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How many of you know the (non-vaccinated) Covid hospitalization rate without googling it?

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Replies

  • 33gail33
    33gail33 Posts: 1,155 Member
    cmriverside wrote: »
    @33gail33

    We had that exact same scenario about triaging here in the PNW, U.S. It didn't actually happen, but I think it did scare people enough to start being more cautious. I know NY had a lack of availability and many people allegedly were sent home to die (last year.) How much of that is true and how much of it is just alarmist messaging, I don't have any way to know.


    I think hospitals operate on a pretty small margin of ICU availability as it is. My understanding from talking with people who work in hospitals is that it is possible to ramp up ICU availability and they do when it becomes necessary but their profits are driven by elective and emergency surgeries, medical treatments, and procedures like chemo and dialysis. ICU is super expensive, and the problem is lack of qualified staffing...so part of the messaging is from a PR/hospital viewpoint, too. It's a balancing act that is difficult to do for them, and part of the messaging has to be dollar driven I'm sure.

    It's a bit different here, we have universal health care and our hospitals are government funded and non profit. It is dollar driven in the sense that they are taxpayer funded and have a budget, but I think the issue is more that they don't have the staff to monitor many more ICU beds, or space I guess for the equipment they need? Not really sure. But from a financial perspective there is no way the government would come out and say there was any sort of financial cap on how much funding they would provide - that would not fly here.
  • 33gail33
    33gail33 Posts: 1,155 Member
    cmriverside wrote: »
    33gail33 wrote: »
    cmriverside wrote: »
    @33gail33

    We had that exact same scenario about triaging here in the PNW, U.S. It didn't actually happen, but I think it did scare people enough to start being more cautious. I know NY had a lack of availability and many people allegedly were sent home to die (last year.) How much of that is true and how much of it is just alarmist messaging, I don't have any way to know.


    I think hospitals operate on a pretty small margin of ICU availability as it is. My understanding from talking with people who work in hospitals is that it is possible to ramp up ICU availability and they do when it becomes necessary but their profits are driven by elective and emergency surgeries, medical treatments, and procedures like chemo and dialysis. ICU is super expensive, and the problem is lack of qualified staffing...so part of the messaging is from a PR/hospital viewpoint, too. It's a balancing act that is difficult to do for them, and part of the messaging has to be dollar driven I'm sure.

    It's a bit different here, we have universal health care and our hospitals are government funded and non profit. It is dollar driven in the sense that they are taxpayer funded and have a budget, but I think the issue is more that they don't have the staff to monitor many more ICU beds, or space I guess for the equipment they need? Not really sure. But from a financial perspective there is no way the government would come out and say there was any sort of financial cap on how much funding they would provide - that would not fly here.


    Of course. That wouldn't fly here, either.

    It's just not like they can get a whole bunch of newly trained ICU staff...it's not something that can be trained in a few months. People here in the U.S. are not generally flocking to the nursing profession ever, but especially right now.

    There's only so much that can be done and we're all being called on to do our parts...in the U.S at least there are many MANY people who just refuse.


    They can refuse their masks and their vaccinations and they can continue to chat in groups at their peril.

    It's not like they haven't been warned.



    Yesterday I had to step off the sidewalk into the street on a walk when I approached an elderly man who wore no mask. My mask was in my pocket and it was just easier to step off the sidewalk than to put it on - and I was just going to walk past him but he called out, "I don't know why people are wearing masks, they don't do any good."

    I said, "I have one, it's in my pocket."

    I stopped and asked him if he was okay (he was sitting with his legs on the sidewalk.)

    "Yeah, I'm just weed whacking. I'm 85, it's hard to get back up." (He did get back up just fine, I didn't just ignore that.)

    I said, "Well, you got vaccinated, right?"

    "NO! The vaccination is more dangerous than the thing."


    Me, "Okay then. Have a nice day."

    I don't wear a mask outside, but I live in the suburbs and can easily stay away from people.
    Part of what doctors are complaining about here is the whole emphasis on the "do our part" thing. Their point is that there is a lot of shaming about people not following the guidelines, but the reality here is that the people who are getting sick and dying now are essential workers who are still too young to be eligible for the vaccine, and their families (especially in multi generational households). So basically people who may be doing everything right, but can't work from home, and are not getting the protection they need in their workplaces.
  • Theo166
    Theo166 Posts: 2,564 Member
    The non-vax hospitalization rate should roughly be the same as the hospitalization rate before we had the vaccine, if anything it should be improving since people with higher risk conditions and the old are getting vaccinated and stepping out of the population.

    It's 178 per 100k, or about 0.2%

    https://www.statista.com/statistics/1122354/covid-19-us-hospital-rate-by-age/
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