[Farm93]

Things are at a breaking point. Many doctors, nurses, and staff doing work outside of their usual scope of practice to take care of this overwhelming volume of patients. I think there is a very admirable sense of duty amongst most HCWs, but it is obvious that our normal high quality care will be compromised if this keeps up.

There will be a lot of healthcare workers with PTSD after this is done as well. I suspect a lot of intensivists will look to do something else after the pandemic. Being in the ICU is a brief interlude from my usual duties, but seeing this shit every day for so long.....I would definitely be looking for a change once the pandemic is over.

All of this feels true.  The SoCal system is bursting at the seams right now.  The weather is decent in SoCal so field hospitals can create more viable beds, but that doesn't help the system get more staff.    In most of the world the fatality rate moves up when the staff resources are stretched, so the recent move up has been a troubling trend.   This is all something those often hated county health officials cried about pre-Thanksgiving, but a lot of people apparently had to eat turkey with relatives.   :(

Feels like the fatality rate could start climbing in the USA over the next 2-3 weeks as in some places in the USA they are making very tough calls already.   Hopefully as we get to late January the death rates will fall thanks to SiP efforts in at least a few states now, and vaccine efforts for LTCF next week.   Those two will be key as without those efforts Christmas could accelerate the already troubling case growth rates.

[Farm93]

Things are at a breaking point. Many doctors, nurses, and staff doing work outside of their usual scope of practice to take care of this overwhelming volume of patients. I think there is a very admirable sense of duty amongst most HCWs, but it is obvious that our normal high quality care will be compromised if this keeps up.

There will be a lot of healthcare workers with PTSD after this is done as well. I suspect a lot of intensivists will look to do something else after the pandemic. Being in the ICU is a brief interlude from my usual duties, but seeing this shit every day for so long.....I would definitely be looking for a change once the pandemic is over.

All of this feels true.  The SoCal system is bursting at the seams right now.  The weather is decent in SoCal so field hospitals can create more viable beds, but that doesn't help the system get more staff.    In most of the world the fatality rate moves up when the staff resources are stretched, so the recent move up has been a troubling trend.   This is all something those often hated county health officials cried about pre-Thanksgiving, but a lot of people apparently had to eat turkey with relatives.   :(

Feels like the fatality rate could start climbing in the USA over the next 2-3 weeks as in some places in the USA they are making very tough calls already.   Hopefully as we get to late January the death rates will fall thanks to SiP efforts in at least a few states now, and vaccine efforts for LTCF next week.   Those two will be key as without those efforts Christmas could accelerate the already troubling case growth rates.