[ya_throw]

>They'd also know that pretty much the only condition we're treating nowadays is Covid.

Do you have a source for that? The percentage of Covid patients in ICU wards in the UK peaked at somewhere near 30% for a short period in January 2021.

>the folks on HN must not have many friends working in medicine for if they had they'd realize those friends are swamped and burned-out.

Now I do know this to be true, but it's not due to the absolute numbers of Covid patients. In my experience (as I know several people in frontline healthcare), its the side-effects of Covid restrictions making healthcare impossible to provide.