“The Covid outbreak is so bad in Washington state that hospitals are running out of intensive care beds,” CNBC reported on Wednesday, August 25, 2021 (read story here).
This mirrors the situation in other states, where the surging Delta variant — which now accounts for nearly all U.S. Covid-19 cases — is overwhelming hospitals and medical staffs.
At Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, the state’s major trauma center, the facility’s ER director said there are no critical care beds for Covid-19 patients anywhere in the state. The state health department said all hospitals in the state are “stressed, stretched and strained.” Another state official said the state’s case counts are “as high as they’ve ever been.”
Washington has relatively high vaccination rates, with some counties exceeding 90% of the eligible population, but 95% of the state’s Covid-19 hospital patients are unvaccinated.
The message from this is clear: The holdouts are at extreme risk, and are causing the run on ICU beds.
Understanding of the virus, and the virus itself, are both evolving. The Delta mutation is much more contagious than earlier variants. Vaccinated people can get infected and infect others, so masks and social distancing are still necessary for limiting its spread, but unvaccinated people are at least 29 times as likely to end up hospitalized. No vaccine, no mask, no precautions? You’re asking for it.
Why so many people are still so stupid and reckless about this is beyond understanding. At least in this state our public officials aren’t exacerbating the pandemic by pursuing policies that put everyone at risk.
The problem is simply this virus shows us the true state of Americas medical health policies. It is a system where money talks, and policy makers are unwilling to take to task the medical community and insist the staff, have an appropriate number of beds including ICU beds should a disease outbreak occur. There are not beds and staff because money talks and our medical system is more about bottom lines than adequate public health. Any serious plane accident or bus accident typically hammer an areas medical systems, and nothing is done to improve the situation. In Washington state a large earthquake is extremely possible and even a moderate one will impact our hospitals beyond the Covid challenge. A 8,9, or 10 all possible scenarios will be nightmares.