load balancing on hospitals, so even if, say, 80% of ICU beds are taken, you will get some hospitals that run out of beds while others have lots of excess capacity and an inability to efficiently share the load. It would be interesting to get systematic data on this, together with some ideas on how to improve load balancing.

_dain_ 5y ago

I seem to remember various huge warehouses and hotels being requisitioned by local governments and medical authorities for a projected mass surge in corona patients, which never materialized. These emergency triage centres sat empty and unused. It was somewhat embarrassing. Yes, some places had temporary surges for which they were unable to cope, early in the pandemic. Wuhan, parts of Italy, New York, a few others. But it never happened in a systematic way. If hospitals truly believed that overcrowding were a looming threat, they would not be laying off nurses as they are in many American localities.