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In this issue we present a fascinating article about the state of Minnesota’s hospitals. It’s a story about hospital capacity and the response to the pandemic, but it is, in microcosm, also a story about all the other medical sectors and industries that were caught flat-footed last March and struggling over how to move forward.
Much remains murky about Covid-19, but some conclusions are manifest: We were unprepared. We had a mask technology, N95, that all but rendered viral spread moot. Except that we didn’t have enough of them. A year later, we still don’t. Hospitals continue to complain of inadequate supplies of these masks and more basic protective gear gowns, gloves, plastic shields. As for the public, we are still wearing cloth and surgical masks of indeterminate value, so the pandemic continues to govern us rather than vice versa.