《BBC：為什麼美國比歐洲國家面對新冠病毒更危險？》
*美國沒有全民健康保險醫療制度，許多窮人及非法移民沒有購買醫療保險。一旦有病情，他們付不出高昂醫療費用，寧可選擇隱瞞病情。
*這些隱藏的病患，往往也沒有網路設備，他們的生活起居，不太可能自主隔離。一旦有症狀，可能至大賣場等購買非處方藥物。
*As the coronavirus spreads across the US, tens of millions of Americans may not seek medical help either because they are uninsured or undocumented. That puts everyone in society at greater risk.
*美國華盛頓郵報則根據John Hopkins的公衛體系估算，未來美國醫院病床會嚴重不足，比韓國甚至後期武漢床位更少。韓國每千人有12病床，是韓國快速抑制新冠病毒死亡率及傳播率的關鍵。
Washington Post的報導：In a report last month, the Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins estimated the United States has a total of 160,000 ventilators available for patient care (with at least an additional 8,900 in the national stockpile).
A planning study run by the federal government in 2005 estimated that if the United States were struck with a moderate pandemic like the 1957 influenza, the country would need more than 64,000 ventilators. If we were struck with a severe pandemic like the 1918 Spanish flu, we would need more than 740,000 ventilators — many times more than are available. The United States has roughly 2.8 hospital beds per 1,000 people. South Korea, which has seen success mitigating its large outbreak, has more than 12 hospital beds per 1,000 people. China, where hospitals in Hubei were quickly overrun, has 4.3 beds per 1,000 people. Italy, a developed country with a reasonably decent health system, has seen its hospitals overwhelmed and has 3.2 beds per 1,000 people. A moderate pandemic would mean 1 million people needing hospitalization and 200,000 needing intensive care, according to a Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security report last month. A severe pandemic would mean 9.6 million hospitalizations and 2.9 million people needing intensive care. The United States has an estimated 924,100 hospital beds, according to a 2018 American Hospital Association survey, but many are already occupied by patients at any one time. And the United States has 46,800 to 64,000 medical intensive-care unit (ICU) beds, according to the AHA. (There are an additional 51,000 ICU beds specialized for cardiology, pediatrics, neonatal, burn patients and others.)
Now, factor in how stretched-thin U.S. hospitals already are during a normal, coronavirus-free week handling usual illnesses: patients with cancer and chronic diseases, those walking in with blunt-force trauma, suicide attempts and assaults. It’s easy to see why experts are warning that if the pandemic spreads too widely, clinicians could be forced to ration care and choose which patients to save.
Coronavirus: Why systemic problems leave the US at risk https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-51840233
