Okay, then why are hospital resources more finite than non-hospital resources that can scale?
> It's irresponsible to carry that much more capacity when you'll only need it once a century
But you need it for at least 2-3% of the century it seems, so the current model of "please don't overload our beds for 2-3 years" doesn't seem very sustainable either. It's almost like you want Amazon-style "elastic" resources that only kick in when you need them.
> Same deal with COVID. COVID is filling ICUs at a scale that is wasteful to keep on hand during normal operations.
So don't keep them on hand. Figure out a way to mobilize the resources when you need them.
> What does it take to make a site appropriate for an ICU ward?
For one thing, maybe making "a site appropriate for an ICU ward" is too stringent a requirement in times of crisis and overloading?
My solution: Setup circus tents in the parking lot reserved for unvaccinated covid patients where they can sleep on army cots with fewer ICU resources and where they die at higher rates than the normal ICU.
Bam, problem solved. Now the normal ICU is at normal capacity again and unvaccinated covid patients can still receive some limited form of care. If they die at higher rates, oh well, that's a consequence of not getting vaccinated and the direct result of their own choices. And it's better than letting vaccinated heart attack patients die because their unvaccinated comrades took up all the beds and it's also better than taking away everyone's freedom and forcing the vaccination upon everyone. Because now everyone is happy. The unvaccinated still have their freedom, the vaccinated still have their ICU beds.
I'm sure people more familiar with the problem domain could come up with something much better than circus tents in a parking lot. My point was that everyone seems to have accepted that hospitals are inflexible and that the only way to solve the problem is to flatten the curve indefinitely and I don't accept that. Sure, flatten the curve initially, but only until you figure out a better long term solution to dealing with loading spikes.
I just gave you a recent real-life example where non-hospital resources were finite. Did you not read about the on-going problems due to the recent hurricane I mentioned?
Also your solution would pretty much kill all those people. People are in an ICU ward for a reason, moving them to a parking lot tent is not the same. Now, they're not just battling COVID, but also everything else that's out there.
By your logic, putting a bullet in their heads would also solve the problem.
But the problem isn't "getting rid of COVID patients", it's "making sick people well".
> It's almost like you want "elastic" resources that only kick in when you need them.
No. I'm saying that doesn't exist. That it's folly to think that.
> So don't keep them on hand. Figure out a way to mobilize the resources when you need them.
This is you literally suggesting the solution is ""elastic" resources that only kick in when you need them". The thing I said doesn't exist and is an impossibly difficult problem.
Okay, then why are hospital resources more finite than non-hospital resources that can scale?
> It's irresponsible to carry that much more capacity when you'll only need it once a century
But you need it for at least 2-3% of the century it seems, so the current model of "please don't overload our beds for 2-3 years" doesn't seem very sustainable either. It's almost like you want Amazon-style "elastic" resources that only kick in when you need them.
> Same deal with COVID. COVID is filling ICUs at a scale that is wasteful to keep on hand during normal operations.
So don't keep them on hand. Figure out a way to mobilize the resources when you need them.
> What does it take to make a site appropriate for an ICU ward?
For one thing, maybe making "a site appropriate for an ICU ward" is too stringent a requirement in times of crisis and overloading?
My solution: Setup circus tents in the parking lot reserved for unvaccinated covid patients where they can sleep on army cots with fewer ICU resources and where they die at higher rates than the normal ICU.
Bam, problem solved. Now the normal ICU is at normal capacity again and unvaccinated covid patients can still receive some limited form of care. If they die at higher rates, oh well, that's a consequence of not getting vaccinated and the direct result of their own choices. And it's better than letting vaccinated heart attack patients die because their unvaccinated comrades took up all the beds and it's also better than taking away everyone's freedom and forcing the vaccination upon everyone. Because now everyone is happy. The unvaccinated still have their freedom, the vaccinated still have their ICU beds.
I'm sure people more familiar with the problem domain could come up with something much better than circus tents in a parking lot. My point was that everyone seems to have accepted that hospitals are inflexible and that the only way to solve the problem is to flatten the curve indefinitely and I don't accept that. Sure, flatten the curve initially, but only until you figure out a better long term solution to dealing with loading spikes.