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Preventing the spread of an infectious respiratory virus is a fools errand and we’ve known this forever. No amount of authoritarianism is enough to stop the spr

Preventing the spread of an infectious respiratory virus is a fools errand and we’ve known this forever. No amount of authoritarianism is enough to stop the spread. The mitigation efforts were always to avoid overrunning the hospitals, which we have managed easily.

halfmatthalfcat 5y ago
Take a look around right now, multiple states are at ICU capacity. You don’t need to overrun the hospital system but under sustained stress, you quickly degrade service. Not to mention all the burnout and people leaving the field on top of it all.
- longthrow1 5y ago
  Icu beds are a function of staffing long before equipment is a limitation. We've fired nurses and not rebuilt over the last 18 months. If nothing has been done to address staffing for seasonal diseases in that time, it's either incompetence or by design. This is why hospitals run at or near capacity all year round and have capacity issues every flu season. It's a business decision. It also happens to be easily exploited by the narrative. You can go back and look at 10+ years of UK NHS "hospitals desperately overwhelmed" annual articles. Just because you hadn't heard of it before doesn't mean it isn't normal.
  - throwaway0a5e 5y ago
    I'm not sure why this is down-voted (but I have my suspicions). ICUs are f-ed because hospital's business models are f-ed. Without people voluntarily electing to get minor surgery and other elective services their balance sheets get turned inside out and they cut staffing. The fact that we had a massive uptick in people who need laborious ICU care (because covid) at the same time that people more or less stopped voluntarily going to hospitals was a double whammy.
  - halfmatthalfcat 5y ago
    The fact that it happens a lot doesn't make it any less true now and the fact we've had sustained stress on the system for a year and a half isn't typical. In the US, they've relaxed many guidelines and allowed student nurses without gaining licensure yet to practice because of the need [1]. [1] https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20200327.714037/full/ https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20200327.71403...
    - AndrewBissell 5y ago
      This all pales in comparison to the mandate Biden announced last night for all healthcare staff at facilities which take Medicare/Medicaid to be required to take the vaccine. Probably a good 20% of our nursing staff is at direct risk of being lost because of that new measure.
tomrod 5y ago
Measles Mumps Smallpox SARS1 MERS Chickenpox Tuberculosis To name a few. Not a fools errand. Important to get vaccinated to prevent worse variants.

halfmatthalfcat 5y ago

Take a look around right now, multiple states are at ICU capacity. You don’t need to overrun the hospital system but under sustained stress, you quickly degrade service. Not to mention all the burnout and people leaving the field on top of it all.

longthrow1 5y ago
Icu beds are a function of staffing long before equipment is a limitation. We've fired nurses and not rebuilt over the last 18 months. If nothing has been done to address staffing for seasonal diseases in that time, it's either incompetence or by design. This is why hospitals run at or near capacity all year round and have capacity issues every flu season. It's a business decision. It also happens to be easily exploited by the narrative. You can go back and look at 10+ years of UK NHS "hospitals desperately overwhelmed" annual articles. Just because you hadn't heard of it before doesn't mean it isn't normal.
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  I'm not sure why this is down-voted (but I have my suspicions). ICUs are f-ed because hospital's business models are f-ed. Without people voluntarily electing to get minor surgery and other elective services their balance sheets get turned inside out and they cut staffing. The fact that we had a massive uptick in people who need laborious ICU care (because covid) at the same time that people more or less stopped voluntarily going to hospitals was a double whammy.
- halfmatthalfcat 5y ago
  The fact that it happens a lot doesn't make it any less true now and the fact we've had sustained stress on the system for a year and a half isn't typical. In the US, they've relaxed many guidelines and allowed student nurses without gaining licensure yet to practice because of the need [1]. [1] https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20200327.714037/full/ https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20200327.71403...
  - AndrewBissell 5y ago
    This all pales in comparison to the mandate Biden announced last night for all healthcare staff at facilities which take Medicare/Medicaid to be required to take the vaccine. Probably a good 20% of our nursing staff is at direct risk of being lost because of that new measure.

tomrod 5y ago

Measles Mumps Smallpox SARS1 MERS Chickenpox Tuberculosis To name a few. Not a fools errand. Important to get vaccinated to prevent worse variants.