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Harvard/Tufts/VA Study Suggests COVID Hospitalization Numbers Could Be Grossly Misleading: Roughly half of all the hospitalized patients showing up on COVID-data dashboards in 2021 may have been admitted for another reason entirely
PJ Media ^ | 09/13/2021 | Matt Margolis

Posted on 09/13/2021 9:14:06 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

Many of us have been skeptical about official COVID figures for over a year now. Today, as COVID hospitalization rates are being cited regularly to justify drastic (and unconstitutional) COVID countermeasures, The Atlantic points us to a study from Harvard Medical School, Tufts Medical Center, and the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System that suggests official COVID hospitalization rates are overstating reality by a factor of two.

The study analyzed the electronic records for nearly 50,000 COVID hospital admissions from VA hospitals nationwide. According to The Atlantic, the authors then “checked to see whether each patient required supplemental oxygen or had a blood oxygen level below 94 percent. [The latter criterion is based on the National Institutes of Health definition of ‘severe COVID.’] If either of these conditions was met, the authors classified that patient as having moderate to severe disease; otherwise, the case was considered mild or asymptomatic.”

The study found that from March 2020 through early January 2021—before vaccination was widespread, and before the Delta variant had arrived—the proportion of patients with mild or asymptomatic disease was 36 percent. From mid-January through the end of June 2021, however, that number rose to 48 percent. In other words, the study suggests that roughly half of all the hospitalized patients showing up on COVID-data dashboards in 2021 may have been admitted for another reason entirely, or had only a mild presentation of disease.

This increase was even bigger for vaccinated hospital patients, of whom 57 percent had mild or asymptomatic disease. But unvaccinated patients have also been showing up with less severe symptoms, on average, than earlier in the pandemic: The study found that 45 percent of their cases were mild or asymptomatic since January 21.


(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; Science; Society
KEYWORDS: covid; hospitalizations; study
There are some drawbacks to the study, however. Patients in the VA system are not representative of the U.S. population, as the VA patient populations tends to be older, with few women and no children.

The VA also has a policy to test every patient for COVID, while this is not a policy in all hospitals. The study does show, however, that “the introduction of vaccines strongly correlates with a greater share of COVID hospital patients having mild or asymptomatic disease.”

But Daniel Griffin, an infectious disease specialist at Columbia University, said that the study can help the public understand that not all COVID hospitalizations are the same.

1 posted on 09/13/2021 9:14:06 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

It should be obvious to anyone that not all “Covid hospitalizations” are alike.

Someone who has a severe case of Covid and is admitted due to difficulty breathing BECAUSE of Covid is VERY different from someone who breaks their leg and is admitted for surgery while infected. with Covid.

Anyone can see the truth in this.

However, there are elements in the Government, Media, and even the medical community itself who not only do NOT take the time to point that obvious fact out, they studiously REFUSE to discuss that obvious aspect and are all too willing to discuss ALL Covid hospitalizations as if they were exactly the same.

It is things like that which make many normal people suspicious or angry.


2 posted on 09/13/2021 9:22:32 PM PDT by rlmorel (Leftists are The Droplet of Sewage in a gallon of ultra-pure clean water.)
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To: SeekAndFind

The “with Covid” thing. FR has been talking sbout it for at least 15 months.


3 posted on 09/13/2021 9:22:42 PM PDT by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
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To: SeekAndFind

No kidding.


4 posted on 09/13/2021 9:24:57 PM PDT by Varsity Flight ( "War by the prophesies set before you." I Timothy 1:18)
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To: SeekAndFind

May?


5 posted on 09/13/2021 10:01:24 PM PDT by A Navy Vet (USA Birth Certificate - 1787. Death Certificate - 2021. )
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To: SeekAndFind

You don’t say!


6 posted on 09/13/2021 10:02:17 PM PDT by ConjunctionJunction
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To: All

1) The study is pre delta. It’s a study of numbers created by a virus that no longer exists, delta being almost universal now.

2) Wrong attribution of admission/death is not going to fly. Excess Deaths have been rising sharply for about 2 weeks, which means 3-4 weeks prior to those 2 weeks (it takes 3-4 weeks for All Causes death data to accumulate) So right about 1 August deaths started rising. Deaths of all causes. And that happens to coincide with the timing of the Covid death ramp now underway.


7 posted on 09/13/2021 10:02:29 PM PDT by Owen
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NFW, really?


8 posted on 09/14/2021 1:23:04 AM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: rlmorel

I’ve been suspicious since nearly Day One, when it was obvious the CCP has the WHO lie to us all saying that Covid wasn’t transmitted by humans. I’ve become more and more angry as the lies have proliferated and compounded over the last 19-20 months.


9 posted on 09/14/2021 3:44:51 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: SeekAndFind

They’ve been doing this all along.

The case counts have been inflated.

And inflated case counts aren’t going to scare anybody if people aren’t dropping like flies.

The death stats are quite likely inflated, too.

Every death attributed to CoupFlu in the country should be checked out to see if CoupFlu really was the cause of death.


10 posted on 09/14/2021 3:47:16 AM PDT by mewzilla (Those aren't masks. They're muzzles. )
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To: FreedomPoster

Americans are generally not afraid of facing the truth and working to mitigate a dangerous or untenable situation (though my feelings along these lines have changed over the years)

But when people have provably lied, equivocated, and done and said things that are not in proportion to the issues and indicate there are other driving forces than what is really going on...there are a lot of us who tend to be more obstreperous and un-sheep like as a result.

And statists and tyrants of all stripes detest being questioned. They expect you to shut up and accept things.


11 posted on 09/14/2021 5:01:51 AM PDT by rlmorel (Leftists are The Droplet of Sewage in a gallon of ultra-pure clean water.)
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To: BradyLS

The “with Covid” thing. FR has been talking sbout it for at least 15 months.


In both very realistic terms, and in completely delusional terms. This article at least tries to begin to separate the two.


12 posted on 09/14/2021 6:43:16 AM PDT by lepton ("It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into"--Jonathan Swift)
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