I and others have been saying that in a post-vax era, with cases de-coupled from hospitalizations, we need to shift our focus from cases to hospitalizations as a measure of risk and for the purpose of policy-making. Tweet added by Shira Doron MD @ShiraDoronMD

Shira Doron MD

3 years

I and others have been saying that in a post-vax era, with cases de-coupled from hospitalizations, we need to shift our focus from cases to hospitalizations as a measure of risk and for the purpose of policy-making.

A roadmap for mask rules in Massachusetts schools

ON AUGUST 24, the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education approved a proposal by the commissioner of education to implement a mask

commonwealthbeacon.org

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Shira Doron MD

@ShiraDoronMD

3 years

At my hospital, every COVID+ inpatient is evaluated by an Infectious Disease specialist. We are seeing more fully vaccinated patients admitted now than a few months ago. But it turns out many are in the hospital for reasons *other than* COVID. Why does that matter? 🧵

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Shira Doron MD

@ShiraDoronMD

3 years

But if the hospitalization metric captures people admitted both *with* COVID and *for* COVID, decision-making will be based on flawed data. In August, Massachusetts DPH added a question about presence of symptoms to the daily reporting requirement. This isn’t working.

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Shira Doron MD

@ShiraDoronMD

3 years

These are sick people admitted to the hospital with a variety of conditions (heart failure, appendicitis, etc) with symptoms that overlap with COVID, and the people entering the data are not clinicians.

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Shira Doron MD

@ShiraDoronMD

3 years

@BranchWestyn and I and others looked at inpatients with COVID in a large VA database. By defining moderate to severe COVID as low oxygen or use of supplemental oxygen, we were able to show decreasing severity of illness in the post-vax era.

The COVID-19 Hospitalization Metric in the Pre- and Post-vaccination Eras as a Measure of Pandemic...

Importance: Since the early days of the pandemic, COVID-19 hospitalizations have been used as a measure of pandemic severity. However, case definitions do not include assessments of disease severity,...

www.researchsquare.com

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Shira Doron MD

@ShiraDoronMD

3 years

@davidzweig reported on this in @TheAtlantic but there was confusion among readers…to be clear, acknowledging that some patients with COVID are in the hospital for other reasons isn’t meant to minimize the suffering and death of others.

Our Most Reliable Pandemic Number Is Losing Meaning

A new study suggests that almost half of those hospitalized with COVID-19 have mild or asymptomatic cases.

www.theatlantic.com

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Shira Doron MD

@ShiraDoronMD

3 years

We need accurate data and metrics so we can understand the landscape of the pandemic and make appropriate decisions. I suggest that hospitals report COVID hospitalizations split into those who do and those who do not require supplemental oxygen. It’s not perfect, but it’s better.

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Minister of Truthy Things 🙊🙉🙈

@katealva

3 years

@ShiraDoronMD @bergerbell It was hospitalizations in March 2020 until the shift was made to cases.

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mamalionpack

@mamalionpack

3 years

@ShiraDoronMD Uh, this mattered in the pre-vax era too

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Crissy

@1983crissygenx

3 years

@ShiraDoronMD Why only post vax era? Why didn’t it matter for children last year when it was found 45% of ped hospitalizations were coincidental to covid??

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