A severe flu season is stretching hospitals thin. That is a very bad omen
This flu season is offering us an important warning: We're not ready for a flu pandemic.
by Helen Branswell
Jan 15, 2018
4 minutes
A tsunami of sick people has swamped hospitals in many parts of the country in recent weeks as a severe flu season has taken hold. In Rhode Island, hospitals diverted ambulances for a period because they were overcome with patients. In San Diego, a hospital erected a tent outside its emergency room to manage an influx of people with flu symptoms.
Wait times at scores of hospitals have gotten longer.
But if something as foreseeable as a flu season — albeit one that is pretty severe — is stretching health care to its limits, what does that tell us about the ability of hospitals
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