An Australian doctor working in Los Angeles fears medical care will not be provided to sick Americans if the coronavirus modelling is accurate.
Mel Herbert, a professor of emergency medicine at the University of Southern California who has lived in the United States for the past three decades, came out of retirement to work as a frontline doctor against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Southern California has borne the brunt of the virus, with the county of Los Angeles having recorded 719,833 infections since the pandemic began.
There have been 24,282 deaths in the state, and new infections rates have risen sharply since September.
He said intensive care units in Los Angeles, the second-most populous city in the US, and Southern California were already full.
If the current surge in cases continues, Professor Herbert believes there will not be enough capacity to provide care to every person.
"It's really quite bad here right now," he told ABC News Breakfast.
"If the surge is as bad as we fear it can be, if it's as big as some of the models suggest, we can't provide usual care at all.
"People won't be on ventilators because there's nowhere to put them.
"Some patients on ventilators may be taken off them to put them on younger patients."
He said "pandemic fatigue" set in following the country's Thanksgiving holiday when people gathered to be with loved ones.
Following the Christmas and New Year celebration, Professor Herbert said many in his field were expecting another major wave of infections.
"We'll have a three-week lag and then we expect another enormous surge," he said.
"Honestly, the hospitals here will be on the edge of collapse."
Currently, patients who need to be in intensive care are being held up in emergency departments, the doctor said.
He told News Breakfast some people have had to wait up to eight hours to get an ambulance.
It is a situation which is taking a toll on frontline workers across California.
"I was at work just a few days ago just to see how many young people, to see 30-year-olds and 40-year-olds and 50-year-olds dying in the emergency department, it's terrible," Professor Herbert said.
Frontline doctors and nurses have started receiving a vaccine against COVID-19, but vaccinations for the general population are expected to be roughly three months away.
