Quote:
Originally Posted by S=kBlogW
I keep seeing headlines like these in the media:
Florida hospitals are overrun as state fights one of the worst Covid outbreaks in the U.S.
The fear merchants in the media are using the same tricks they deployed during the last surge. They find a few hospitals that are at 100% capacity or beyond, and write the article to imply its all hospitals.
I like to check John Hopkins website for accurate data.
Weekly Hospitalization Trends - Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center
You can hover your cursor over each week to get the 7 day moving average. For the week ending yesterday (Aug 15) Florida shows 91% of ICU beds occupied, which is busy but they normally run at 85%. The ICU beds occupied by covid patients is less than 50%, so hospitals are busy treating all kinds of patients.
What about the entire US?
Weekly Hospitalization Trends - Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center
Total ICU beds occupied = 76%
Covid patients occupy 22% of all ICU beds available
The Florida Delta surge will peak fairly soon and then start going down, just like last summer. Now the Delta surge will start happening up north as it gets cooler. We'll see if they write the same panic inducing reports when that happens. |
ICU beds need to be available for all the people who have other events such as heart attacks and accidents. The FL plot clearly shows how the Covid surge is pushing out other users. FL is blessed with lots of ICU beds due to having lots of old people and many hospitals. But the graph clearly shows that this surge is bigger than those in the past. AND, I have read that Covid ICU patients require more staff. So besides the actual bed and equipment you have to have staff. I think doctors consider running at 91% of total capacity and nearly 50% are Covid a dire situation.