"Ambulances Waiting 4 Hours To Offload Patients"

This must be COVID related, as the whole headline on Yahoo News reads, "Los Angeles Covid-19 Update: Ambulances Waiting 4 Hours To Offload Patients As L.A. Has Just 56 Adult ICU Beds Left, Orange County Has None" The story actually makes no other mention, and gives no details of, 4-hour delays.

The first thing that puzzles me, though, is that most people with COVID don't go to the hospital in an ambulance. I follow a YouTuber sho gave, from his hospital bed, the only first-person accunt I've seen of a severe case of COVID. His experience was harrowing, but his family brought him to the ER, not an ambulance.

Those who watch Live Rescue know that people are informed consumers, and they know that ambulance rides cost thousands of dollars, and they aren't covered by medical. People go to the hospital in an ambulance only when they have absolutely no other choice --for instance, if they're in cardiac arrest or bleeding uncontrollably. Otherwise, they'll drive themselves, get someone to drive them, or forego the visit. The Yahoo story doesn't go into why, or where, the four-hour delays are taking place, but I can't imagine they're for COVID.

The next question is the hysterical assertion that LA has just 56 adult ICU beds left. I first covered this a week ago. Hospitals run near full ICU capacity every winter due to ordinary flu. I found another story on the same subject from last March 26, during the first COVID moral panic runup:

Many hospitals across the United States regularly operate with most of their beds taken by patients, limiting their ability to handle a sudden influx of folks sick with COVID-19, a new study reports.

"All indications show if the curve is not flattened, hospitals across the country will not have the capacity to deal with the surge in hospitalizations associated with COVID-19," said study author Fredric Blavin, a principal research associate with the Urban Institute's Health Policy Center.

Let's recall that in response to this initial wave of hysteria, Trump ordered two hospital ships and a field hospital to cities that would be hardest hit, only to see them go unused. Somehow the hospitals that ran near capacity, as they routinely do in the winter, weren't overwhelmed by COVID.

A San Diego reporter actually spoke up and asked the county health officer there about this very issue:

During Wednesday’s San Diego County Health press briefing, Dr. Wilma Wooten admitted that she does not even know what our hospital capacity is normally at this time of year.

Saturday via text, KUSI News asked what ICU capacity our hospitals normally operate, since Governor Newsom’s used ICU capacity to issue another lockdown.

San Diego County Health responded saying, “We will get back to you with the number. Don’t have that handy at the press conference.”

KUSI News reached out multiple times since Saturday to get the answer, but San Diego County Health never responded, so we asked again during Wednesday’s County Health Briefing.

KUSI’s Hunter Sowards asked if Dr. Wilma Wooten could compare ICU numbers to last year’s numbers at this time.

Dr. Wooten responded saying she doesn’t know. “I don’t have before me right now any data to compare where we were at the same time last year.”

No matter, it's just a good idea to shut down restaurants and barber shops no matter what. The problem is that, with the occasional exception of the San Diego news station, the media just continues to inflame the panic.