Being unvaccinated better than ever. 

U.S. Starts to Discern Between Those Dying From COVID and Those Dying With COVID 

There is a difference between dying from COVID-19 and dying with COVID-19. The number of people dying with the disease may be significantly greater than those dying from it. A recent article by CNN medical analyst and Washington Post columnist Dr. Leana Wen made the distinction between dying from COVID and dying with COVID. 

Dr. Wen writes that, according to Robin Dretler, an attending doctor at Emory Decatur Hospital and ex-president of Georgia's chapter of Infectious Diseases Society of America, perhaps 90 percent of patients in hospitalized with COVID are really there for a poor health condition other than COVID disease. Since all patients are automatically tested for SARS-CoV-2 infection when they are admitted to the hospital, many are testing positive for the virus even though that is not what brought them into the hospital in the first place. When a SARS-CoV-2 positive patient passes away while hospitalized, COVID likely is listed as the cause of death on the death certificate, even though a SARS-CoV-2 infection was not the cause or even a contributing cause of their death. 

Infectious disease doctor, Shira Doran, MD measured the severity of SARS-CoV-2 infections in hospitals with the use of the steroid, dexamethasone, as that is standard treatment for patients with low oxygen levels. Patients with a COVID diagnosis who did not receive the steroid during their stay were likely in the hospital for another reason. Based on this method, a Massachusetts hospital reported that only 30 percent of their patients were admitted primarily for SARS-CoV-2 infection. At Tufts hospital, Dr. Doran reports that some days only 10 percent of those hospitalized were admitted due to COVID.