The hospitals are clogged because the basic in person care is crippled by covid prevention practices. So instead of going to your pcp to deal with an ear infection or bladder infection the only place you can go is hospital as now any time you have covid like symptoms you have to get a covid test to get access to care.

Similarly you can’t get care if you have a slow growing cancer or need minor surgery. All these people are going to have negative outcomes

> The hospitals are clogged because the basic in person care is crippled by covid prevention practices.

They also seem to be suffering from the labor shortage. Only secondhand anecdata from friends in the medical field, but nurses seem to be getting harder to hire and retain right now.

Thank you, but I was asking for actual verifiable information that hospitals are getting clogged due to non-vaccinated people. I asked for two reasons. 1) That is not at all the case with the hospitals near me. 2) The recent articles I've seen make this assertion were immediately retracted due to the people they relied upon not telling the truth.

So, before I speak with some of my unvaxxed friends, I wanted actual information to support, otherwise they could (correctly) say not to bring them unfounded assertions.

For example: https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/09/10/cullman...

Thank you, but that isn't an example of ICUs filled with non-vaxxed. It might be an example of filled ICUs. When I look at reported ICU information for Mississippi, the data doesn't support that. [1]

I appreciate your posting that, but it isnt helpful for my situation.

[1] https://msdh.ms.gov/msdhsite/_static/14,21994,420,873.html

Given that vaccination significantly decreases an individual's risk of hospitalization and that only about 40% of Missippippians are fully vaccinated, it seems like we would be justified in inferring that the people filling the ICUs are generally unvaccinated, no?

Filling the icus might only mean adding 4-8 heads over existing load though if you only have 20-30 beds and you are running 70-80% as a baseline

The ICUs are full of people with suspected covid. Vaccinated people are less likely to have covid. 40% of Mississippi is vaccinated.

Which point are you having trouble with?

They don't put people simply pending a COVID test in the ICU.

Mississippi was recently down to six ICU beds in the entire state: https://www.wlbt.com/2021/08/04/just-6-icu-beds-available-en...

Arkansas got to zero: https://apnews.com/article/health-arkansas-coronavirus-pande...

This isn't explicable with your hypothesis.

You can absolutely go to your PCP for a COVID test, and get your ear infection treated while you're there.

Not here you can’t. They specifically ban anyone with covid like symptoms from entering which is like everything.

Besides what are the outcomes for using ICUs for covid. I bet long term outcomes are pretty dismal, that might be a good time to say unless you are healthy and under 55 if you need icu it might just be your time. Rationing care is a ethical and practical thing to do.

I don't know that there are documented non-COVID deaths due to it, but various parts of the southern US (where vaccination rates are low) have reported ICUs at or near capacity. E.g.

https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/health/2021/08/19/tenn...

One has to assume that at a certain level there is a finite quantity of medical care available at a given facility, and a spike in COVID cases would deplete it. Whether or not that threshold has been crossed, and if not how close such places are to crossing it, is an interesting question.

Thank you, but that news article seems incorrect. When I look at the hospital capacity for TN, according to the TN Dept. of Health, I see available floor beds, some available ICU beds, 62% available adult ventilators, and 1/3 available airborn infection isolation rooms. [1]

[1] https://www.tn.gov/health/cedep/ncov/data/hospitalization-da...

The article says that there are no ICU beds in "every major Tennessee metro area." The TDH dashboard you linked to says (today) that 4% of ICU beds are available statewide. Given that ICU bed use is almost certainly not entirely uniform statewide, and that it might be expected to be highest in metro areas, it seems entirely plausible in light of the TDH data that there are no available beds in metro areas--or at least close enough to literally zero that Tennesseans should be very worried.

It is somewhat worthless to pile assumptions on top of assumptions to come to conclusions. If you look at the map of Share of I.C.U. beds occupied, you can make a better, more finely grained decision. [1]

The question I asked has nothing to do with whether ICU beds are occupied. However, I also will point out that you are replying to a reply to a reply to my question, none of which actually addressed what I asked.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/davidson-tenness...

Incorrect how? Individual hospitals themselves are reporting they are at capacity. The TN rollup statistics aren't going to tell you very much about whether your local hospital is actually full at a given time, which is going to be the most relevant thing to know if you're seeking urgent care.