Quote:
Originally Posted by Schnitzel
I can only report on what’s currently going on here in Europe. I believe many, including myself, have underestimated this virus. It’s not the flu, mortality rates have shown that. And the flu will not just go away, just because CoVid has arrived. Hospitals have to deal with both diseases at the same time. Here in Switzerland, a country with one of the best health care systems in the world, some hospitals have already reached their capacity now, and we are basically one week behind Italy. In Italy, hospitals are considering to start using age limits on ventilators, because there are not enough machines available. Older patients would then just be left to die.
I am not worried about myself, because I’m not part of the risk group. I do know however many persons who are. Panic does not help, but effective measures need to be taken on a government level. It is, however, hard to enforce such measures in the Western World in the same way as in China, especially in a population that still underestimated the situation. Life is not the same anymore here. We will see what will happen when the virus hits overcrowded cities like NYC.
Is the US health system up for the task? Is the health system anywhere up for the task?
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I've been telling the posters this in here for a while. Hospitals are going to get swamped. We have 70 million citizens over 60 years old.
We have 10K ventilators in reserve but not that many beds. Maybe 1000 more beds. We will have to set up the vents in high school gyms, hotel rooms etc. But, I think the issue will be not enough Respiratory Therapists to run them all. You cant just put RN's running them. Your off in the slightest pressure/ramp you can injure the lungs and its going to be a slow death for that person.
We are 3 weeks behind Europe. We wasted those 3 weeks with trying to develop our own test and botching it instead of just using the same test the rest of the world uses. Our leadership also thought it was just going away in a few days and played golf.
Mandatory quarantines will never be accepted here but it looks like alot of the public is willing to self-quarantine to protect themselves and others. They seem to be taking this seriously now.