Version 1
: Received: 19 November 2022 / Approved: 28 November 2022 / Online: 28 November 2022 (06:38:08 CET)
Version 2
: Received: 15 April 2023 / Approved: 18 April 2023 / Online: 18 April 2023 (11:02:35 CEST)
How to cite:
Joffe, A.; Milburn, C. Avoidable Intensive Care Resource Use of Unvaccinated COVID-19 Patients: Interpretation and Policy Implications. Preprints2022, 2022110497. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202211.0497.v1
Joffe, A.; Milburn, C. Avoidable Intensive Care Resource Use of Unvaccinated COVID-19 Patients: Interpretation and Policy Implications. Preprints 2022, 2022110497. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202211.0497.v1
Joffe, A.; Milburn, C. Avoidable Intensive Care Resource Use of Unvaccinated COVID-19 Patients: Interpretation and Policy Implications. Preprints2022, 2022110497. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202211.0497.v1
APA Style
Joffe, A., & Milburn, C. (2022). Avoidable Intensive Care Resource Use of Unvaccinated COVID-19 Patients: Interpretation and Policy Implications. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202211.0497.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Joffe, A. and Chris Milburn. 2022 "Avoidable Intensive Care Resource Use of Unvaccinated COVID-19 Patients: Interpretation and Policy Implications" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202211.0497.v1
Abstract
We aim to use a recently published research study as an example in order to demonstrate how data can be misinterpreted and result in deriving misleading policy implications. Bagshaw et al wrote that unvaccinated patients with COVID-19 in Alberta, Canada “had substantially greater rates of ICU admissions, ICU bed days, and ICU related costs than vaccinated patients did. This increased resource use would have been potentially avoidable had these unvaccinated patients been vaccinated.” The authors in Bagshaw et al then concluded that their findings “have important implications for discourse on the relative balance of increasingly stringent public health protection (restrictions), including mandatory vaccination policies, and the sustainability and function of health system infrastructure and capacity during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.” Here we show the following. First, the effect of vaccination on intensive care admissions were grossly over-estimated. Second, an effect of vaccination on access to acute care and on all-cause excess deaths was grossly over-stated. Third, policy implications were overstated and at best unclear. Overall, the data cannot support what Bagshaw et al called “increasingly stringent public health protection (restrictions), including mandatory vaccination policies”.
Keywords
COVID-19; intensive care unit; resource use; vaccination
Subject
Public Health and Healthcare, Health Policy and Services
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
