Covid, the "lockdowns" etc.

[HappyDaze]

If you would like to check the actual status of hospital beds and usage, here is one tool.  You might find that not everything you hear is accurate...

https://protect-public.hhs.gov/pages/hospital-utilization

Your own source shows 86% inpatient capacity and 91% ICU capacity (with almost half off the latter being from Covid) in Florida. That's also going from licensed beds, which can exceed staffed beds (few hospitals can consistently maintain staffing for 100% of their licensed beds).

[Pat]

If you would like to check the actual status of hospital beds and usage, here is one tool.  You might find that not everything you hear is accurate...

https://protect-public.hhs.gov/pages/hospital-utilization

So if I'm reading this right 77 of 100 beds in the US are occupied and 1 in 7 of those (10%) are from the coof?  Not terrible in the aggregate but I imagine you could have bad situations locally.

If you look at the ICU beds, it's still 77% in total, but about 1 in 4 (23%) are covid-19.

And yes, it's always about regional capacity. That's why horror stories about individual hospitals, aggregate numbers across the entire nation, and counts of individual hospitals at capacity are misleading. EMS can take people to different hospitals, but only so far. So a tiny hospital with 7/7 ICU beds in use doesn't mean much when there's a massive regional trauma center a few miles away with beds to spare. Conversely, if that regional system is close to capacity, that's really bad. A measure of how many regions are close to capacity would be the most useful metric.

Looks like the entire US South and parts of the West is at fairly high capacity.

[Eirikrautha]

If you would like to check the actual status of hospital beds and usage, here is one tool.  You might find that not everything you hear is accurate...

https://protect-public.hhs.gov/pages/hospital-utilization

Your own source shows 86% inpatient capacity and 91% ICU capacity (with almost half off the latter being from Covid) in Florida. That's also going from licensed beds, which can exceed staffed beds (few hospitals can consistently maintain staffing for 100% of their licensed beds).

ICU occupancy rates generally are designed around constant 75% occupancy (less means they aren't profitable).  Florida is the only state in the nation reporting moderate Flu activity (including three outbreaks of RSV and a higher than normal level of parainfluenzas), which may be driving higher hospitalization rates in addition to Covid.  The statistics from the HHS say that only 27% of general beds are from Covid.

[HappyDaze]

If you would like to check the actual status of hospital beds and usage, here is one tool.  You might find that not everything you hear is accurate...

https://protect-public.hhs.gov/pages/hospital-utilization

Your own source shows 86% inpatient capacity and 91% ICU capacity (with almost half off the latter being from Covid) in Florida. That's also going from licensed beds, which can exceed staffed beds (few hospitals can consistently maintain staffing for 100% of their licensed beds).

ICU occupancy rates generally are designed around constant 75% occupancy (less means they aren't profitable).  Florida is the only state in the nation reporting moderate Flu activity (including three outbreaks of RSV and a higher than normal level of parainfluenzas), which may be driving higher hospitalization rates in addition to Covid.  The statistics from the HHS say that only 27% of general beds are from Covid.

I said almost half the ICU beds in Florida were occupied by Covid patients, not half of the inpatient beds.

[Eirikrautha]

If you would like to check the actual status of hospital beds and usage, here is one tool.  You might find that not everything you hear is accurate...

https://protect-public.hhs.gov/pages/hospital-utilization

Your own source shows 86% inpatient capacity and 91% ICU capacity (with almost half off the latter being from Covid) in Florida. That's also going from licensed beds, which can exceed staffed beds (few hospitals can consistently maintain staffing for 100% of their licensed beds).

ICU occupancy rates generally are designed around constant 75% occupancy (less means they aren't profitable).  Florida is the only state in the nation reporting moderate Flu activity (including three outbreaks of RSV and a higher than normal level of parainfluenzas), which may be driving higher hospitalization rates in addition to Covid.  The statistics from the HHS say that only 27% of general beds are from Covid.

I said almost half the ICU beds in Florida were occupied by Covid patients, not half of the inpatient beds.

And I said 27% of the inpatient beds were Covid, not the ICU beds.

[Garry G]

The latest coronavirus may have displaced the various flu bugs, but assuming that's not true, I fully expect we'll see lockdowns during the next strong flu season.

Welcome to the new normal.

That is entirely possible. I can't speak yo the US system, it's probably fabulous, but the winter flu virus puts the NHS in an awful position. Coronavirus on top of that could stretch it beyond crisis.

This is one of those things you may not be worried about, it's just the sniffles likesay, but you don't want to be hit by a car or jumped by a jakie during this time. Remember that drunk drivers and random jakies are much more committed n vee the festive season..

Basically ICU beds are already full in the winter and any of us could randomly need one. There's no need of a big, or even small, conspiracy for any government to consider a lockdown during the worst period.

The US system may be flawed and absurdly expensive, but it's not as threadbare as the UK's. Per capita, there are way more ICU beds. If you think a strong flu season in the UK may justify a lockdown because of a lack of ICU beds, then the NHS is absurdly under capacity.

Incidentally, I'm seeing more reports of hospitals being overwhelmed in the US than during any of the previous waves. During the peak of the last wave, you could count the entire nation's worth on one hand (LA had a few). Today, NPR was reporting up to 53 hospitals at capacity in at least one hard-hit state (might have been NY, but I'm not sure), but they didn't make it clear whether they were talking about ICU beds (limited ability to flex), or general beds (not as hard a limit). They were also talking about mobilizing the national stockpile of respirators (to GA maybe?). Wish they spent more time on facts and less on propaganda.

The NHS is in a bit of a state due to a decades worth of Tory austerity. Since 2017 it's dropped right down in the rankings for the Commonwealth Fund.

https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/2021/aug/mirror-mirror-2021-reflecting-poorly

[Ratman_tf]

Obama is such a cool, guy he gives away presents on his birthday.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9891873/63-people-Marthas-Vineyard-tested-positive-Covid-Obamas-60th-birthday-bash.html

[consolcwby]

Obama is such a cool, guy he gives away presents on his birthday.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9891873/63-people-Marthas-Vineyard-tested-positive-Covid-Obamas-60th-birthday-bash.html

Yeah. When he was President he gave all of the U.S. AIDS, and now the patient is dying. So, what's your point?! 

[Snowman0147]

Obama is such a cool, guy he gives away presents on his birthday.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9891873/63-people-Marthas-Vineyard-tested-positive-Covid-Obamas-60th-birthday-bash.html

If there not afraid of covid, then why should we?

No seriously think on that!  These ARE the very people that brought the lockdowns, told us to stay in doors, and trying to force us to take vaccines that are NOT PROVEN.  They put so many restrictions on us YET constantly break their own rules.  If it is as deadly as they say it was these would be the very FIRST to bunker up and let the world rot.  Instead they are having parties with hundreds of people in close proximity.  THEY KNOW THIS IS A JOKE!!!!!

[oggsmash]

Obama is such a cool, guy he gives away presents on his birthday.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9891873/63-people-Marthas-Vineyard-tested-positive-Covid-Obamas-60th-birthday-bash.html

If there not afraid of covid, then why should we?

No seriously think on that!  These ARE the very people that brought the lockdowns, told us to stay in doors, and trying to force us to take vaccines that are NOT PROVEN.  They put so many restrictions on us YET constantly break their own rules.  If it is as deadly as they say it was these would be the very FIRST to bunker up and let the world rot.  Instead they are having parties with hundreds of people in close proximity.  THEY KNOW THIS IS A JOKE!!!!!

  Well...they also are very staunch supporters of putting in climate control protocols and restricting carbon footprints to prevent the tides of the ocean from drowning the coast.  Now of course he has a 30 acre estate on the shore, with parties where people private jet in, being served by hundreds of servants who are making quite a carbon mess to get it done.  I think anything those fucks say is solely for the purpose of increasing their power.  Period.

[Snowman0147]

They built a floor for the tents and it looks to be wood.  How much carbon you think the trees absord and now think how much is added to air to make that temporary floor.  They are killing the solution and adding to the problem.

[Kiero]

The NHS is in a bit of a state due to a decades worth of Tory austerity. Since 2017 it's dropped right down in the rankings for the Commonwealth Fund.

https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/2021/aug/mirror-mirror-2021-reflecting-poorly

The NHS is in a state because the management is utterly incompetent, and the organisation is run for the benefit of the staff first. No surprise that despite being the "envy of the world" literally no one anywhere else has copied it.

[Garry G]

The NHS is in a bit of a state due to a decades worth of Tory austerity. Since 2017 it's dropped right down in the rankings for the Commonwealth Fund.

https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/2021/aug/mirror-mirror-2021-reflecting-poorly

The NHS is in a state because the management is utterly incompetent, and the organisation is run for the benefit of the staff first. No surprise that despite being the "envy of the world" literally no one anywhere else has copied it.

You been reading Taxpayers Alliance stuff again? You really should lay off it, rots your mind.

There is bad management in some trusts, it's inevitable. OTOH the cuts in funding in the last decade are very real including pay freezes for those oh so lucky staff. The significant fall in rankings in the Commonwealth Report is due to this. You're talking nonsense.

[Kiero]

You been reading Taxpayers Alliance stuff again? You really should lay off it, rots your mind.

There is bad management in some trusts, it's inevitable. OTOH the cuts in funding in the last decade are very real including pay freezes for those oh so lucky staff. The significant fall in rankings in the Commonwealth Report is due to this. You're talking nonsense.

Arbitrarily cutting the number of beds to "accommodate social distancing" is just one of the many incompetent acts of the communist shit-show that is the NHS.

Pay freezes? Do you have any idea what it's like out in the real world, beyond the coddled public sector? They didn't stop hiring diversity managers on ridiculous salaries in all this time, so spare me the bollocks about pay.

[HappyDaze]

Just read about some tourists in Hawaii that faked vaccinatio  cards to bypass a 10 day quarantine and are facing thousands of dollars in fines and/or jail time. Some people that faked vaccination cards to enter Canada are facing much higher fines.