The claim
Vaccinated people are more susceptible to corona infections and a severe course of the disease. That's why more intensive care beds are occupied by vaccinated people than unvaccinated people, as Divi data shows.
Our conclusion
The claim is false, the data was inadequately analyzed and statistical sources of error were not taken into account. It is also logical that the more people who have been vaccinated overall, the higher their proportion of intensive care patients is. From the DIVI data it cannot be concluded that the vaccination is ineffective.
DIVI data spreads across the internet
The German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (DIVI) regularly publishes data on the occupancy of intensive care units in hospitals. In this context, a percentage distribution according to vaccination status (patients with or without vaccination) is also listed. A statistic that has been receiving intensive care occupancy values up to four times a month since the beginning of 2022 is currently being distributed online, including on Facebook.
You can see how the number of vaccinated people in intensive care units increased significantly at the end of January. At the end of October it should now be around 90% and the number of unvaccinated people only just over 10%. With the help of these statistics, many opponents of vaccination support their thesis that the corona vaccination is ineffective.
Misleading analysis by anti-vaxxers
The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) explicitly states, among other things, in its current monthly report from November 3, 2022 : “It should be noted that the vaccination information from the intensive care register is not suitable for assessing the effectiveness of the vaccination.”
As the German Press Agency (dpa) reports , DIVI itself also repeatedly comments on its data in the statistics. A press release dated October 7th, 2022 states that among the Covid-19 patients in the intensive care units “cases are also listed (…) that require intensive care treatment due to another illness and in which the Sars-CoV- 2-Diagnosis is not the focus of the disease or treatment”.
Update November 15th, 2022 / The German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine eV sent us the following addition to this topic: “What is definitely very clear at the moment: the patients in the intensive care units with a positive PCR test are already older! 60% are older than 70 years and 83% are older than 60 years. With increasing age, the immune system is no longer as strong, takes longer to build up antibodies and also builds up significantly less, and the likelihood of possible further illnesses increases significantly. An 83-year-old patient who is currently undergoing high-level chemotherapy and has been vaccinated four times against COVID will most likely suffer a severe course because the body no longer has any reserves of strength to counter the virus. This is just an example of one of the many images that we are currently receiving from all sides of the intensive care units and that is why we emphasize very clearly that “the situation is completely different than last winter, when the average age of the patients was around 20 years younger and rarely a pre-existing illness made a severe course likely.” It is the advanced age and multimorbidity of intensive care patients that make it clear why vaccination plays less of a role in these patients.”
This means that it is not just the data of those who are being intensively treated in hospital for Covid-19 that is included in the statistics. Instead, all other people who are in the intensive care unit due to other illnesses and suddenly receive a positive corona test are also counted.
Why is the number of vaccinated intensive care patients so high?
In Germany, a very large part of the population (now almost 78% ) has been vaccinated against SARS-CoV 2 at least once. Accordingly, it is logical that significantly more vaccinated people than unvaccinated people have to be treated in intensive care units. , according to the RKI it is not unusual that the probability of a vaccination breakthrough (i.e. symptomatic illness despite a vaccination) increases when the proportion of vaccinated people in the population increases.
Furthermore, statistical errors must also be assumed in the DIVI data; namely because not all intensive care patients are recorded as to whether they have been vaccinated or not. Both the DIVI and the RKI confirm that between October 3rd and 30th, 2022, only half of the intensive care patients with a positive corona test had information about the vaccination status. So far from all of the people treated were included in the statistics shared on Facebook, which is why it does not make sense to use the above data source as evidence of the ineffectiveness of the corona vaccination.
Conclusion
Vaccines are and remain very effective against severe Corona disease. Many studies have shown this .
The DIVI data is not meaningful enough to judge the effect of corona vaccinations. This is due to both statistical errors and the fact that all people who contract Covid during their stay in the intensive care unit are included in the statistics. It cannot be concluded that vaccinated people become seriously ill with Covid more often than unvaccinated people.
Author: Nick L.
Source:
RKI – current monthly report (PDF) , dpa , DIVI – press release , ZDF , RKI – FAQ
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