Are they intubating COVID-19 patients without general anesthesia? I've been in the hospital a month due to pneumonia and have been intubated 3 times. The second and third times they did intubation and extubation all under general.

The first time they put some kind of special tube in under general. When I came to 3 days later there was no ventilator, and the end of the tube was in my throat. It felt like a rectangular block. They extubated me while I was awake and immediately put me on high flow oxygen. They would've intubated me on the spot if I couldn't breathe. Never felt a gagging sensation in this instance.

it's a natural reaction to having a thing down your throat. i woke up in the ICU once with a tube in. my wrists were bound down so I wouldn't pull it out (which i would have, in my newly awakened stupor). once awake and lucid i was fine to have hands freed.

It is true, if you are conscious you will try to remove the tube (self-extubation), as it makes you gag. But that means that sedation is too low, which could be because they don't have time to monitor everybody.

And/or they have shitty monitoring equipment made by legacy players in an industry that needs disrupting. I mean yes there are staffing issues as well, but both can be true.