Incidental Hospitalizations

This topic is reflective of Minnesota DOH’s epidemic-long habit of issuing misleading information and refusing to release data in its possession which would provide a more accurate picture of events.  The DOH has consistently attributed hospitalizations  to CV-19 which have nothing to do with it and even worse, includes some cases in which CV-19 was actually transmitted in the hospital.  The number is astounding.  DOH knows the truth and simply won’t release it or minimizes it.  As Dave points out, it is absurd to include only people who test positive after 14 days in the hospital as catching the infection in the facility.  If you come in with a recent or on admission negative test, any subsequent positive test means you got it in the hospital.  As Dave’s charts show, right now about 10% of hospitalizations are attributed to the facility, but I think the reality is far higher, probably three times higher.  DOH has the data that would answer this question but won’t release it.  The issue of hospitalizatons which are actually for another reason is even worse.  Hospitals now routinely say that 70% or more of supposed CV-19 hospitalizations are actually for another reason.

So the reality is that maybe 10% or 15% of CV-19 reported hospitalizations are truly for treatment of an infection. Dave has repeatedly requested better data and DOH simply won’t provide it.

Dave’s notes:

1. These charts illustrate the number of Minnesota Covid hospital patients who are classified as having “Hospital Onset Covid”, defined as testing positive for Covid only after being hospitalized for 14 days for a non-Covid illness. This post is an update of the hospital onset Covid charts last published on 7/26/2022 here: https://healthy-skeptic.com/2022/07/26/hospital-onset-cv-19-updated/.
2. The chart in Fig. 1 illustrates the total number of Covid hospital beds in use each day in Minnesota (blue curve), and the number of Hospital Onset Covid beds in use each day (orange curve). On this scale Hospital Onset Covid does not seem to be that big of a problem, but we only have data for the total number of Covid beds in use each day, and not how many are hospitalized for 14 days. The population of people hospitalized for non-Covid illnesses for 14 days is surely fairly small, and it is therefore likely that a large percentage of these people test positive for Covid. We also do not know how many people test positive for Covid at less than 14 days. Surely there are many people who test positive at 7 days or 10 days, having been exposed while hospitalized. We have submitted several Government Data Practices Act Requests to the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) trying to get more data to answer some of these questions.
3. The chart in Fig. 2 illustrates the number of people with Hospital Onset Covid (orange curve) and the percentage of all Covid beds in use which were classified as Hospital Onset Covid (black curve). Recently, on 12/19/2022, 8.8% of all Covid patients were those who were Hospital Onset Covid. This was the highest percentage since there were 8.9% Hospital Onset Covid on 4/26/2022. The all-time high was 9.6% on 3/21/2022.
4. The US Department of Health and Human Services publishes a database titled “COVID-19 Reported Patient Impact and Hospital Capacity by State Timeseries” here: https://healthdata.gov/Hospital/COVID-19-Reported-Patient-Impact-and-Hospital-Capa/g62h-syeh This database, in Column 9, contains a number series named “hospital_onset_covid”, defined as “Total current inpatients with onset of suspected or laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 fourteen or more days after admission for a condition other than COVID-19 in this state.” This data set for hospital onset covid, when filtered for Minnesota, and plotted.
5. Note that the number of Hospital Onset Covid patients is the total number of patients who have been hospitalized for 14 days, then test positive for Covid, and are still hospitalized on any given day. This is not the number of patients per day who test positive for Covid after having been hospitalized for 14 days.
6. Note also that Hospital Onset Covid patients are completely different from incidental Covid cases, where a  patient is admitted for a non-Covid condition and then immediately tests positive for Covid. It has been reported that as many as 50% to 75% of Covid hospitalizations were originally admitted for non-Covid illnesses (https://www.startribune.com/covid-19-levels-stubbornly-stagnant-in-minnesota/600201117/).