From OKHPR Research Team Member Shane Smith:
The “four largest hospitals” in OK, who are again crying wolf regarding “no beds”, have been raking in the big bucks from the federal gov’t throughout the pandemic. Here are the totals for Integris, Mercy, SSM, and OU Health. How much of this federal cash has gone to increasing capacity for more patients?
Furthermore, I want to highlight some information from the latest OSDH epidemiology report. Non-vaccinated patients make up only 71.2% of hospitalizations in this report. Most hospitals are defining ‘vaccinated” as a person who has been fully vaccinated (1 or 2 doses, depending on the brand of vaccine) AND has received at least 1 booster dose. The last dose must have been received 2 or more weeks before infection to be considered “fully vaccinated”. Almost all the hospitalizations are still happening in the age groups with the highest vaccination rates. Also, compare this most recent wave with previous ones. The wave of cases is enormous, but the wave of deaths isn’t. This seems to confirm that COVID is becoming more virulent, but less dangerous. Including the latest ICU numbers for OK. ICUs are still not overflowing.
