That's part of it. But, they are also seeing normally healthy people suddenly becoming critically ill.
Some of those may be a reprise of what happened with the "Spanish Flu" in 1918: most of the fatalities in the US were age 20-40. Researchers believe it may have been caused by what is now called a "cykotine storm": where a normal immune system overreacts and drowns the victim with their own fluids in their lungs.
Children hadn't fully developed their immune systems, and older people either had weakened immune systems or latent immunity from something similar that pre-dated the young adults.
The reason the spanish flu killed younger people is because it had a weaker run earlier in the season and older weaker people contracted it, survived, and built a natural immunity to the stronger coming virus. But the main reason it was so bad was WWI had everyone starving and trench warfare is a hyper breeding ground for the virus, then all the soldiers come home and spread it to their respective countries.
Yes, it was the second wave that was contrary to most flu epidemics. The current theory is that people in the trenches with a mild case stayed put, while the severe cases were sent to field hospitals, where it was spread further.
But, I was referring to why normally healthy people were vulnerable. The "cytokine storm" theory was developed relatively recently, after researchers transfected animals with the virus from frozen victims, and they suffered rapid progressive respiratory failure.
I can't find the article now, but yesterday I read one that reported some of the younger patients in Italy fit this model.
Yes, that's another reason. Due to socialized medicine limiting investment in infrastructure, Italy has less critical care beds per 1M population than most Western countries.
As a result, they are having to decide who gets life-saving critical care, and who is left to die:
This is what the Trump administration (and state governments) are trying to prevent. We have more critical care beds, but on average about 2/3rd of them are already occupied by people with other serious illness or injury. And those other serious illnesses and injury will continue to happen, and will compete with this virus.
Yep -- Italy welcome the dirty into their country and rolled around with them like they were groomed for it --- same with Germany and other high import zones, those numbers are under reported and no capacity to deal with this
I think it has more to do with not having enough qualified medical personnel to handle the really bad cases and they have a large elderly population. They are also a lot of people packed into a small country, relative to the size of the US.
Something I think a lot of people don't realize is that the really good doctors, the specialists that are great. They don't stay in countries with socialized medicine. They come to the US to work. The doctor that put in my PED was from Sweden. He's the Director of Interventional Radiology and a Professor at a prestigious uni in my state. He didn't stay in Sweden. He's a great doctor and he's here, saving lives in the US, not in Sweden.
Staff shortages are a big part, but certain equipment is in short supply.
Italy has reported that 10% of their hospital admissions that tested positive for COVID-19 have required mechanical ventilators, and they don't have enough.
The US reportedly has about 160,000. The UK is so worried they won't have enough, they are asking manufacturers to retool production lines to produce them.
Italy is in bad shape because they ignored the problem until it got out of control.
Trump is trying to avoid that fate.
Italy is in bad shape because their people are filthy and unfit
That's part of it. But, they are also seeing normally healthy people suddenly becoming critically ill.
Some of those may be a reprise of what happened with the "Spanish Flu" in 1918: most of the fatalities in the US were age 20-40. Researchers believe it may have been caused by what is now called a "cykotine storm": where a normal immune system overreacts and drowns the victim with their own fluids in their lungs.
Children hadn't fully developed their immune systems, and older people either had weakened immune systems or latent immunity from something similar that pre-dated the young adults.
The reason the spanish flu killed younger people is because it had a weaker run earlier in the season and older weaker people contracted it, survived, and built a natural immunity to the stronger coming virus. But the main reason it was so bad was WWI had everyone starving and trench warfare is a hyper breeding ground for the virus, then all the soldiers come home and spread it to their respective countries.
Yes, it was the second wave that was contrary to most flu epidemics. The current theory is that people in the trenches with a mild case stayed put, while the severe cases were sent to field hospitals, where it was spread further.
But, I was referring to why normally healthy people were vulnerable. The "cytokine storm" theory was developed relatively recently, after researchers transfected animals with the virus from frozen victims, and they suffered rapid progressive respiratory failure.
I can't find the article now, but yesterday I read one that reported some of the younger patients in Italy fit this model.
Simple lie which you can easily find online.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/mayor-florence-encouraged-italians-hug-chinese-pandemic-hit
Because of that, and socialized medicine.
Don't be like Italy.
Yes, that's another reason. Due to socialized medicine limiting investment in infrastructure, Italy has less critical care beds per 1M population than most Western countries.
As a result, they are having to decide who gets life-saving critical care, and who is left to die:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/03/14/elderly-left-isolated-abandoned-italy-death-rate-soars/
This is what the Trump administration (and state governments) are trying to prevent. We have more critical care beds, but on average about 2/3rd of them are already occupied by people with other serious illness or injury. And those other serious illnesses and injury will continue to happen, and will compete with this virus.
Yep -- Italy welcome the dirty into their country and rolled around with them like they were groomed for it --- same with Germany and other high import zones, those numbers are under reported and no capacity to deal with this
wtf is this satire?
I think it has more to do with not having enough qualified medical personnel to handle the really bad cases and they have a large elderly population. They are also a lot of people packed into a small country, relative to the size of the US.
Something I think a lot of people don't realize is that the really good doctors, the specialists that are great. They don't stay in countries with socialized medicine. They come to the US to work. The doctor that put in my PED was from Sweden. He's the Director of Interventional Radiology and a Professor at a prestigious uni in my state. He didn't stay in Sweden. He's a great doctor and he's here, saving lives in the US, not in Sweden.
Staff shortages are a big part, but certain equipment is in short supply.
Italy has reported that 10% of their hospital admissions that tested positive for COVID-19 have required mechanical ventilators, and they don't have enough.
The US reportedly has about 160,000. The UK is so worried they won't have enough, they are asking manufacturers to retool production lines to produce them.
Did they ignore it or did they just not do enough? Is the USA doing enough? I honestly don't know.
I think it was a combination of both. Here's an interesting video from Italians -- a message to themselves, from 10 days in the "future":
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nMY0-4p9P-M