Juno News - January 13, 2022


Half of Ontario's COVID hospitalizations are ＂incidental＂


Episode Stats

Length

2 minutes

Words per Minute

179.82555

Word Count

536

Sentence Count

26


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 The Ontario government quietly dropped quite the bombshell on Tuesday morning,
00:00:09.840 changing the way they publicly report COVID-19 hospitalization and ICU data.
00:00:16.760 They have now introduced into the mix something called incidental hospitalizations.
00:00:21.460 What does that mean?
00:00:22.640 Well, anytime anybody goes to a hospital in Ontario,
00:00:26.120 and this is happening in jurisdictions all around the world as well,
00:00:28.440 you are tested for COVID-19 upon admission.
00:00:32.060 Now, there are people showing up for a whole bunch of reasons,
00:00:34.240 for a heart attack, for a broken leg, you name it,
00:00:37.160 and some of those people are testing positive for COVID-19,
00:00:41.580 mild symptoms, no symptoms at all,
00:00:44.100 and yet they are being counted as a COVID hospitalization,
00:00:48.000 even though they are not suffering from COVID-19.
00:00:51.260 Now, I was first told about this phenomenon a number of months ago.
00:00:54.300 Doctors said, this is something that's happening.
00:00:56.340 We're not sure to what degree it's going on, but it's something you want to watch for.
00:01:00.560 And then, as Omicron appeared, doctors said,
00:01:03.340 we think this thing is actually going to get much more significant,
00:01:06.500 the number of incidental hospitalizations,
00:01:08.900 because Omicron, while it's much milder, much more transmissible.
00:01:12.280 So we all know the stories.
00:01:13.500 There's many people out there.
00:01:15.200 You've got your colleagues, your friends, your family members saying,
00:01:17.680 it tested positive for this virus.
00:01:19.220 Now, maybe it's mild, very mild, asymptomatic.
00:01:22.340 Similar thing, of course, happening in the hospital setting.
00:01:25.000 And many people are being counted as COVID hospitalizations,
00:01:28.300 even though that's not the reason why they're in hospital.
00:01:32.100 Now, it was just a few days ago that Ontario actually changed their data entry software.
00:01:36.320 So there's a little toggle on there, a little drop-down box where they can say,
00:01:41.140 no, COVID-19 is not actually the cause of admission.
00:01:44.760 It's not the primary cause of them being in a hospital.
00:01:46.700 So what do the numbers show?
00:01:48.380 Well, the numbers actually now show that about half,
00:01:52.340 half of the hospitalization numbers in Ontario for COVID-19
00:01:55.900 are people who are not actually in hospital because they are suffering from COVID-19.
00:02:01.880 Now, when it comes to ICU numbers, the reported number is much more accurate,
00:02:05.380 but they do reveal that 17% of the persons in ICU occupancy,
00:02:10.740 those are incidental hospitalizations.
00:02:13.320 Now, there's a lot of discussion, debate about what these numbers mean
00:02:16.500 and the utility of them and what you should do with them.
00:02:18.480 But when we are told that pretty much the sole reason that our lives have been curtailed,
00:02:23.640 society has been shut down, children are being denied schooling,
00:02:26.520 is because there's a certain number of persons who are in the ICU in hospital with COVID-19,
00:02:31.980 you want to make sure you get that number accurate.
00:02:34.300 And we've learned that the numbers that we've been hearing more recently,
00:02:37.540 well, they're kind of not so accurate.
00:02:39.380 There's a nuance, a piece of context that's been missing.
00:02:42.680 Well, now it's good news that we are revealing these numbers
00:02:45.400 and these numbers are getting out there.
00:02:47.240 The Saskatchewan government has also presented that data,
00:02:50.800 lots of calls for provinces all across Canada to do the same.
00:02:54.040 And basically, the more information,
00:02:56.080 the more data that can help us make informed decisions, the better.