I don't know if it's been covered, but there's a simple mathematical reason why the losses are so steep.
If you buy a stock at $10, and things go bad, the worst that can happen is you lose the $10. On the other hand, if the stock jumps to $1,000, then you've made $990. As long as the stock keeps going up, the potential upside is infinite.
But if you short a stock at $10, that means you have to buy that stock in the future. If the stock goes to $1, then you can fulfill your side of the bargain for cheap, and get to keep the remaining $9. Which is what you're hoping for, but notice that the upside is limited to the size of your investment -- you can never make more than $10. But if the stock goes through the roof, then you're screwed. It doesn't matter how high it rises, you have to buy it. So if it jumps to $1,000, then you just lost $990. The risks are flipped when you short a stock: It's the downside that's potentially infinite.
The hedge funds that shorted the stocks should lose their shirts, and the hedge fund traders who made those decisions should lose their jobs and their reputations, because that would teach the industry a valuable lesson: Shorting stocks is dangerous.