Posted on 09/14/2021 7:27:48 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
A new study — still pending peer review — picked up by The Atlantic, of all places, puts the recent fearmongering over the number of hospitalized Americans with the Wuhan coronavirus in perspective. Most notably, the study conducted by a team of researchers from Harvard Medical School, Tufts Medical Center, and the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System, found that many of those "hospitalized with COVID" are not the dire situations hyped by liberal media and leading Democrats.
The main narrative-shattering takeaway researchers arrived at: "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."
A new study suggests that almost half of those hospitalized with COVID-19 have mild or asymptomatic cases, @davidzweig reports. https://t.co/OOd1ddMFiU— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) September 13, 2021
Rather than the overwhelming horror stories of normally healthy individuals being admitted with COVID who are soon intubated and put on a ventilator before their body finally succumbs to the virus, there are a lot of people — almost half, in fact — who happen to be in hospitals *with* COVID, but not necessarily *due to* COVID or at risk of dying from the virus. Yes, those tragic situations do still happen, but it's happening less frequently than many seem to want Americans to think.
Instead of each "COVID hospitalization" reported being a life-and-death situation that mandates a drastic reaction, the numbers can come from a number of scenarios. Perhaps someone is getting treatment for cancer and, when admitted, they test positive for COVID but remain asymptomatic, for example. Also included are psychiatric admissions entirely unrelated to COVID.
Here's how researchers reached their conclusion after analyzing electronic hospital records for roughly 50,000 COVID hospital admissions at more than 100 VA hospitals nationwide:
They 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.
And for patients who were vaccinated against the Wuhan coronavirus, the percentage of COVID hospitalizations for those with mild or asymptomatic cases rose to 57 percent. But, another panic-busting finding from the study: "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." That positive development, according to one of the study's co-authors, is due to patients being younger and more likely to have had COVID previously.
The study does have its limitations, such as the VA system skewing toward adult male patients and the VA's systemwide practice of COVID-testing all patients — something that's not universal across other healthcare systems. But as even The Atlantic notes, "the study also demonstrates that hospitalization rates for COVID, as cited by journalists and policy makers, can be misleading, if not considered carefully."
So while the liberal echo chambers of cable news, Twitter, and the political Left tell us that hospitalizations are spiking (usually, they'll claim, due to Republican governors who prefer to let their citizens choose for themselves how they wish to protect themselves and their families) and as a result we must hand over all control and autonomy to big "G" government, that's not necessarily the case if these researchers' findings are validated by peer review and similar studies in the future.
Question. Why is an asymptomatic person being hospitalized?
RE: Why is an asymptomatic person being hospitalized?
Just in case the disease progresses .... just making sure...
Also, if you really want a more devious reason: The more Covid cases in the hospital, the more Federal aid it gets.
Money, feds pay more for covid patients.
The study “analyzed the electronic records for nearly 50,000 COVID hospital admissions at the more than 100 VA hospitals across the country,” The Atlantic wrote. It “checked to see whether each patient required supplemental oxygen or had a blood oxygen level below 94 percent” in order to try and determine if cases met the NIH’s threshold for “severe COVID”.
What the study found was that from March 2020 to January 2021, 36% of Covid cases in the hospital were mild or asymptomatic. From January 2021 to June 2021, during the Delta variant’s spread, that number rose all the way to 48%. For vaccinated hospital patients, the number rose to a stunning 57%.
As The Atlantic put it in their own 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.”
The limitations of the study obviously included the fact that the VA isn’t representative of the total U.S. population:
Among the limitations of the study is that patients in the VA system are not representative of the U.S. population as a whole, as they include few women and no children. (Still, the new findings echo those from the two pediatric-admissions studies.)
Also, like many medical centers, the VA has a policy to test every inpatient for COVID, but this is not a universal practice.
Lastly, most of the data—even from the patients admitted in 2021—derive from the phase of the pandemic before Delta became widespread, and it’s possible that the ratios have changed in recent months.
The study did run through June 30, however, when the Delta wave was about to break, and it did not find that the proportion of patients with moderate to severe respiratory distress was trending upward at the end of the observation period.
Overheard at the Center for Asymptomatic Disease:
Dr: So, how are you feeling today?
Patient: Pretty good!
Dr: Hmmm...
$$$$$$$$$$$$
Our vaccinated next door neighbor went to the emergency room for something unrelated to Covid... I think that she twisted her ankle. They were giving everyone waiting to be seen “Rapid” Covid tests. After waiting for a couple hours they came out and told her she had tested positive and that she would have to go to a different waiting area and wait some more. She got mad and and just left.
Exactly. If you’re asymptomatic, why are you even at the hospital, in theory you don’t even know you have Covid. I could see these being cases where someone went to the hospital for say a broken bone, bad cut, etc. But had to take a test once admitted because of hospital rules.
If people are getting Covid tests coming back positive but asymptomatic in the hospital is still admitting them, then you know the hospital is just in it for a scam to get more money. In cases like that, they really should be telling them to just stay home and Monitor your symptoms. If certain things get worse, then, contact your doctor, etc.
Fa
False positive tests.
Even if the hospital isn’t’ in it for the $$, Fauci and co. sure will use these meaningless figures to build up their scare tactics. This is yet another travesty.
The “asymptomatic” patients, per the article, are likely at the hospital for non-virus reasons e.g. cancer treatment, broken bone etc. They get tested at the hospital, presumably as part of standard procedure these days, and when they pop positive, the hospital gets to add the code for the virus to their treatment profile so now they’re also hospitalized related to the virus, which provides a nice extra revenue stream from the government and incidentally gets the patient recorded as a “Covid” patient and counted in the stats.
I could have treated her. Put ice on your ankle, take 3 aspirin, and wash it down with some Jack Daniels.
Only $20
Literally, no guidelines as to what to do with this disease. Unless you go to alternative sources and seek it out yourself. And most people aint gonna do that.
If presenting to a hospital with a mild case of COVID, many will send you home and tell you to come back if your breathing becomes difficult. People with asymptomatic COVID would not go to a hospital. So this survey is saying patients are being coded for COVID because they are at the hospital for something else.
They were likely hospitalized for something else and had a positive CoupFlu test while there.
We know folks who’ve been symptomatic with CoupFlu and couldn’t get treatment, let alone hospitalization, until they showed up at the ER presenting with COVID pneumonia.
They’re sending them home without treatment.
That is what I find unconscionable.
There are so many people I know who go to the doctor or ER for the slightest of symptoms and/or pain.
The last place I would want to end up is in/at a hospital.
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