, Columnist
The Ethical Way To Ration Coronavirus Hospital Care
There are no good options, but there are some less-bad ones.
The U.S. does not have enough hospital beds.
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If Covid-19 spreads as fast as experts predict, the memories that will stick with Americans years down the road will be of desperately ill people turned away from hospitals.
The U.S. has no capacity to cope with even a small surge in intensive care patients. There will be shortages of health care workers and equipment — especially respirators, which ran far short of the need in Italy.