The whole "lock down to protect hospitals" was a GIANT lie, at least in Germany.
Media and politicians were constantly creating hysteria that intensive care units were at capacity and would be overwhelmed "soon".
Except we now have actual statistics. In 2020 on average 4% of intensive care unit beds were occupied by Wu Flu patients. That's not a typo. That's FOUR percent. IIRC during the worst times it was a whopping 25%.
The most fucked up thing is, in reality those numbers would have been even lower. Due to the way the government decided to fund hospitals (ICUs had to be over 75% occupancy to receive extra funding) hospitals put people in ICUs that didn't have to be there (we had almost twice the percentage of Wu Flu patients in ICUs compared to neighboring countries). Hospitals even got rid of ICU beds to achieve 75+% occupancy.
They created the ICU "shortage" themselves which in reality was never a threat.
The whole "lock down to protect hospitals" was a GIANT lie, at least in Germany.
Media and politicians were constantly creating hysteria that intensive care units were at capacity and would be overwhelmed "soon".
Except we now have actual statistics. In 2020 on average 4% of intensive care unit beds were occupied by Wu Flu patients. That's not a typo. That's FOUR percent. IIRC during the worst times it was a whopping 25%.
The most fucked up thing is, in reality those numbers would have been even lower. Due to the way the government decided to fund hospitals (ICUs had to be over 75% occupancy to receive extra funding) hospitals put people in ICUs that didn't have to be there (we had almost twice the percentage of Wu Flu patients in ICUs compared to neighboring countries). Hospitals even got rid of ICU beds to achieve 75+% occupancy.
They created the ICU "shortage" themselves which in reality was never a threat.