Here's why we need to stop comparing the novel coronavirus to the flu
As a longtime health care reporter, I see the unfolding coronavirus pandemic as representing everything I've read about — from the early days of epidemiology to the staggering toll of the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic — but had not covered in my lifetime.
In the meantime, not one public health expert I trust — not one — has said this flu comparison is valid or that we're overdoing it. Every single one, from former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb to Harvard professor Ashish Jha, has said we're not doing enough, that this is far more serious than it is being taken.This is far deadlier than the flu.As Dr.
Here's why this is a worry: Overall, our hospitals have fewer beds than other developed countries, according to recent data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The United States had 2.8 beds per 1,000 residents. By comparison, Germany had 8 beds and China 4.3 per 1,000. Others have reported shortfalls as well, and ProPublica has been hearing from health care professionals across the country who say their own institutions are running short of supplies.
"Across California, dozens more health care workers have been ordered home because of possible contagion in response to more than 80 confirmed cases as of Sunday afternoon. In Kirkland, Washington, more than a quarter of the city's fire department was quarantined after exposure to a handful of infected patients at the Life Care Center nursing home."
People in rural areas will have little care nearby should they be affected by COVID-19.Rural areas in the U.S. are losing their hospitals entirely, and residents are having to travel hours for care. According to the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 126 rural hospitals have closed since 2010, including six so far this year. That's about 6%.
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