“There are almost only unvaccinated people in the intensive care units,” the head of the Federal Office of Public Health (BAG) Anne Lévy falsely declared in an interview last weekend and also promoted 2G regulation – a regulation that Lévy said a few weeks ago would be out of the question.
“In view of the increasing numbers, we can’t get around it,” Lévy told the Ringier media group last weekend, pointing out that the 2G regulation offers vaccinated and tested persons “a bit of security”.
These statements are peculiar simply because the data on which the BAG relies do not speak in favor of safety and efficient vaccination protection.
It is also known why the “number of cases” has risen massively again recently: Test capacities have been massively expanded over the past year and a half, as has been the case before each lockdown.
Regarding Lévy’s statement that there are almost only unvaccinated in the hospitals: If one looks at the incomplete data from the FOPH, it shows that more unvaccinated Covid patients have recently been hospitalized. The 7-day average on December 12 was 46.5 among the unvaccinated and 19.7 among the vaccinated patients.
The only problem is that the FOPH does not have the data to support this statement. A look at the numbers in the FOPH’s weekly situation reports makes it clear: The Swiss health authority only knows the vaccination status of around two thirds of all patients who have been hospitalized in connection with Covid-19 in the past few months.
The BAG was therefore asked about Anne Lévy’s false statements in view of this omission. How could she maintain that almost only unvaccinated Covid patients are currently in hospitals without supporting data? The BAG responded on Thursday:
“The FOPH has been recording the vaccination status since the end of January 2021. On January 30, 2021, the proportion of hospitalizations with an unknown vaccination status was 77.6 percent (7-day average). Meanwhile (data status December 9, 2021) the proportion of hospitalizations with an unknown vaccination status is 16.4 percent (7-day average). Averaged over the entire period from January to December 2021, the FOPH does not know the vaccination status of 32.5 percent of hospitalizations in connection with a Covid-19 infection, but this mainly reflects the situation in the first half of the year, when only 40 percent of the total population had at least one dose,” said BAG press spokesman Daniel Dauwalder. He simply ignored the actual question.
What about mortality?
It is noteworthy that, unlike the number of hospitalized people, the number of deceased Covid patients is quite telling. There was no difference in vaccination status in patients who had died from or with Corona. In absolute numbers, roughly the same number of vaccinated and unvaccinated patients recently died. What does the FOPH say about this?
“The data show that the risk of death for the limited number of people who are admitted to hospital despite complete immunization is similar to the risk of death for those who have not been immunized,” according to Dauwalder, citing data from CH-SUR monitoring program. This documents the course of hospitalizations in connection with SARS-CoV-2 infections.
Dauwalder nevertheless claimed that the risk of hospitalization was greatly reduced for fully vaccinated people and he relied on the arguments made by BAG. The authority maintains that the percentage of those who have not been vaccinated is significantly lower, so the absolute numbers among those who have been vaccinated are higher. It may be a possible explanation. Nonetheless, the current booster campaign raises a number of questions.
A look at the age groups reveal that in the age group of over 80s, more vaccinated than unvaccinated Covid patients recently died in absolute numbers. According to the FOPH, 53 fully vaccinated and 45 unvaccinated Covid patients died between December 6 and 12. At the same time, people in the over 80 age category have by far the highest vaccination rate – around 93 percent are fully vaccinated. The question arises as to how the BAG interprets these figures that clearly contradict their public stance.
Furthermore, an excess mortality has been evident since the start of the booster campaign from calendar week 44. Since then, around 1000 more people have died than would have been statistically expected. How is this excess mortality to be assessed?
Many Swiss hospitals only test unvaccinated admissions. As a result, hospitals register more unvaccinated Covid patients. It has also long been known that a positive PCR test can give false positive results. When asked about this, the BAG did not seem eager to pursue the issue: “The test strategy of hospitals are carried out by the cantons and BAG cannot comment on it. However, recording vaccination status is independent of the test strategy.”
The irony remains that the FOPH has not stopped advertising boosters because Covid deaths (in absolute numbers) are not prevented through vaccination. Regarding the number of Covid deaths (in absolute numbers), vaccination status does not play a role at all.
This raises the legitimate question of whether the jab protects against a serious course of the disease at all, as Swiss authorities repeatedly have claimed.