I personally took care of more than a few relatively healthy 30 and 40 year olds and a few pregnant women who spent 1-2+ weeks of high flow nasal canula who could have died if we ran out of beds/respiratory support.

Thankfully, as I always tell patients, I have not had to call ICU about a crashing COVID patient since February 2022, after the first Omicron wave. It used to be an almost daily occurrence prior to that through Delta waves. Things have gotten a lot better.