According to a NYT study, on Dec. 5, there were 377,000 excess deaths—deaths above the normal number expected, and thus attributed to C19. That is 31% higher than the officially reported number of deaths on that day by worldometer, about 287,750. If we apply that same % to the currently reported number of deaths of about 358,000, we get a staggering total of 470,000 deaths. I emphasize that these include not only people who died from complications of the virus, but who may have died from other causes indirectly related to the virus—e.g., someone who didn’t seek treatment for a heart condition, because of fears of exposing oneself to the virus at the hospital, or because it was too difficult to get an appointment from the overcrowded staff. Another source would be suicides and drug overdoses, problems that have been exacerbated by lockdowns and other social restrictions. OTOH, some deaths have probably been offset by the fact that social restrictions have reduced the kinds of activities that might lead to death in some instances. But the bottom line is that these are real deaths that, according to statistics, would not have happened but for the pandemic.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/covid-death-toll-us.html
The NYT analysis is part of an extremely useful link that shows, among other things, the state of every hospital in the U.S. So, e.g., you can check to see how many beds are available in a hospital near where you live. I was drawn to this, because among the pandemic deniers, a common talking point is that total hospitalizations have not actually increased this year, a claim that seems counter to daily reports that C19 hospitalizations are at record highs, and that hospitals all over the country are faced with imminent collapse.
What are the facts? The total number of hospitalizations in the U.S. is at about 65% capacity, a number that has been remarkably constant in recent years. About one-fourth of these, or 17%, are for C19. The worst two states in this respect are CA and AZ, with a little more than 30% of capacity due to C19 patients:
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https://www.statista.com/statistics/185904/hospital-occupancy-rate-in-the-us-since-2001/
https://www.beckershospitalreview.c...-hospitalizations-state-by-state-july-15.html
So it’s true that on average, hospitals are not any closer to full capacity than they have been in previous years. But there are a number of qualifications to be made. First, as I noted wrt excess deaths, a lot of people are postponing treatments for other medical problems. This reduces the number of patients. You might ask, if hospitals are only at about 65% capacity, why would they have to do that? That brings up several other points.
First, that 65% figure is only an average. It is much higher in some places than others. In a survey of 2200 counties nationwide, in more than 120, or over 5%, the average hospital was at 90% capacity or higher. Moreover, the situation is even more acute when it comes to ICU beds. In more than 100 hospital service areas, the ICU occupancy is over 100%.
https://www.statista.com/chart/23746/icu-bed-occupancy-rates-in-us-hospital-areas/
Here's a detailed map of the U.S and you can see that many hospitals in the southern part of CA and AZ e.g., are at over 90% capacity, with others scattered across the U.S.:
California COVID-19 Hospital Capacity
data.thecalifornian.com
Second, as mentioned before, the more pressing problem for most hospitals is not space or beds, but staff to care for the patients. Anyone following the pandemic closely is familiar with the stories of burnout of overworked staff, what they’re being asked to do made even worse by the increased risk of infection, which of course further depletes their numbers. The problem is further exacerbated by a lack of up-to-date, reliable data. According to one report about a month and a half ago, almost 20% of all hospitals in the U.S. (more than 1000 out of about 6000) are critically short in staff, and that number surely has grown since.
As COVID-19 hospitalizations surge, new data released by the federal government show how many hospitals are struggling with staffing.
www.npr.org
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