Most US hospitals are empty. Soon they might be closed for good.

[Mark Crispin Miller]

One of the several memes deployed to terrorize us into house arrest was the

likelihood that COVID-19 would "overwhelm" our healthcare system, so that

our hospitals would break down under the pressure, as in northern Italy. 

It's now apparent that the terror over COVID-19 is doing that very thing. 

Fear is never a sound basis for deciding public policy. 

MCM 

OPINION

MOST U.S. HOSPITALS ARE EMPTY. SOON THEY MIGHT BE CLOSED FOR GOOD | OPINION

RICK JACKSON
ON 4/24/20 AT 9:42 AM EDT

https://www.newsweek.com/most-us-hospitals-are-empty-soon-they-might-closed-good-opinion-1500028

Tens of thousands of health care workers across the United States are going without pay today, even as providers in the nation's hot spots struggle to contain the coronavirus pandemic

This "tale of two hospitals" is a function of clumsy, if well-intentioned, federal and state directives to halt all non-emergency procedures, which appeared at first blush to be a reasonable precaution to limit unnecessary exposure and safeguard staff, beds and equipment.

But instead of merely preserving hospital beds and other resources, this heavy-handed injunction has created a burden of its own design: a historic number of empty beds in systems left untouched by the pandemic.