In an era that will see more pandemics, additional hospital capacity means fewer will die and more survive – Survival is a good thing for humans.
One of the interesting set of charts on the Johns Hopkins COVIS-19 site are those showing the national supply of ICU beds and percent of them occupied by coronavirus and non-coronavirus patients.
My own state, New Jersey, has more than doubled the number of ICU beds available since the pandemic started — and has kept all of them online even as the pandemic subsided. If we have another round of this, New Jersey seems to have the resources to deal with it. New Jersey was caught early in the virus outbreak, but has had ample capacity for subsequent waves.
Other states are doing something different. Possibly reflecting rural hospital closings, the number of available ICU beds is declining as the number of coronavirus cases subsides. These states, like New Jersey, expanded capacity as the pandemic ramped up, but are now contracting capacity as the pandemic ebbs. Is that a good…
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