[BostonCard]

Across the US, cases have sextupled from mid-November, hospital use has merely doubled, so yeah, the risk of hospitalization is about 1/3 that of earlier variants (actually it’s a bit higher, because people are spending less time in the hospital).  So, indeed on an individual level, if a vaccinated, low risk person gets COVID, they are most likely not going to get hospitalized.  However, from a systems level, given the sheer number of people who have gotten COVID, a lot of hospitals are starting to fill up again.  There are currently 125,000 people hospitalized with COVID, and the total number of hospital beds in the entire country is only 900,000.  Given that case numbers are still rising, and hospitalizations lag behind cases, there is a legit risk that even with the fact that omicron does appear to be milder, that we will see up to a quarter of hospital beds used up by victims of COVID.  Since it is not like we have 200,000 hospital beds lying fallow just in case, it means that COVID victims start to crowd out other reasons to be in the hospital.  First elective surgeries, then elective admissions for things like chemotherapy for cancer.

BC

[BostonCard]

Across the US, cases have sextupled from mid-November, hospital use has merely doubled, so yeah, the risk of hospitalization is about 1/3 that of earlier variants (actually it’s a bit higher, because people are spending less time in the hospital).  So, indeed on an individual level, if a vaccinated, low risk person gets COVID, they are most likely not going to get hospitalized.  However, from a systems level, given the sheer number of people who have gotten COVID, a lot of hospitals are starting to fill up again.  There are currently 125,000 people hospitalized with COVID, and the total number of hospital beds in the entire country is only 900,000.  Given that case numbers are still rising, and hospitalizations lag behind cases, there is a legit risk that even with the fact that omicron does appear to be milder, that we will see up to a quarter of hospital beds used up by victims of COVID.  Since it is not like we have 200,000 hospital beds lying fallow just in case, it means that COVID victims start to crowd out other reasons to be in the hospital.  First elective surgeries, then elective admissions for things like chemotherapy for cancer.

BC