Flu Epidemic Crippling Hospitals
Kevin Felts 01.18.18
If some kind of new viral plague came out, how would our health care system hold up? Let’s use the Aussie flu as an example. What lessons can we learn by looking at the current epidemic?
Let’s look at how our healthcare system is holding up. Hospitals are being crippled by the number of flu cases. It is getting so bad, hospitals are setting up tents in the parking lots.
From the Los Angeles Times: California hospitals face a ‘war zone’ of flu patients — and are setting up tents to treat them.
Hospitals across the state are sending away ambulances, flying in nurses from out of state and not letting children visit their loved ones for fear they’ll spread the flu. Others are canceling surgeries and erecting tents in their parking lots so they can triage the hordes of flu patients.
[…]
Connie Cunningham and her staff at Loma Linda University Medical Center were triaging so many flu patients after New Year’s that they assembled what looks like a giant, brown camping tent in their emergency room parking lot. Several hospitals in California are treating flu patients in so-called “surge tents” intended for major disasters.
On the other side of pond, hospitals in Ireland are reporting similar situations.
From The Independent: Aussie flu just getting started.
It is now shaping up to be the country’s worst flu crisis in 50 years, with 20,000 patients swamping doctors’ surgeries and hundreds being admitted to hospital.
Figures from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre show the number of flu cases reported in Ireland during the first week of this year was 81pc higher than the same period last year.
Hospitals are already operating at capacity, but medical experts suggest this hyper-virulent flu strain has barely got started. According to the latest figures released last Wednesday, one in two people reported to be suffering from an infectious disease is struggling with influenza.
Observations
If something like the flu is enough to overwhelm hospitals and doctors, what could we expect from a new viral disease that has no vaccine? One example is the eye-bleeding fever, which health officials are watching closely.
Something else to learn from the Aussie flu outbreak is how little mainstream media is talking about the epidemic. Do a google search for Aussie Flu, click news, and most of the results will be out of England. While the Mirror, Expresses, and Daily Mail are talking about Aussie Flu, USA “news” sources are eerily quiet.
USA Today posted an article saying we are at peak flu season, but did not publish any proof to affirm that statement. On the flip side, The Independent in Ireland says flu season is just getting started. Who should we believe? While the number of reported cases seems to have leveled off, with hospitals overwhelmed, are cases being reported to the CDC?
There is a lot to learn with how our media and hospitals are dealing with the Aussie Flu epidemic. We can take those observations and apply them to our prepping plans.
