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A point about “capacity.” There’s capacity and there’s capacity. There’s a surge beyond capacity that leads to formal government-directed rationing of life support. That’s the extreme end and apocalyptic in scope. Then there’s the surge beyond usual practices. We are already
there. Outcomes are as good as they can be with this terrible disease in surge beyond usual practices. It’s miserable and risky for healthcare workers but outcomes for patients don’t suffer (although people die at home of other illnesses for fear of entering hospital). And then
there’s surge beyond reasonable capacity which we are poised to hit, and which occurs well before government rationing. At that point people with COVID have worse outcomes, for more than they would otherwise. People without COVID aren’t able to access care and treatment and
will also suffer. The simplistic tallies of “capacity” on websites hide a lot of preventable misery and death. It’s true we are facing inevitable tragic trade offs while others are of our own creation. But let’s not lie to ourselves as we ponder the trade offs.
