Leaders | Flashing red

Excess deaths are soaring as health-care systems wobble

What lessons can be learned from a miserable winter across the rich world?

NUREMBERG, GERMANY - NOVEMBER 27: A doctor and HEMS TC (l) of ´Christoph Nuremberg` intensive care helicopter of DRF Luftrettung transfer a COVID-19 patient from one COVID-19 intensive care unit by helicopter to another hospital during the fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic on November 27, 2021 in Nuremberg, Germany. Covid infections in Germany have risen to record highs in recent weeks, leading to a strain on the country's intensive care unit capacity. About 4,800 Covid patients are currently in intensive care in Germany. The country has a capacity of approximately 8,000 beds with respirators, of which about 1,900 are currently available. (Photo by Alexander Koerner/Getty Images)
Image: Getty Images

In 1516 thomas more described the ideal health-care system. “These hospitals are well supplied with all types of medical equipment and the nurses are sympathetic,” the philosopher wrote in “Utopia”. “Though nobody’s forced to go there, practically everyone would rather be ill in hospitals than at home.”

This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “Flashing red”

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