Emergency Departments see critically ill patients with COVID-19. Families and care providers often have to make immediate management decisions about whether or not to intubate hypoxic patients. That decision has substantial downstream implications for patients and the health system. For patients a course of mechanical ventilation is commonly prolonged (average 13 days), and fraught with long-term sequelae, and often does not prevent death. Intubation takes patients’ ability to eat, speak and communicate with …