Yes. Med surg, pacu, preop, OR, etc. hours being cut has nothing to do with being able to care for critical patients. At my hospital, we have 4 different ICUs all of which are completely at capacity now, 80% of which are covid patients.
It doesn't sound like your hospital is being overrun, though, even now, Even after months of gatherings and protests and what seems to be the prevailing attitude of people now where they'll play along with things like masks, but most of what I see is people just doing whatever they way anyhow. If hospitals were being overrun, which is what you said was happening, wouldn't we be hearing it on the news that seems desperate for such stories. I mean, maybe you should call them, because so far we've gotten stories about Texas (which hospital CEOs have said were BS) and some rural hospitals that might have to transfer the most critical patients because they don't have infrastructure (the same as they'd have to do for most medical 'events').
I mean, the story that nobody is reporting is that it seems our big 'surge' is in border states and states with large populations of illegal aliens.
But this is just going to keep veering more off topic than is probably appropriate for the NFL thread. We could continue in one of the Covid threads, if you wish. There is even one that isn't trolly, and for first-hand experience, which yours would be greatly appreciated in that thread I'm sure.
I never said anything about playing or cancelling games. I simply said that if players feel they should sit out due to health concerns that I see no problem with it.
You also said hospitals were currently being overrun. Which, again, I don't believe that, nor do I believe you demonstrated that with your first hand account, but also again that's probably best left for one of the Corona threads and would be welcomed.
I don't think anyone disagrees with the sentiment that players should be allowed to sit out due to health concerns. It gets dicey if they're basing their concerns on medical advice or media hysteria, of course, but that's the precise approach I was saying should have happened on an individual and industry level, and imo should have been the macro response as well.
Some teams would maybe even be at a disadvantage because of it, which sucks, but so were plenty of other people in other industries. Individuals at high risk had to take measures that sucked that others didn't have to take. Grocery store workers were in an 'essential' position and kept working, and we didn't see the grocery industry suffer mass casualties. Studies now coming in that kids don't seem to actually be infecting anyone, so schools didn't need to be shut down, much less upcoming years canceled, again due perhaps more to media hysteria than medical advice.
To try to stay within the bounds of this thread, the point is the NFL and all sports leagues could have and maybe should have continued operation except for expected pauses to work out logistics and procedures.
I would even say there's an argument to be made that not only would keeping sports going not lead to the hospitals being overrun, but maybe if everything, especially entertainment and sports, weren't shuttered suddenly and severely, maybe people would not have gotten so antsy, frustrated and decided to go out protesting and having gatherings. Maybe sports could have been what kept the country sane and even safe, because people would at least still get to sit home and watch games and feel somewhat normal instead of sitting home with nothing to do until they broke and just said screw it and went out anyhow.
Instead of mass protesting and riots and endless virtue signalling from sports figures and leagues, we could have perhaps still had sports and some semblance of normalcy. Of course, that's just speculative fiction at this point, because here we are, sports are being canceled, and family gatherings are being reported and sick family members are suffering alone and concerts are being condemned... yet protesting and rioting seem to not only be allowed, but encouraged by the entitled, rich athletes and leagues that could have been the distraction we all needed, and the thing that helped bring the country together.