Mobile Morgues Needed In El Paso While Mississippi & North Dakota Hospitals Full
There are seemingly never-ending discussions going on about covid-19 stats and different government policies to deal with covid-19. There are many valid discussions and debates about these things. However, there has been one strain of argument that has irritated me quite a bit.
I don’t follow the covid-19 news obsessively, but I have followed it enough to see numerous doctors and nurses absolutely overwhelmed with what they’ve been going through — they’ve never seen anything like it. This was clear early on, when doctors and nurses in Louisiana and New York City were breaking down in tears and warning people that the situation was much worse than they imagined it would be, and it was clear month after month as nurses and doctors from around the country shared their shock at what was happening — in Florida, Indiana, Texas, Arizona, California, Washington, New York, Tennessee, and beyond.
Nonetheless, many people don’t believe this. They don’t see the outbursts of emotion from these people. They don’t think anything is going on beyond the normal flu. In fact, recently, I’ve been seeing claims that it actually is just the flu, relabeled. Yikes.
As unfortunate as it is, in order to accept what is happening, some of these people probably need either 1) someone in their life getting hit badly with it, or 2) the kind of thing featured in this first video below — hospitals having so many people die from it that they have to roll in mobile morgues or refrigerated trucks to handle all of the people dying so quickly.
This is not the first place that has had this problem, and it surely won’t be the last. Aside from actually needing mobile morgues, some places have been nearing hospital or ICU capacity lately, including North Dakota, Mississippi, and New York City again. This follows other places, like Houston, Texas, running out of beds a few months ago in the first peak.
I have “coronavirus fatigue” — not from getting the virus, but from guarding against it. Everyone I know has coronavirus fatigue. But our best bet as a country and as individuals is to stay vigilant, keep wearing our masks, and keep our physical interactions with others to a minimum. Naturally, the same goes for all of our international readers, some of whom are in a similar boat as Americans and some of whom live in countries where good use of masks, discipline, and a collective spirit have gotten things under control or never faced much outbreak at all (specifically in some Asian countries).
We don’t need to panic. But we should be responsible. We shouldn’t treat this like an annoying fairytale to just ignore, and we should wear good masks.
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