(WWJ) Just under 4,700 people are hospitalized across Michigan with a confirmed or suspected case of COVID-19.
The Michigan Health and Hospital Association reported hospitalizations jumped 88% statewide in the past month. With COVID-19 hospitalizations as high as they have ever been at any point in the pandemic, it may seem easy to ask: are the vaccines still working?
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Medical experts said the statistics show that vaccines continue to provide “significant protection” against hospitalization and death.
Breaking Down the Numbers:
The State Overall:
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services reports—72% of COVID-19 hospitalizations (1,134 of 1,584) reported across Michigan between late October and late November were among individuals who were not fully vaccinated.
76% of deaths (588 of 722) statewide in that same time frame were among not fully vaccinated individuals.
The Michigan Health and Hospitalization Association reports, as of November 29, about 88% of Michiganders statewide who are on ventilators or in critical care units were not fully vaccinated.
Fully vaccinated is defined as two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
NOTE: Fully vaccinated includes those who received the booster, but you do not have to have received a booster to be considered fully vaccinated” by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) current standards. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is urging all Michiganders 16+ to get a booster shot if they are six months or more after their second dose of the mRNA vaccine, or 2 months out from their Johnson & Johnson vaccines. Only the Pfizer vaccine has been approved for 16 and 17-year-olds.
Unvaccinated means a person has had no doses of any of the three vaccines.
Individual Health Systems:
Henry Ford: The health system releases its hospitalization data every Monday. As of last Monday, December 6; a total of 406 people were hospitalized in its facilities with the virus. 91 were fully vaccinated. 78% (or 315) were unvaccinated.
86% of people in the Intensive Care Unit were unvaccinated (80 out of 93). 85% of the patients on ventilators were unvaccinated (50 out of 59).
Sparrow Health (Mid-Michigan): As of Friday, December 10, Sparrow Health said it has 157 people hospitalized in its system with the virus. 82% are unvaccinated.
22 out of the 24 COVID-19 patients in Sparrow’s critical care units have not received the vaccine. 17 out of the 19 people on ventilators are unvaccinated.
Michigan Medicine: Michigan Medicine said of its 76 COVID-19 in-patients in its hospitals 29 are vaccinated and 47 are unvaccinated. Seven of the 18 COVID-19 patients in critical care are unvaccinated, and zero unvaccinated patients are on ventilators.
Who Are The Hospitalized Breakthrough Cases?
Michigan Medicine is the only health system that has released information on the risk factors and underlying health conditions of its COVID-19 patients, as well as their vaccination status.
In its data set, the health system separated patients who had one or more of the following risk factors for severe cases of COVID-19: 65+ or older, immunocompromised or “severe underlying lung disease.”
Of the 29 vaccinated patients hospitalized, twenty-four of them had at least one of those risk factors. Only five did not.
Of the 7 people vaccinated in the Intensive Care Unit, five of them had at least one of those risk factors.
At the time of writing the article, there are no fully vaccinated patients on ventilators at Michigan Medicine. However, of the nine unvaccinated patients on ventilators, five of them have at least one risk factor.
In a CNN report about the stress of the COVID-19 surge on Michigan hospitals, a nurse at Sparrow Hospital told the network she had seen no one who had received the booster shot pass away. All deaths she had seen were at least six months out from their vaccine.
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The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is urging all Michiganders 16+ to get a booster shot if they are six months or more after their second dose of the mRNA vaccine, or 2 months or more out from their Johnson & Johnson vaccines. Only the Pfizer vaccine has been approved for 16 and 17-year-olds. CDC information on booster shots here.
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