If only someone had suggested this two years ago — oh, wait a minute
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COVID hospitalization numbers set to soar
New York hospitals admit nearly HALF of their COVID patients were admitted for unrelated maladies
Under pressure from Governor Kathy Hochul, hospitals in New York have disclosed that nearly half of their so-called COVID-19 patients currently hospitalized were admitted for other reasons.
Of the roughly 11,500 COVID-19 patients currently hospitalized in the state, COVID was not included as one of the reasons for admission for 43 percent, according to data Hochul released on Friday.
In New York City, the rate was even higher, with 51 percent of current COVID patients classified as 'with' COVID, as opposed to 'for' the virus.
In patients 'with' COVID, they were hospitalized for unrelated reasons, such as injuries in a car crash, but tested positive for the virus on the routine screening administered to all new patients and were subsequently reclassified as COVID admissions.
Hochul explained at a press conference on Friday that the state has seen a sharp increase in covid hospitalizations during the Omicron surge, but she wanted to know whether severe infections were actually driving the surge.
'This has troubled me, what do those numbers actually mean?,' she said. 'Who is being admitted for covid purposes that they're sick enough to have to be hospitalized for covid, it's that severe, versus people who are admitted to hospital...who are in there for other reasons?'
'Think of all the other reasons people end up in a hospital. It's an overdose, it's a car accident, it's a heart attack,' Hochul said.
Hochul issued her order to change the reporting methods for covid hospitalizations on Monday, but did not get the first breakdown until Friday.
The governor explained that she was prompted to investigate the issue after noticing that the number of people hospitalized for any reason had remained roughly steady since December 21, even while the share of new admissions testing positive for COVID surged from 16 to 42 percent.
Disgraced former governor Andrew Cuomo never revealed this key distinction in the earlier phases of the pandemic, and Hochul, a Democrat, won praise even from conservatives for shedding light on the issue.
'The breakdown should go a long way to calming needless fears, since getting hit so hard by the virus that you need hospital care is the main worry for most of us,' wrote the New York Post editorial board.
'What a change from her predecessor, who actively concealed information at the height of the pandemic,' the editorial added.
The linked-to article goes on to report that studies are showing Omicron to be up tp 99% less lethal than Delta and, at worse, no more dangerous than the ordinary flu,. Not that the flu can’t be serious, to some people, but those with long memories will be able to remember the 2019 flu season, say, and recall that we didn’t shut down the country to prevent its transmission.
