COVID-19 Resurgent in 40% of American States; Some States Pushed to the Boundary Conditions of ICU Beds and Functioning Health System

June 12, 2020 (EIRNS)—The concurrent resurgence of COVID-19 in almost 40% of the states of the United States, is pushing some of those states up to the boundary condition of availability of hospital beds, ventilators, and other supplies required to fight the coronavirus.

A few states show the case:

• In Montgomery, Alabama, coronavirus cases have risen over 500% since the start of May. The June 9 issue of Forbes magazine reports that just two formal ICU beds were available June 9 at Montgomery’s major hospitals. Some patients had to seek treatment nearly 90 miles north in Birmingham.

• Since Arizona lifted its stay-at-home order on May 15, the number of COVID-19 patients in that state on ventilators has increased by 400%, according to Banner Health, Arizona’s largest medical network. As of June 8, 76% of the state’s ICU beds were occupied. The state’s health director instructed the state’s hospitals on June 6, “to fully activate their emergency plans,” meaning they should increase ICU capacity by 50%, suspend once more all elective surgeries, and add medical volunteers to their staff.

• Florida’s Department of Health reported on June 11 that the number of new cases confirmed the previous day had set a new record of 1,698. Florida has 69,069 confirmed cases, only about 10,000 fewer than Bangladesh, a country of 162 million people. Florida also has 2,848 deaths. The first phase of Florida’s re-opening started on May 4.

Some of the increase in confirmed cases is due to greater testing of the population. But that is only a part of the reason for the resurgence. The U.S. has experienced a 40-year take-down of its health and hospital system, and did not heed the warning of Lyndon LaRouche, that if one lowers the economic productivity of a nation below the level required to maintain its population, pandemics of lower forms of life will spread.

It is possible that even the states that have been more successful in reducing their cases (such as New Jersey and New York), will see a second wave of the virus in the Fall.