The sad truth about COVID-19 is that the American health care system, and possibly global Western medicine, was terrified of the understaffing and poor manageme

The sad truth about COVID-19 is that the American health care system, and possibly global Western medicine, was terrified of the understaffing and poor management at hospitals. The whole bit about "flatten the curve" and "don't overcrowd the hospitals" wasn't about crowding at all, but because there weren't enough physicians and support staff to handle increasing patient numbers. Health care has been a booming growth industry, and COVID-19 gave it a literal shot in the arm. Facilities are popping up like mushrooms, especially those that serve the "seriously mentally ill" and there's a whole continuum of facilities to do that, from acute inpatient to discreetly unlabeled outpatient clinics. Health care is expanding and encompassing more and more, while at the same time it is tightly integrating to provide "one-stop shopping" of comprehensive services under a single umbrella. My insurance carrier owns a chain of pharmacies, leaving nothing to chance: the more ultra-processed food and booze they can sell, the more people come in the front door of their PCPs and addiction treatments. The more lousy condoms and "95%" contraception they can sell, the more OB/GYN business for unplanned pregnancies. However it seems that there's a perfect storm of rational people being disillusioned by this sort of "health care" that they don't really feel like working in the field, plus gatekeeping and artificial limits on medical graduates. The physicians I've interacted with are burned out and turning extremely cynical. "Verge of collapse" is quite a charitable assessment.