I imagine most places will still manage to get their residents’ minimum case load requirements. So in that case if they meet minimum requirements, those exist for a reason right? Someone crunched the numbers and concluded that those were the minimum amount needed to say yes you can graduate and practice. Plus attending surgeons routinely scrub on each other’s cases especially when freshly graduated.

You could maybe make an argument for the rare low performance resident that’s borderline. But since this will affect most residents, you can assume most are mid to high performing residents with low case loads. There’s no reason to hold back a competent resident that meets minimum requirements especially when they are secondary to external circumstances affecting the entire world.