Coronavirus cases have risen in major cities. Hospitalizations have not.

[brooklynite]

New York Times

A couple of weeks ago, the news was full of stories about high-profile people contracting Covid-19. The list included Attorney General Merrick Garland, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, other members of Congress (like Joaquin Castro, Susan Collins, Adam Schiff and Raphael Warnock), New York Mayor Eric Adams and several Broadway stars (like Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick and Daniel Craig).

Some of these infected celebrities were not exactly young. Collins and Garland are both 69. Pelosi is 82.

So far, however, none of their cases appears to be severe. As David Weigel, a Washington Post reporter, noted yesterday:

Link to tweet

These anecdotes are part of a trend. In several places where the number of cases has risen in recent weeks, hospitalizations have stayed flat. (In past Covid waves, by contrast, hospitalizations began rising about a week after cases did.)

This is why nobody is willing to fight to keep mask regulations.

[Blues Heron]

1. Didnt hospitalizations double in St Louis - somebody posted that this AM

Last edited Tue Apr 19, 2022, 12:33 PM - Edit history (1)

that seems significant if we get a few more doublings.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=2905328

[SoonerPride]

2. I posted this before: case counts are now essentially meaningless

This is our new reality.

Vaccinated and boosted populations will contract Covid and variants, but the vast majority won't be hospitalized and a vanishingly small number will die.

The unvaccinated population continues to be the driver of hospitalizations and deaths.

But case counts in and of themselves are essentially meaningless.

[Blues Heron]

3. not quite - hospitalizations are still a function of case counts- more cases is a bad thing

We still dont want a boatload of people getting sick and clogging up the hospitals. That is not good.

Fewer cases is definitely better for all, so it follows that we try to reduce the spread however we can.

[SoonerPride]

4. Case counts are up and hospitalizations are not.

See the OP.

[Blues Heron]

5. check this link - St. Louis is seeing hosp. go up - by 100 percent

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=2905328

[SoonerPride]

6. That shows one hospital at 100%. Not a 100% increase in hospitalizations.

Those are different metrics.

And again, unvaccinated people are driving hospitalizations.

You cannot look at a small subset of the data, like one hospital in one city.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html

Daily Avg. on Apr. 18 14-Day Change Total Reported
Cases 39,152 +43% 80,595,074
Tests 765,515 +3% —
Hospitalized 14,653 –6% —
In I.C.U.s 1,918 –19% —
Deaths 425 –33% 987,545


Hospitalizations are down 6% even while cases are up 43%.

The facts don't support your narrative.

[Blues Heron]

7. Hope you are right.

[NutmegYankee]

8. Keep in mind some hospitals have only a few ICU beds.

The hospital nearest me greatly expanded their ICU space during the worst of covid but has now dropped back to normal levels of ICU beds. So as a percentage, they went up dramatically, but now with only 12 beds instead of 50 like over winter. All 12 beds are occupied, but the hospital only has 2 Covid patients total.

[Blues Heron]

11. I still think a percentage of Covid cases will end up in the hospital

So to that extent hospitalizations will inevitably follow the case count count by whatever lag time . No one is saying that it doesnt put people in the hospital at a certain rate are they? So increased case counts are definitely not good.

Good point about the ICU availability numbers.

[NutmegYankee]

12. They will, but its manageable now

My local hospital has over 150 regular beds and 12 ICU beds. It only has 2 Corona Virus patients right now. This is a state where >80% of the population is vaccinated.

[Blues Heron]

14. Thanks

Glad to hear that. lets hope this wave is not too bad.

[Blues Heron]

15. According to the CDC hospitalizations are up 5 percent from the previous week

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#new-hospital-admissions

1520/day avg. from 4/11 to 4/17

Up from

1440/day avg. from 4/4 to 4/10

[WhiskeyGrinder]

9. Long covid affects plenty of people who are never hospitalized.

Never-ending doctor appointments and specialist appointments, curtailed activities and working ability, desperately searching for answers and relief...there are plenty of terrible things covid can bring, besides hospitalization.

[CrackityJones75]

17. Well...

What is “plenty of people”? Who are those people? What is their vax status? What are their other health conditions? Age? Etc. etc. etc….


If we think we are going to ask the population of earth to greatly change the entire way of life of the species then…. Good luck. It will probably be an effective cleansing of the earth’s cancer known as humans.

But likely there will be some people get sick, have some long term effects (even bad effects) but at some point people are going to move past masking and distancing as a mandate. To me it sure as shit doesn’t make sense to make it an election year ballot issue given that truth.

[Nevilledog]

10. New York COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations rise 13%

https://www.lohud.com/story/news/2022/04/18/new-york-covid-cases-hospitalizations-rising-omicron-variants-spread/65350615007/

[LisaL]

13. Oopsie. He spoke too soon.

Hospitalizations in New York are now going up too.

[leftstreet]

16. Well, as long as the for profit hospitals are okay

We the peons getting sick, missing work, contracting long Covid symptoms - no worries.