Dark

 Just when things look their darkest,

They get a little bit darker.

Ambulance crews in Los Angeles County have been advised to cut back on their use of oxygen and to not bring  patients to hospitals who have virtually no chance of survival. Health officials there say they need to focus on patients with a greater chance of surviving. 

Dark. Like pitch.

Patients that would normally be kept for observation are being discharged in anticipation of what is expected to be yet another surge in COVID-19 cases after the holiday stirring of the virus pot.

And if you're not living in LA County, you might be thinking: "Well, that makes sense."

Until you start running it up against things like the Hippocratic Oath. Or what if it was your mother/father/aunt/uncle/friend/brother/sister/lover/neighbor laying there taking that last breath. "I'm sorry. There's nothing else we can do."

Darkness the likes we should never have encountered. 

Blame the folks at the top. Blame the folks who "had to" go home for the holidays. Blame the guy walking into Wal-Mart without a mask. Blame China. Blame yourself.  

Then get over it. Because this is where we are, currently. Changing the page on your calendar meant nothing to a virus that continues to mutate and infect without any appreciation for how hard we have all been wishing would go away. This has gone beyond the point of reason. 

Emergency room patients in Los Angeles are waiting in ambulances up to eight hours while waiting for a bed. Hospital staffs have erected tents to shelter those who cannot be directly admitted because they are so completely swamped. Ten months in" "We’re likely to experience the worst conditions in January that we’ve faced the entire pandemic, and that’s hard to imagine," L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said.

Wear a mask. Not for a week, or a hundred days. Until it's over, and light returns once again.