I don't think the reaction was hysterical, the united States ranks 14 out of over 200 countries for most deaths to COVID per capita, and we don't even have high population density.
Considering how drastic the excess deaths of 2020 and 2021 are relative to previous years, I have a decent amount of faith in the number of deaths reported to be caused by covid.
Tons of people are skipping routine screening and exams. Lots of people are straight up avoiding any medical treatment out of fear of catching Covid. (including routine vaccination!). Raw numbers aren’t helpful here.
Of course they weren't. It takes a while for a PCR test result. When someone comes in with "Respiratory problems" on admittance that's not a surprise that they are not diagnosed with COVID immediately is it?
If HN turns into the thought police when it comes to COVID, that would be a very bad sign for this site.
Don't you understand where all of the animosity from so many people comes from? It comes out of disdain for people like you, who suggest that other opinions and interpretations of statistics are wrongthink and that wrongthink must be punished.
In this case though a user has tried to link something as obvious as "hospitals don't know on admission that you have covid, they just know you're sick" to try to claim that there's some conspiracy.
It's a clear attempt at misinformation and should not be tolerated.
These people went to the hospital and were admitted for X. X being any number of medical conditions requiring hospitalization. You can be admitted for the reason “person is sick”, you need some diagnosis or complaint, however vague
They later tested positive for Covid.
How is that misinformation?
If people come to the hospital with complaints of fever or breathing difficulties, they can do a covid test prior to admission to determine if they are positive.
I’d say it’s misinformation to claim those people were hospitalized because of covid, which is what the original reporting suggested.
They excluded “complications of Covid” so positive test wasn’t needed, could be suspected Covid as well.
Are you really that shocked that people are being hospitalized for reasons other than Covid? I mean, do you think people who have Covid and another problem just don’t go to the hospital?
*in reported numbers. That's a massively important caveat, since many countries are not reporting properly (i.e. Russia's death toll is likely 3-5 times the reported one, and India had at least a million deaths, but the reported number is 480K)
Would be better to compare excess deaths per capita (instead of reported COVID deaths)
There are multiple reports that these are reported deaths with Covid, not because of Covid. And there is a big question of bias given how hospitals were financially rewarded by covid cases. Also strong lockdowns and high do not strongly correlate with hospitalizations or deaths.
Looking at excess deaths per capita (over trend) gives you a good-enough estimate of effects of COVID. Countries like New Zealand are actually below trend (negative deaths from COVID, even with similar lockdowns)
Correlation doesn't mean causation. Solitude, substance abuse, stress and economic hardships are all known linked causes that tend to drastically increase death rates. Drug overdoses killed nearly 100k people last year alone, not even counting the indirect or unreported deaths
Also you're comparing apple to oranges. Contrary to most Western countries, New-Zealand focused on sealing their country away, meaning they didn't have to have harsh lock downs for a long time.
