Omicron hits American hospitals disproportionately hard
Omicron hits American hospitals disproportionately hard
Caitlin Owens at Axios
Data: Our World in Data; Chart: Will Chase/Axios
https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-america-hospitals-omicron-europe-f6a57184-d944-4b67-9d81-ebf3636d0096.html
"SNIP.......
America is seeing more COVID hospitalizations than other wealthy countries during the Omicron surge, according to Our World in Data.
Why it matters: Vaccines keep the vast majority of COVID cases out of the hospital, but vaccination rates are also lower in the U.S. than these other countries.
* U.S. hospitals — particularly the health care workers that staff them — are struggling to keep up with the workload.
The big picture: The Omicron variant is less likely to lead to hospitalization than other variants, data suggests, but it's so transmissible that hospitalizations are spiking anyways.
* In the U.S., there are more people hospitalized with COVID than at any other point during the pandemic.
* Some of these hospitalizations are people who require care for other conditions, but also have tested positive for COVID. But health care workers and experts say that regardless of why a COVID patient is in the hospital, they still add strain to the system.
* At least some other countries' hospitalization counts also appear to include incidental cases, per news reports.
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The graph at the link is graphic.
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