I agree with the parent. There are a number of places in these comments where the number of ICU beds per capita seem to be justification for personal viewpoint; all cite the same sources.

In the interest of avoiding possible hubris, I think it's worth noting that the numbers in the Statisica chart on ICU beds/100k persons (included in the oft cited link [1]) counts in its data for the USA all ICU beds, while the European numbers come from a study that explicitly exclude [2]:

"...private healthcare providers, neonatal and paediatric intensive care beds, coronary care, stroke and pure renal units"

The 34.7/100k number for the US does not exclude the above. According to [1] the US has:

"There are 68,558 adult beds (medical-surgical 46,795, cardiac 14,445, and other ICU 7318), 5137 pediatric ICU beds, and 22,901 neonatal ICU beds."

Attempting to match the criteria of both studies gives the USA about 46,795 beds. Assuming 320 MM people gives 14.5, not 34.7, per 100k. I haven't looked at the sources for other countries, but we can expect differences in methodologies of ICU bed counting.

I think this casual sort of comparison of national capabilities (like [3]) which lacks rigor is more dangerous than useful. I hope one will take a deeper dive if they're evaluating risks based on the numbers that have been posted.

[1] https://sccm.org/Blog/March-2020/United-States-Resource-Avai... [2] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00134-012-2627-... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_hospital_...

user:	lima-lima
created:	March 19, 2020
karma:	21