Did Covid stress ICUs in an unprecedented way?

(Spoiler alert: NO)

Consider this headline: “A severe Covid season is stretching hospitals thin. That is a very bad omen.”

The article begins: “A tsunami of sick people has swamped hospitals in many parts of the country in recent weeks as a severe Covid season has taken hold. Wait times at scores of hospitals have gotten longer. What does that tell us about the ability of hospitals to handle the next pandemic?”

Covid-19 really did a number on our health care system, huh? Just the brief paragraph above is enough to silence those wacky anti-vaxxers or mask skeptics, right?

Right? 

Well… actually, I did some minor edits. The paragraph in question was written in January 2018 and the reporter was writing about just another flu season.

Here’s the real version: 

“A severe flu season is stretching hospitals thin. That is a very bad omen.” The article begins: “A tsunami of sick people has swamped hospitals in many parts of the country in recent weeks as a severe flu season has taken hold. Wait times at scores of hospitals have gotten longer. But if something as foreseeable as a flu season — albeit one that is pretty severe — is stretching health care to its limits, what does that tell us about the ability of hospitals to handle the next flu pandemic?”

A major part of Covid-19 scare tactics was the narrative about overflowing hospitals and intensive care units (ICUs). But, like everything in the media, it lacks context in the name of fulfilling an agenda. For example, when the media reports that only a handful of ICU beds are available in a particular state, you’re expected to freak out. 

They do not want you to find out exactly how many ICUs there are in that state and how often they’re filled to capacity — and why. Did you know, for example, that half of all low-income communities have zero ICU beds?

If people who “tested positive” for Covid were being denied beds, it’s NOT a sign of how dangerous Covid was. It is a sign of how dangerous our health care system is — and a sign of how the threat of Covid-19 was willfully manufactured. 

Keep these facts in mind the next time any “official” makes a proclamation and the media relentlessly parrots it.