covid-19 pep talk, and PSA for young and healthy people
It's easy to get fatalistic about covid-19, maybe even especially if you *are* young and healthy. "I'm gonna get it anyway, it probably won't be worse than a case of flu, what's the point of taking extra precautions?"
Something to keep in mind is that the worst part of a pandemic is that it *happens all at once*. This leads to insufficient hospital beds, overworked healthcare staff, etc.
If we can make the pandemic happen more slowly, we can free up resources for taking care of the people who need hospitalization. We can also reduce supply chain disruptions (food, medicine, etc.)
So: Handwashing, taking sick days off from work (and other types of self-isolation), avoiding travel... these can all be of immense help to everybody else, not just you!
re: covid-19, American healthcare trash fire
@Leucrotta Pah, we get sick days in the US! A whole 5 of them per year! 😅
Regardless, bed (and equipment) count is a problem even in places with good healthcare systems. Pandemics like this are outlier events that rarely factor into capacity planning.