Nearly half of the cases of COVID-19 hospitalized in VA in the United States have been asymptomatic or mild, according to a new study by researchers at Harvard Medical School, Tufts Medical Center, and the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System.
The new study examined the record of nearly 50,000 COVID-19 hospital admissions to more than 100 VA hospitals across America. The researchers found that in the pandemic era, prior to vaccination, before the Delta, from March 2020 to January 2021, 36% of hospitalized patients had a mild or asymptomatic infection. However, from January 2021 to the end of June 2021, the proportion increased to 48%.
THE STUDY suggests that almost half of Covid’s hospitalizations are for mild, asymptomatic, or incidental cases.
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The results were better for the vaccinated than the unvaccinated: 57% of vaccinated hospitalized patients had mild or asymptomatic cases, compared with 45% of the unvaccinated. Dr. Shira Doron of Tufts Medical Center, who worked on the project, said the high proportion of non-serious unvaccinated cases may be due to vaccination of fewer young people or vaccination of more people with some level of immunity. natural.
The patient population in VA hospitals is not representative of the general U.S. population, but previous pediatric studies also support the results. The researchers behind the new paper defined mild cases as those that did not require oxygen supplementation or achieve a blood oxygen level below 94%. (RELATED: Nearly 60% of Americans support Biden’s vaccine mandates, in polls)
Hospitalizations have been a key metric for health experts to measure the severity of the pandemic. It may be preferable to death counts, which are a backward indicator and do not take into account the serious cases that are retained, or case counts, which may fluctuate depending on regimes and frequency of testing. (RELATED: ANALYSIS: Biden said it would shut down the virus. Now the pandemic has no end in sight)
However, prior to this study, little comprehensive research had been done to determine what proportion of hospitalized cases are serious or life-threatening. The federal government requires states and localities to report all hospitalized cases of COVID-19 under one category, regardless of severity, and many hospitals also test patients admitted for any reason of COVID-19. If these patients also have COVID-19, they are usually counted as COVID-19 hospitalization, even if this is not the reason for their hospitalization, leading to a substantial number of asymptomatic hospitalizations.