That's despite the fact that White House coronavirus coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx dismissed this worst-case eventuality, saying, "there is no situation in the United States right now that warrants that kind of discussion." Tell it to the ethicists and hospital administrators and nurses and doctors who have already been making those decisions.

Once someone has been resuscitated with invasive procedures, their prospects are already grim. According to Alice Thornton Bell, an advanced practice registered nurse and a senior director at hospital consulting firm Advisory Board, less than 17% of people who are resuscitated end up recovering and walking out of the hospital. That's all patients. "The chances of that working for a COVID-19 patient are very slim," she said. ​But in the course of normal care, there's time. Families can be consulted, discussions about reality had. It’s a process that makes sense. And no long line of otherwise healthy people are waiting for the ventilator that could save their lives. Right now, "New York doctors and nurses say some hospitals have already informally changed how they deal with resuscitation, forcing them to make life-or-death decisions on the fly, with some colleagues openly defying such orders."

At the same time, doctors and nurses are extremely aware of the possibility that they themselves are infected and could be infecting others, if not in danger of losing their own lives. The protocol for health care workers suspected of exposure has changed from 14 days of self-isolation a few weeks ago to seven days, and now just 72 hours—even with a positive coronavirus test, as long as no fever or other symptoms are present. There isn't space in many hospitals to have separate wards for COVID-19 patients because there are just too many of them, nurses tell the Post.

On top of all of that, of all this horror, they can't get the gowns and masks and shields and gloves they have to have to keep everyone safe. In the United States. But Jared fucking Kushner says they're doing just fine.