Submitted:
19 November 2022
Posted:
28 November 2022
Read the latest preprint version here
Preprints on COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2
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
Copyright: This open access article is published under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license, which permit the free download, distribution, and reuse, provided that the author and preprint are cited in any reuse.