To be clear, they are *not* overwhelmed now. This directive is in *anticipation* of having traditional capacity (no hospital ships, no converted convention centers, no cooperating facilities in other counties) overwhelmed.

This isn't a situation...

1/ https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/01/05/953444637/l-a-paramedics-told-not-to-transport-some-patients-with-low-chance-of-survival

...in which there are no options left and paramedics are tragically forced to revive patients in the field.

A reasonable person might well then ask:

"Why are they doing this now? Doesn't a hospital have more advanced live-saving technologies which paramedics do not have?"

2/

This would be an excellent question.

One might also ask:

"Why, if they are unlikely to survive (as the NPR headline suggests), would this impact decisions presumably made in order to save bed space? Dead people don't take up beds."

This would be another excellent question. 3/

Answers may be suggested by a revealing quote from Dr. Christina Ghaly, director of @LACHealthSrvs:

"[We] are emphasizing the fact that transporting these patients arrested leads to very poor outcomes. We knew that already and we just don't want to impact our hospitals."

4/

The phrase "poor outcomes" is quite suggestive, especially given what this pandemic has revealed about the ableist assumptions coming from so many in the medical and public health professions.

It is impossible to know for sure, of course, but it is likely that she and...

5/

...others mean that patients who are likely to survive cardiac arrest for the during of an ambulance ride are likely to be disabled in ways which lead them to judge that a limited number of beds should be given to able-bodied patients.

If there are better explanations...

6/

...for this policy, I'd genuinely like to hear them. I honestly hope I'm wrong about this.

But if there are not better explanations for this, then the proper spotlight should be shone on the ableist values driving the ghastly decision-making of @LACHealthSrvs.

/fin