Hospitals
One of the first major deceptions had to do with hospital capacity and its potential to collapse. Disregard the reality that systems built around socialized medicine such as the NHS are in a perpetual state of imminent implosion, pandemic or not.
For a few years prior to the pandemic I worked for one of the larger Phoenix-area hospitals. My position granted me regular access to most units and all of the high-acuity ones. It was only until lockdowns were breathed into existence that I saw our ICUs and emergency departments empty. Any other year, even outside of Winter, empty beds were a rarity and in the ER staff would create more bed space by writing a number on a piece of printer paper and taping it to a hallway wall. Actual “rooms” were given to more critically ill patients. A section of the waiting area may be blocked off and used for treatments.
This game of musical chairs was the norm. I remember getting so frustrated by how unrelentingly busy the hospital would get. I’m certain that my hospital and all the nearby larger ones would achieve greater than 90% capacity during Winter months.
It’s almost futile to discuss healthcare resource depletion anyway since our public health experts and their media dickheads contributed to the outlawing of outpatient, prophylactic therapies.
The worst thing any local government could do was to meddle in the day-to-day operations of hospitals, which is what we saw almost universally. The pandemic relief money that went god knows where should’ve been used almost exclusively for pay raises. This would have kept morale high. Repurposing derelict buildings and setting up ancillary care options like hospital ships and tents only exacerbated staffing and resource issues.
The point is that hospitals, especially urban ones, already had ample experience and longstanding procedures for dealing with capacity issues. Ironically the real problems that few knew how to handle were the LACK of patients and general loss of revenue. This lead to furloughs and deterioration of local public health.