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Comment by testplzignore | Hacker News Reader

I've seen the "gift shop" thing reported by various sources today, but haven't found the origin of it. Doesn't pass the smell test to me. The logistics of gutting a gift shop and converting it to a treatment area seem non-trivial. Maybe it's just being used as a triage waiting room? Does anyone have any details on this?

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From ABC News.

>The CEO of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital in Los Angeles, Dr. Elaine Batchlor, separately said patients there have spilled over into the gift shop and five tents outside the emergency department.

That sentence appears many places. The earliest I can find is 22 December: https://ktla.com/news/california/california-health-system-bu...

This hospital is notorious for terrible conditions, many years prior to the pandemic

Yea, there are lots of aspects to this article that have the same feel of the article that made it to the top of HN news a few weeks back about a nurse who claimed her patients denied COIVD was real as they were dying. The Wired article that dug deeper into that story, showing the glaring holes in it, didn't get as much attention:

https://www.wired.com/story/are-covid-patients-gasping-it-is...

There are no indications in this story where the capacity is coming from. What percentage of people are in the ICU for other conditions (heart attacks, car crashes, delaying treatment for conditions they needed surgery for months ago) vs infections? What are the percentage for flu, strep and other serious infections vs COVID? There's a lot missing in this article.

Really interesting article. I find it curious that they didn't get a statement from Doering though.

> placing patients in conference rooms and gift shops

If there's any truth to it, I can imagine the hospital's snack/convenience shop is being used. So it's not a neighborhood gift shop but some room in the hospital that sells a branded keychain. Definitely a click-baity title though.

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