Why isn't there a shortage of hospital resources during a typical flu season?

Was going to come back and say essentially this. In addition to the excellent post by gully much, I don't much to add, other than I'm sorry to the OP if my initial response came across as snide. I'm just exhausted and frustrated by all the "it's just a flu, bro" trolls here and in real life. Such an uninformed and fatuously cavalier attitude towards this is what caused the country not to take this seriously when we actually had a chance to contain it.

Fugu-

Thanks for sharing some information on this situation. I have read that many teenagers don't have an enzyme that is necessary and needed for the Corvid 19 virus to infect them, is that true?

Second question- if two or three teenage runners in an area that has few to zero positive Corona tests would go out for a run together and stay six feet apart for the majority of the run, and don't touch each other while running or after finishing the run, and don't touch anything while running, and don't touch others while running, how might they become infected?

How long can the virus live on clothing and does cold impact it (thinking below freezing) ?

Thanks in advance for your responses.

I wonder this too. Right now Covid deaths are being over reported and flu deaths underreported. Oftentimes someone with the flu is hospitalized and gets pneumonia then dies. The coroner often lists cause of death as pneumonia and sometimes mentions the flu, sometimes not. Right now EVERY person who dies and also tests positive for Covid is being listed as a victim of the virus. Maybe they also had the flu or were in heart failure or had stage 4 cancer, but covid is being listed as cause of death.

My wife works in a hospital. It’s specifically ventilators and masks they lack.

Corona is an airborne respiratory virus that specifically attacks the lungs. This is why they need lots of ventilators and masks. Only those without a flu shot wear masks when they are on a patient floor. We have obviously don’t have a corona shot so everyone needs a mask.

gilt wrote:

Tribe wrote:

+2. Really great post. And add that corona epicenters like NYC are seeing even larger relative surges.

+4. Thank you for your succinct answer. This is what I was looking for (other posters' snide replies be damned)

The only question now is :

how many people are going to hospital out of paranoia from constant media doomsday reporting?

This is a question?

- people are immune to the flu

- there are vaccines for the flu

- so the need to be highly sanitized is not a concern

You catch this, then you have a high chance of becoming extremely ill, and dying from that illness.

There all kinds of medicines and vaccines to combat the flu.

There is zero to combat this... zero.

gully much? wrote:

[quote]Giles Corey wrote:

800,000 Americans hospitalized with the flu each year.

No stories of hospitals being overwhelmed.

Covid -- hard to get a hard number but surely no more than 20k to 30k hospitalized in Amercia so far.

All sorts of stories of hospitals being overwhelmed.

The number is closer to 400,000 being hospitalized each year. 800,000 is the extreme end of the range not often seen.

This season, there were 310,000 hospitalizations as of 3/5.

You help make my point. Some years 400,000 hospitalizations due to the flu while a recent year had 800,000. Yet no 24/7 in the media about shortages.

How can we handle an extra 400,000 flu cases one year, but not 25,000 Covid cases this year?

Not at all (it didn't). I can understand your frustration, and how my question may have been misinterpreted as bait to argument.

There are a few hospitals being overwhelmed because the cases are concentrated in a few areas. 95% of the hospitals in US are currently overstaffed because so many patients are cancelling regular appointments.

run more not less wrote:

There are a few hospitals being overwhelmed because the cases are concentrated in a few areas. 95% of the hospitals in US are currently overstaffed because so many patients are cancelling regular appointments.

Source?

GOML wrote:

Because. This. Isn’t. Just. A. Bad. Flu.

It’s much worse.

Repeat that as necessary until it sinks in.

Signed,

A frustrated physician

Also, NONE of the other illnesses that happen are not happening because of the Coronavirus. Hospitals always run fairly close to capacity. This is an unexpected bump in demand that easily is overwhelming some hospitals. Also, the extra demand can’t be shunted off to another nearby hospital because they are experiencing the same increasing demand for beds.

Great post. Thanks

Icouldbeyourmom wrote:

I wonder this too. Right now Covid deaths are being over reported and flu deaths underreported...

You are wrong. Someone who actually knows what they're talking about already addressed this upthread.

Help me to understand wrote:

Fugu-

Thanks for sharing some information on this situation. I have read that many teenagers don't have an enzyme that is necessary and needed for the Corvid 19 virus to infect them, is that true?

Second question- if two or three teenage runners in an area that has few to zero positive Corona tests would go out for a run together and stay six feet apart for the majority of the run, and don't touch each other while running or after finishing the run, and don't touch anything while running, and don't touch others while running, how might they become infected?

How long can the virus live on clothing and does cold impact it (thinking below freezing) ?

I have not seen any answers to my questions. Just trying to gather some facts and better understand this situation.

Thanks in advance for your responses.

QFE

Tribe wrote:

best post ever wrote:

+1

+2. Really great post. And add that corona epicenters like NYC are seeing even larger relative surges.

Wait. 360,000 hospitalizations for the flu totals only 90,000 days of hospital care? 6 hours is the average stay?

...and 25,000 covid hospitalizations last week, with only 2,900 serious/critical cases reported?

coronasceptic wrote:

Wait. 360,000 hospitalizations for the flu totals only 90,000 days of hospital care? 6 hours is the average stay?

Try reading the post again. The estimate of 90,000 days of hospital care was what would be generated by ONE WEEK of flu cases.

This explains why so many people seem to be skeptical of whether coronavirus is really a big deal: they're morons.

gully much? makes some really good points as to why this is different and also additive to the flu response put on by hospitals. There is one other major reason why hospitals do not get overwhelmed by the flu. We have a fairly effective vaccination for flu. The protocols that have to be put in place at a hospital to protect staff and patients from catching COVID 19 are extremely taxing to medical practices. Also, when staff are unknowingly exposed to a COVID patient (i.e. an apparently healthy person comes into a clinic to have a broken arm casted, and then tests positive the next day) all of the personnel that were not fully decked out in PPE need to self quarantine. There is not enough proper PPE to suit up for each "healthy" patient such as a mom bringing her new born in for a necessary one week check up. Huge burden on staff to prepare and cover these staffing nightmares, and as numbers increase in our community, the problem get worse and worse for healh care operations. For flu, everyone in the hospital/clinic is vaccinated, so when a flu patient is present, it is a totally different scenario and not that big of a deal.

podfinder wrote:

coronasceptic wrote:

Wait. 360,000 hospitalizations for the flu totals only 90,000 days of hospital care? 6 hours is the average stay?

Try reading the post again. The estimate of 90,000 days of hospital care was what would be generated by ONE WEEK of flu cases.

This explains why so many people seem to be skeptical of whether coronavirus is really a big deal: they're morons.

Right - I did miss that point.

But where did the number of 25,000 hospitalizations last week come from?