Bloomberg News : with the third wave of the epidemic, hospitals across the United States are currently full of patients with new coronary pneumonia, and the number of hospitalizations in many states has reached a new high, and intensive care units are in emergency. The analysis believes that due to the resumption of school classes, the arrival of the flu season, and the increase in indoor activities due to cold weather, the number of confirmed cases in the United States has been rising recently, and the medical systems in various regions have been overwhelmed. Some experts warned that between now and the beginning of next year, the situation will only get worse and that if American society wants to return to normal, it may be far away.
For hospitals, not only the increase in patients, but also the financial crisis
Since the outbreak of the epidemic, the American medical community has realized a problem: It is almost a luxury to expect the United States to reduce the number of new confirmed cases every day to zero. Many experts, including Dr. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, chose to lower society’s expectations and standards for epidemic prevention—just keep the daily curve of new cases stable. But such a “figure sheet” is also being ripped off a little bit.
Bloomberg reported that the number of hospitalized patients with new coronary pneumonia in the United States once again showed an upward trend. As of October 20, it reached 39,000, which is a new high since August 22. Of these, 8,178 were admitted to the intensive care unit, and 1,889 needed to rely on ventilator-assisted treatment. . The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicts that in the next four weeks, the number of patients hospitalized with new coronary pneumonia may increase by 6,200 per day.
According to statistics from Johns Hopkins University, across the United States, 37 states have reported an increase in hospitalizations, of which 21 states have recently set new hospitalization records or are approaching previous records. Although this trend is national, the data also shows that the most severely affected areas are the central and western regions. Compared with large cities in coastal areas, the population here is relatively sparse and medical supplies are relatively scarce.
In addition, hospitals in various places are also facing financial crises while urgently treating the rapidly increasing number of new coronary pneumonia patients. According to statistics from the American Hospital Association, the economic loss of hospitals across the United States exceeded US$200 billion in the first half of this year, and it is expected that they will continue to lose more than US$120 billion in the second half of the year. As of October 16, 47 hospitals across the United States have closed or filed for bankruptcy, and hundreds of hospitals have been forced to lay off staff or cut salaries.
It is worth noting that many of these hospitals facing financial crisis are dedicated to serving minorities and low-income groups. The vast majority of private hospitals are still profiting normally because they refuse to treat patients without medical insurance and benefit from a large amount of government subsidies.
The third wave of epidemics hit this time, which can be called an indiscriminate outbreak across the United States. Whether it is the most severely affected central and western regions, or the epicenter of the early epidemic, there is a resurgence of the epidemic.
For example, Utah has fallen into a situation where no intensive care unit is available, and is currently urgently transforming general wards to treat critically ill patients; of all 56 hospitals in North Dakota, only 19 have vacant intensive care units; Texas, Ethiopia There are currently only 10 vacant intensive care units left in the El Paso area… From the perspective of confirmed cases, North Dakota has become the state with the largest number of new confirmed cases per day in the United States last week.
In the early epicenter of the epidemic, the situation was also getting worse. On October 20, local time, the number of new confirmed cases in a single day in New York State reached 2,000 for the first time since May. Some experts estimate that at the current rate of development, the cumulative number of confirmed cases of new coronary pneumonia in New York State will exceed 500,000 next week. New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo said that returning to school, returning to work, and increased indoor activities during the flu season are the main reasons for the third outbreak.
The epidemic situation in New Jersey is also rapidly deteriorating, with an average of more than 1,000 new confirmed cases in a week, an increase of about 49% compared to two weeks ago. On October 21, local time, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy left the scene urgently at a press conference because two employees in his office had just been diagnosed and Murphy was currently in self-isolation.
Schools everywhere have also become the hardest hit areas of the new wave of epidemics. Earlier, some governors publicly stated that the probability of children becoming severely ill after being infected with the new crown virus is extremely low, and that they have forcibly restarted schools on this basis. However, many experts do not agree with this view. They believe that although the incidence of severe illness in children is very low, the virus may be transmitted to family members through children, leading to the spread of the whole society. With the exposure of multiple campus epidemics, face-to-face courses have been suspended in many areas in the United States.
The epidemic has not been controlled for a long time, people question the government’s insufficient capacity
As the epidemic has not been effectively controlled, according to US media reports, the White House previously considered “herd immunity” and supported the “Great Barrington Declaration” that encourages the natural spread of the virus among young people. This practice has recently been undermined. Stern condemnation from more and more authoritative experts.
Francis Collins, president of the National Institutes of Health, pointed out that advocacy of herd immunity is only “conforming to the political views of certain people in the chaotic establishment.” Greg Gonçalves, an epidemiologist at the Yale School of Public Health, said that it is a “mass murder” to allow young people to fall into the arms of the virus under the lure of such a deceptive policy.
Soon after the “Great Barrington Declaration” was published in early October, many media pointed out that the co-signers included many people in the field of non-public health, and some did not sign their names, and even some false names. In addition, the declaration was written and signed by the American Institute of Economic Research, not a public health institution. Multiple US public health agencies issued a joint statement stating that the “Great Barrington Declaration” is not a scientific declaration at all, but a political statement, which will lead to unnecessary and unnecessary deaths.
In the face of another large-scale outbreak of the epidemic, the Trump administration’s every move has attracted attention, but its credibility has always been questioned by all walks of life. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated the epidemic prevention guidelines on October 21, which redefines “close contacts” and once again emphasized the importance of wearing masks. However, after the Trump administration updated the epidemic prevention guidelines, former President Obama publicly accused: “Trump can’t even protect himself.”
