The very official report from the Agence technique de l’information sur l’hospitalisation (ATIH) is troubling. In particular, we learn that Covid-19 patients represented “only” 2% of hospitalizations in 2020!
“We can debate everything but the figures”, says the TV ad to force the French to get vaccinated. So let’s look at the most official figures, those of the Agence technique de l’information sur l’hospitalisation (ATIH) as they appear in its latest report (below).
All for this!
Big surprise. We thought, like all French people, that this surge of Covid-19 during the year 2020 had saturated the hospitals. As in wartime, patients had to be transferred from one region to another by TGV or by plane. The images were spectacular. Every evening, on television, experts announced the Apocalypse, the end of times, the possible disappearance of humanity. The political authorities took the decision to confine all citizens of this country (as well as others) from March 17 to May 11, 2020. Then the health pass was imposed on us. Then the vaccination obligation. The economy, at a standstill, was bailed out with billions. We had to react “whatever it takes”.
Now, the figures from the ATIH give us another vision of the epidemic. We finally have the real figures. And they tell us that Covid patients represent “only” 2% of hospitalizations.
4 million hospital days
It says: “218,000 patients were hospitalized for COVID-19 management. COVID patients represent 2% of all patients hospitalized during the year 2020, all hospital fields combined. On average, these COVID patients were hospitalized for 18.2 days during the year 2020. Thus, across all hospital fields, COVID-19 care represented more than 4 million hospital days. One in five patients hospitalized for COVID-19 died during their hospitalization. Of all hospital deaths during 2020, 11% involved COVID patients.”
Comorbidity and the elderly
A little further on, some details about the peak of the first wave: “The number of in-hospital deaths of COVID patients was maximal on Friday, April 3, 2020, when 583 patients with COVID-19 died during hospitalization.”
Regarding the profile of hospitalized patients, we learn that “72% of hospitalized patients had one or more pre-existing comorbidities.”
The rate of hospitalization also varied greatly by age group. The hospitalization rate for COVID in 2020 is less than 100 patients per 100,000 population for those under 35 years of age, remains less than 200 per 100,000 for those under 50 years of age, and then rises rapidly to 316 per 100,000 for those 50-64 years of age, 597 per 100,000 for those 64-74 years of age, 1,192 per 100,000 for those 75-84 years of age, 2,645 per 100,000 for those 85-94 years of age, and rises to 4,241 patients per 100,000 population for those 95 years of age or older. ”
In other words, one out of every three patients who died was over the age of 80.
This is true. We can argue about anything but the numbers!
Hospital activity analysis 2020