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Posted on 09/03/2021 12:08:18 PM PDT by lightman
During earlier surges, most COVID-19 patients at Penn State Health were at least 65 and had other illnesses that made them vulnerable.
But that was before arrival of the more contagious delta variant, and before many people, including most seniors and other highly vulnerable people, were protected by COVID-19 vaccine.
“Most everyone we see in the ICU at this point is unvaccinated,” Dr. Fahad Khalid, the chief of hospital medicine at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, said on Friday.
About 43 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 at the medical center as of Friday morning, Khalid said.
Their average age is about 53, with some in their 20s and 30s, he said. One, in their 20s, was on a breathing ventilator as of Friday morning. Two others, in their 30s, were attached to ECMO machines, an extreme treatment that takes over the work of the heart and lungs.
Moreover, about half of the COVID-19 patients at the medical center are needing intensive care, compared to 10-20% during earlier surges, Khalid said. They also have fewer pre-existing illnesses than in the past.
“In the past, it was a lot of diabetes and obesity, but a lot of our younger patients are pretty healthy,” he said. “What we’re seeing is that these patients come in and get sick pretty quickly, requiring ICU level of care and requiring a lot of resources for us to take care of them, and then they are in intensive care for a long period of time.”
Khalid noted Penn State Health is seeing some “breakthrough” infections in people who are vaccinated. However, they are typically patients who test positive after being hospitalized for something different, such as a hip fracture. They typically don’t develop severe COVID-19 or need intensive care, he said.
He said most of the COVID-19 patients are infected with the delta strain, which is significantly more contagious than earlier strains.
Moreover, Dr. Catharine Paules, an infectious diseases specialist at the medical center, said there is new research from Europe that suggests the delta strain might make people sicker.
Khalid and Paules were among three Penn State Health doctors who gave an online briefing on Friday on the status of COVID-19 in Pennsylvania and in the Harrisburg region.
Dr. Peter Dillon, the chief clinical offer, provided some positive news, saying the latest models suggest Pennsylvania’s surge will peak in about three weeks and at a level well below that of the winter surge, which nearly filled hospitals and culminated in about 200 deaths per day in early January.
Pennsylvania as of Thursday was averaging about 24 deaths per day, according to tracking by Johns Hopkins University.
Many doctors say Pennsylvania’s relatively high rate of vaccination should help us avoid the levels of infections and hospitalizations seen during the winter peak.
However, Paules warned against being “lulled into a false sense of security by the vaccination rates in our region. They are not high enough to prevent a surge. We’ve seen this in places like Israel that are highly vaccinated.”
She said the Labor Day holiday has potential to trigger spikes.
“I would encourage people, if you’re going to gather, to keep it outdoors,” she said.
The doctors were asked about the impact of COVID-19 among children. Nationally, children are accounting for a significantly larger portion of positive cases than in the past, and the number of hospitalized children has surged to the highest point in the pandemic.
No vaccine had been approved for children under 12, leaving children as the largest unprotected group.
As of Friday morning, three children were hospitalized with COVID-19 within Penn State Health, a spokeswoman said.
Paules said the impact on children shouldn’t be measured in terms of hospitalizations or deaths. Rather, some children who come down with COVID-19 develop long-lasting problems. “I think these long-term complications will not be trivial,” she said.
Because of the present high level of community spread of COVID-19, Paules said she is advising all of her patients, including children, to wear face masks while in crowded spaces, and noted she and her children wear masks in those situations.
I am pro-freedom.
Life has risk.
Vaccination has risk, but clearly there are risks with being unvaccinated.
Pennsylvania Ping!
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99.7 percent-plus recovery rate.
This is nothing to destroy a country over.
Just the opposite of what Israel, Britain and MA is reporting. Wonder which one is fudging the books?
The Flu can usually be treated with good nutrition and bed rest.
Or you can take a Flu shot which usually doesn’t do jack shit unless they get lucky and predict the correct strain that year....
Covid is just a “super flu”
If you take the right medicine and nutrition 9+ times out of 10 you will be JUST FINE!
Well, according to dawn limon on some ersatz cable news show, those folks who are unvaxxed should be left on the sidewalk outside. He(?) probably is also pro abortion. Sadly, his mom didn’t take the opportunity when she had the chance. Besides, the whole idea from maggie sagger was to reduce the african American population. But, shhhhhhhhhhh! And yes, there are risks getting it and not getting it.
The oldest patients in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd waves made up most of the deaths.
Surely this means those now very ill in hospital, but still living, are likely to be in younger groups?
The evidence from two hospitals where my daughter works in the ED, is that the median age for those infected and needing hospitalisation has gone down significantly.
Perhaps all the vulnerable oldies (60+ age) died between March 2020 and April 2021?
Slightly off-topic, but I’ve been wondering how many meth heads and other substance abusers have swelled the ranks of COVID patients. Medical privacy laws being what they are, we probably will never know of course, but it seems like it could be a substantial number of people, almost never talked about.
Give it a month or two and I suspect we will see the same numbers Israel is seeing.
Substance abuse would definitely qualify as a co-morbidity.
“He said most of the COVID-19 patients are infected with the delta strain” -— He is lying. I doubt they are testing for this strain.
Here’s a bunch of hospital dashboards showing vaccinated vs unvaccinated percentages I compiled yesterday. I’m sure there are many more out there. If you click the links you will see some vaccinated pergentages have went up since I posted it. (It was in response to gas_dr saying 98% of covid hospital patients are unvaccinated.)
17% vaccinated 87% unvaccinated
https://www.smh.com/Home/News-Events/Release/coronavirus-daily-news-update
12% vaccinated 88% unvaccinated
https://www.utmedicalcenter.org/
14% vaccinated 84% unvaccinated
https://www.covenanthealth.com/covid-19-dashboard/
20% vaccinated 80% unvaccinated
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/health/2021/08/27/unvaccinated-iowans-account-most-hospitalized-covid-patients-breakthrough-cases-older-delta-variant/5618775001/
13% vaccinated 87% unvaccinated
https://www.tmh.org/coronavirus/dashboard
18.5% vaccinated 81.5% unvaccinated
https://www.flaglerhealth.org/covid-19-information/
12.5% vaccinated 87.5% unvaccinated
https://www.facebook.com/WKHealthSystem/
20% vaccinated 80% unvaccinated
https://carle.org/Home/COVID-19-Resources/Carle-Health-COVID-Numbers
19% vaccinated 81% unvaccinated
https://www.choosememorial.org/COVID19
22.9% vaccinated 77.1% unvaccinated
https://www.facebook.com/OSFHealthCare/photos/a.489674037712381/4734159893263753/?__tn__=%2CO*F
It's no wonder the leftist media doesn't seem to mention it at all. Substance abuse is one of their favorite things. Particularly on nights and weekends.
Most of the MA deaths and infections were people from Fag Heaven, Provincetown.
I call BS. All last year the 20 and 30 somethings were not affected, but since they are the bigger crowd giving the liars the finger and not taking the death jab they all of a sudden have become the target of propaganda.
“Here’s a bunch of hospital dashboards showing vaccinated vs unvaccinated percentages I compiled yesterday. “
Your numbers are also garbage since they are calling people unvaccinated who have taken the jab. They exclude those not 14 days after the jab, of which people I know have gotten sick immediately after the jab.
How many of these patients received SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibodies and/or antibody blood transfusions once hepatized.
My bet is none. I had a 32 year friend die, the hospitals where sending patients home with any treatment. Just come back if you feel worse was their solution.
My bet, if he received the SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibodies early he would be alive today.
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