Optimizing a system for increased efficiency comes with a corresponding increase in fragility. Health systems in many places are optimized for efficiency, and

Optimizing a system for increased efficiency comes with a corresponding increase in fragility. Health systems in many places are optimized for efficiency, and on top of that were at or over capacity even pre-pandemic. I find it shameful that this is still not addressed properly and publicly. If enough resources had been spent on addressing this issue, and doing everything we can to overprovision capacity (double healthcare worker compensation could be one part of that, for example), we should be able to handle this by now. If, under normal condition, healthcare workers had a lot of slack, facilities were underused, and pay was higher, the situation wouldn’t be so grave. (wasn’t there an Ask HN thread the other day where many self-reported reviving cushy pay for only doing 2-8h of actual work in a given week, and others responding with how that’s all good?)