Omicron has a different effect at the local level than previous variants

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Dr. Waseem Saad, Chief of Staff at Windsor Regional Hospital, says that the early stages of omicrons in the area affected the local population differently based on age and vaccination status than previous COVID-19 waves. has been disclosed.

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While those who are partially or uninfected continue to see infections and as a result the age of hospitalization rises to above zero, those who are vaccinated and those under the age of 60 have been hospitalized. Looks less likely to expire.

Saad said, “If you look at what is happening with Omicron in the rest of the province and the world, if you are fully vaccinated, you have a one percent chance of ending up in the ICU or dying from COVID.” less likely than that.”

Saad said a snapshot of the hospital’s own age-based data reflects a picture seen elsewhere on Thursday. At that time, there were only three hospitalizations of patients under 60 years of age among vaccinated patients and zero cases of less than 40 of the total 19 vaccinated patients.

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Of the 12 unvaccinated or partially vaccinated patients in hospital primarily for COVID, five were under the age of 60, two of whom were under 40 and one between the ages of zero and nine. was in the middle.

“If you don’t get vaccinated you can see a trend from zero to nine, more evenly distributed among 80-89 year olds than what we were seeing in previous waves,” Saad said. “People need to recognize this.”

What these vaccines do is to prevent significant, serious illness and hospitalizations and deaths.

Saad said another different aspect of Omicron is the demographics of vaccinated patients who need to be hospitalized. “In the first two waves, we were accepting 20-, 30-, 40-year-olds who had almost no concomitant diseases,” Saad said.

“We are seeing right now with people who have been fully vaccinated, those who were hospitalized, they had significant comorbidities. We are talking about transplant patients, patients with many issues like blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol, heart disease.

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With a surge of new cases over the weekend, the number of people in the Windsor regional has risen to 67 on Monday.

Forty-five of those people were being treated primarily for COVID-19, of whom 25 were fully vaccinated, four were partially vaccinated and 16 were not vaccinated. Seven out of 10 people in intensive care have not been vaccinated or are partially vaccinated.

Saad said the similarity in the number of vaccinated and non- or partially vaccinated patients is also misleading. The 25 vaccinated patients are coming from 80 per cent of the local population who have been fully vaccinated, while the same number is from only 20 per cent.

“Obviously the percentage and your chances of ending up in the hospital vary greatly on whether you are fully vaccinated or partially vaccinated or completely unvaccinated,” Saad said.

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Saad said it is a myth that vaccines have failed if they allow infection. He explained that the vaccines are intended to combat the worst-case scenario of ICU closure.

On Monday, 9,706 new cases of Omicron were reported in Ontario, of which 438 patients were in the ICU. In comparison, on May 1, 2021, at the height of the previous wave, before a widespread vaccine rollout, 2,304 cases were reported with 828 patients in ICUs that day.

“These are not what we call sterilizing vaccines,” Saad said. “Sterilizing the vaccine will prevent you from getting the infection in the first place.

“There are very few vaccines that do this. What these vaccines do is to prevent significant, serious disease and hospitalizations and deaths.”

“There is no doubt that these vaccines are doing this in keeping vaccinated patients out of our ICUs.”

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