[Panther34543]

For a very long time I've held a theory that the general pandemonium due to the mischaracterization of the media regarding the danger of the virus to the average person resulted in substantially more voluntary hospital admissions than would have otherwise occurred, thus reducing availability for those who actually needed to be hospitalized, thus increasing deaths.

I, and nearly every colleague in the downtown San Francisco office I worked at, contracted Covid in early January 2020. There should be no doubt that there was already widespread community transmission in California in late 2019. Yet, strangely, "hospital capacity" did not become a concern until right after the U.S. declared a nationwide state of emergency in March.

Why was it not a problem in the nearly 4 months prior? I believe many people were convinced that the virus was far more dangerous than it was, and voluntarily began seeking hospitalization when none was actually needed.