Guys, something I dont understand is so many saying the H1N1 under Zero was a whole lot worse. Some 60 million in the US contracted it, there were 275,000 hospitalizations and 12,500 deaths.
Yet, I never heard of countries having a shortage of respirators, sick drs and nurses, inadequate hospital space or rationing of care. Anywhere.
So, how is it so many say it was worse?
I think those Flu mortality numbers are actually low, but, from what I am seeing locally, the patients that are requiring hospitalization are presenting with severe symptoms and disease progression at a much higher rate than with influenza. I work at the largest hospital in northern AZ and well over half of our total critical care capacity is full of Covid or Covid rule outs. Almost all of these patients in ICU have severe ARDS requiring full support. I have never ever seen this much influenza causing this severe disease at one time. Never have we had to convert beds to ICU beds for influenza overflow. Never had twenty plus influenza patients all on vents at once for influenza. This has all cropped up in the last 7-10 days.
Reported numbers are lagging for sure. This is definitely killing people. I think/hope it is less virulent than influenza but even at a total mortality rate of 1.5% that’s way above the rate of typical influenza and that’s how it’s presenting. Given the rate this escalated locally there’s every reason to suspect it will get worse before it gets better
It’s not just ventilators that are a concern, we’re running out of drugs quickly. As this becomes more prevalent space, vents, drugs, and as hospital personnel start getting sick that’s gonna make things worse as well
It appears the Phoenix area is faring far better so far which is a good sign, we’re kind of isolated here in Northern AZ but drug shortages affect everyone and that’s coming down the pike
More good news is that so far the data on kids is holding up here, it’s not killing them
The severe patients are mostly people over 55 but there are some standouts
This is not a fabricated conspiracy by the left. This bug can be nasty. Overall mortality is low. But if you’re one of the unlucky ones then it’s a real bad deal
