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by thu2111 2218 days ago
When did we run out of ventilators?

As far as I know nowhere ever ran out of ventilators, not even in Lombardy. But I sure saw that claim made a lot of times back when people thought that would happen. Spent a lot of time pointing out the authorities were denying it'd happened too. I concluded it's very easy for people to mix up "we think this is about to happen" with "this has happened".
1 comments
robbiep 2217 days ago
Lombardy was utilising operating theatres and had ICUs and trauma bays full (70-80% is full because you have lost lost of your surge capacity), using the vents in all these areas. There was a shift to NIV because once you have no vents you let people die
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thu2111 2217 days ago
80% isn't full. 80% is 80% full and is about normal for an ICU. The whole point of having some headroom is you can lose it without being full!
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