It’s the hospitalizations, Stupid
For all those clueless politicians out there (not just Trump), the fatality rate & panic caused by this coronavirus aren’t the most terrifying things because “IT’S THE HOSPITALIZATIONS, STUPID”.
This coronavirus is different from the flu because it specifically targets the lungs hence its very high 20% hospitalization rate. When this coronavirus spreads unchecked, too many patients who cannot breathe require hospitalizations at the same time. The hospitals get overwhelmed and literally break down.
When the hospitals break down, even minor conditions like infection, appendicitis, bone fracture can become serious or fatal because there aren’t enough resources to identify, treat the non-coronavirus cases. Essentially our world-class healthcare systems are degraded to poor developing world standards where easily treatable non-coronavirus conditions suddenly become fatal. Then we are all truly screwed!!!
It’s still manageable even if most of the population gets coronavirus ONLY IF the hospitalizations are spread out over a much much longer period of time.
That’s why SLOWING the spread is so important and all that starts with testing, identifying and isolating the contagious cases even if they r healthy and showing little symptoms. Otherwise it will spread rapidly through the population like wildfire and overwhelm the doctors, nurses, hospitals and crippling the entire healthcare system.
That’s why China and Italy were forced to lockdown its population because the coronavirus was spreading too quickly. Currently in some Italian hospitals, they r so overwhelmed that young patients w/ multiple severe conditions or those over 65 are just left to die if they go into cardiac arrest. It’s terribly demoralizing & scary for the doctors, nurses but what choice do they have?
Worse things probably happened or are happening in China & Iran but we’ll never know because of the media restrictions/blackout. Many doctors now fear that the US is several weeks away from becoming like China, Iran or Italy.
So when you see doctors giving grave, apocalyptic warnings about the coronavirus, don’t blame them for inciting panic because that panic is required to push our political leaders to take the necessary correct action. Right now, the real problem is indifference, not panic.
