Pulmonologists: Healthy people are almost never hospitalized because of the oomicron

Of all the patients admitted to Dutch hospitals between Saturday and Thursday for omicron infection, 77 percent were not fully vaccinated, says van den Torn, who works as a lung specialist at Erasmus MC in Rotterdam. About half of this group were not vaccinated at all. The other half was vaccinated but not completely.

weak immune system

23 percent of Umicron admissions are accounted for by people who have been fully vaccinated, including the booster vaccine. Van den Torn: “The vast majority of this group had underlying complications, such as heart problems, lung disease, a weakened immune system, or complications after the transplant. The number of healthy people who end up in hospital is limited to a handful. The chance that you will end up In the hospital as a healthy person through a very, very small omicron.”

Admission to ICU is rare for healthy people who have been vaccinated, says the pulmonologist: “I see only one example of a healthy person who ended up in ICU because of the omicron.”

relaxation room

Does this give room to reopen society? I’m not in the political seat, but there seems to be room to relax.”

However, we must remain vigilant, he believes: “You don’t know if there is an unexpectedly more troubling variable, although virologists don’t anticipate this right away. In addition, there is still pressure on GPs and hospitals. And care institutions: People may not be in critical condition, but they are still sick. Staff loss in all sectors remains high. But these findings confirm the expectation that we will enter calmer waters.”