We actually don’t have more intensive care capacity than Italy or China. See here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/03/13/coronavirus-numbers-we-really-should-be-worried-about/
@sanstitre_has_left_the_building - I haven’t finished this thread yet, but I do see you asked several times about what makes this particular virus different. Since you are a math teacher, I’m a little surprised to hear you ask it this way - the exponential factor of contracting the disease, coupled with the lack of resources to address it is the difference. I was in the same camp as many others a few weeks ago - this is nothing! it’s not as severe as the flu! But, when you think about how many people are likely to get it, and you consider how many of those may need intensive care, and then look at the available resources, it’s not a good outcome. The whole push by the US right now is to “flatten the curve” - the idea being that if we can slow the spread (not eradicate it), we will not overwhelm our healthcare facilities and will be able to more successfully treat it.
I heard an NPR story this morning on the UK approach - it’s an interesting take - to wait on quarantine until the situation becomes more dire because of all the factors you’ve alluded to already (likely the US will have SEVERE economic repercussions from this), but it’s a gamble. Everything we’ve been told is the US is about 11 days behind Italy, so the country is trying to get ahead as best we can. I find great comfort that the majority of folks are uniting behind the “social distancing” - to me, it’s the first sign of solidarity that the community matters.
However, it does enrage me that when 20 school children were murdered, the country did NOTHING to stop gun violence. It enrages me that as we face this new challenge, people fail to see that a for-profit healthcare system and a societal infrastructure that does not provide paid sick leave or free child care are part of the problem. So I do agree with you, @sanstitre_has_left_the_building, that I would have expected most of this country to sit back and say, “oh well, I’m relatively fit and I have a good job and can afford to take two months off work if I really need to, so no need to self isolate here.” And, in fact, I HAVE heard people say that - in grocery stores and at gas stations and on my social media feed. My sense is that all of this social distancing came from peer pressure - first a couple colleges made the decision to move to remote learning, then a few more, then some sports teams decided to delay some games, then suddenly local governments were making decisions. NONE of this came from the top down. It was a ground up phenomenon - and so, for the time being, I will sit back and find hope in the fact that we (or most of us anyway) have elected, as a country, to do what we can together to try and reduce the negative health impact of this particular situation. And who knows?! Maybe when we’re on the other side of this, folks will start to consider the impact they can have on all the other broken systems. But I wouldn’t hold my breath.
In the meantime, here’s an article that I think outlines a ton of really important points that are very easy to follow: 11 coronavirus pandemic charts everyone should see - Vox
