Open (More or Less) Post on Covid 6

[ecosophia]

The semi-open posts  I've hosted here on the Covid-19 narrative, the inadequately tested experimental drugs for it, and the whole cascading mess surrounding them have continued to field a gargantuan (and increasing) number of comments, so I'm opening another space for discussion. The rules are the same as before: 

1. If you plan on parroting the party line of the medical industry and its paid shills, please go away. This is a place for people to talk openly, honestly, and freely about their concerns that the party line in question is dangerously flawed and that actions being pushed by the medical industry et al. are causing injury and death. It is not a place for you to dismiss those concerns. Anyone who wants to hear the official story and the arguments in favor of it can find those on hundreds of thousands of websites.

2. If you plan on insisting that the current situation is the result of a deliberate plot by some villainous group of people or other, please go away. There are tens of thousands of websites currently rehashing various conspiracy theories about the Covid-19 outbreak and the vaccines. This is not one of them. What we're exploring is the likelihood that what's going on is the product of the same arrogance, incompetence, and corruption that the medical industry and its tame politicians have displayed so abundantly in recent decades. That possibility deserves a space of its own for discussion, and that's what we're doing here. 

3. If you don't believe in treating people with common courtesy, please go away. I have, and enforce, a strict courtesy policy on my blogs and online forums, and this is no exception. The sort of schoolyard bullying that takes place on so many other internet forums will get you deleted and banned here. No, I don't care if you disagree with that: my journal, my rules. 

With that said, the floor is open for discussion. 

Comments

[weilong]

Same story here in Japan w/re: ICU capacity. Every time the government decides to increase the case count by doing more tests, we get bombarded by warnings that the medical system will be overwhelmed. A year and a half into this thing, you'd think they could have done something to increase capacity.

To be fair, they have put together a network of hotels that have been converted to something like assisted living facilities for people with mild cases of covid. There is a nurse on duty who checks up on people throughout the day. They have filled those places up with positive test cases who aren't actually sick in any way. I think it is just a sop for the hotel industry since the tourist business has been destroyed.

Meanwhile a limited number of real hospitals are designated for covid treatment; other hospitals cannot take them. The designated covid hospitals do appear to be full in some places; but that is more a function of the artificial supply limitation than anything else. The other, non-covid, hospitals are experiencing well below the normal load these days.

A while back, the mayor told us all how the hospitals were 70% full. That's only 30% away from being totally full! This is a crisis! I looked at the annual reports for the local hospitals on their websites. Turns out that they have maintained a historical average of around 80% full. The current crisis is actually the exact opposite: below normal load.