“It’s Panic Porn Clickbait” – Media Scare-Stories About Hospitals Are Misleading

You can’t turn on your TV, flip open your tablet, or scroll your social media feed today without being bombarded by horrifying stories of over-worked nurses and doctors and throat-grabbing headlines about COVID-driven hospitalizations amid the casedemic.

Time to panic?

Perhaps not, as El Gato Malo (@boriquagato) notes in the following information-full twitter thread: while it’s disappointing to see that we are back in the “media scare stories about hospitals” stage, the good news is that, just like last time, this is simply not the case.

They either have no idea what they are saying or are seeking to mislead…

Let’s look.

That’s a scary headline. It’s also a false one.

We have data on this (and so would they if they bothered to get any)

Idaho: (as of 12/4) 57% of inpatient beds used, 14.6% covid. 74% overall ICU

90% of inpatient beds and ICU is normal. even 100% ICU is normal. 57% is staggeringly low, like OMG we’re all going out of business low.

Calling that overwhelmed is outlandish.

ICU of 74% is also low.

Even 100% ICU is not “full”, since all can flex to 125% – it’s federal mandate.

Most ICU’s can flex to 150-200% – they just do not leave the beds staffed when they are not needed. it’s too expensive.

Hospitals are like airlines or hotels: they seek to be full, not empty; building capacity you do not use is how you lose money.

But hey, maybe they got PA right, huh?

Nope.

17% covid, 73% all beds, 82% all ICU.

Those are all low numbers, esp for this time of year. dec and jan are peak flu and pneumonia season.

Well, maybe Texas?

Nope.

15% covid, 73% all beds, 82% ICU. again, all low numbers.

And hey, if you do not believe me, go read the article linked below – the TX hospital CEO’s will tell you the same…

Everyone is freaking out about Texas hospitals except for the people who actually run Texas hospitals.

This pretty much tells you everything you need to know about the panic patrol and their relationship to facts.

It’s hard to get much clearer than this:

But TX children’s hospital CEO mark wallace gave it a shot:

“There is not a scenario, in my opinion, where the demand for our beds … would eclipse our capability,” he continued.

“I cannot imagine that. I just cannot.”

Seems like a classic case of “them that’s scared don’t know and them that know ain’t scared.”

Side with them that know.

This is not rocket science guys, it’s hospital admin 101. You can always find some 2nd year resident having a meltdown and get a scare quote. it’s why so many docs wash out of hospital practice.

But these are low numbers, not high.

There is no “crisis” in US hospitals, nor was there last time. Even perennial basket case NYC was never overwhelmed – they never used javits nor the hospital ship.

Pics like this are used to scare you…

Then you discover it’s from 2018… in Pennsylvania.

Huh.

There were a zillion stories like this in 2018. It was all over NYC, you just did not notice them because it’s not really a big deal. this sort of thing happens all the time.

And it happens all over: “california hospitals are a war zone of flu patients”

Again, from 2018. Remember panicking about it? Yeah, me neither.

It’s like the whole world, egged on by media and government seeking to frighten and inflame rather than inform has lost all historical perspective this year.

They are telling it like it ain’t.

It’s panic porn clickbait.

There is no excuse for reporting like this in an age when anyone can check this tool in seconds and see the actual figures.

I suggest you all bookmark it – use it to check the stories you’re being told.

The sanity you save may be your own.

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(by way of background, El Gato Malo is also the Twitter-er who provided a thorough dismantling of the false-positive-PCR-Test-driven ‘casedemic’)