https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-number-of-people-in-hospital-with-coronavirus-in-england-hits-highest-level-since-march-12504769 - https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-number-of-people-in-hospital-with-coronavirus-in-england-hits-highest-level-since-march-12504769

Hospital admissions in England rise 27% in one week and is the highest since March. The data,/statistics coming out of the UK are very very slow (and only parts of UK giving information at one time) but does not look good.... Hopefully I'm wrong

The question is, were they admitted because of Covid, or were they found to have Covid once admitted for other reasons? I've seen a few articles in the British press asking this very question. It appears that the NHS tests everyone on admittance and if you're Covid positive, you are marked down as a Covid patient, even if you went in for a broken leg. Many of those people don't even know they have it, they are asymptomatic. If only the government was more transparent about the reality of the situation instead of trying to scare everyone into having a booster.

I'm sorry KiwiMum I don't understand. Just doesn't make sense to me... Every government or country has their own break down of numbers/statics. You just have to look for it...... The hospital admissions covid cases and the hospital laboratories numbers are in the Ni Statistics thread on this forum for Northern Ireland.... I'm afraid I'm just not good enough technology wise to find other places in that detail especially England. But I'm sure if anyone put their mind to it they would find that information too.

The vaccine booster numbers are also on the Ni thread. 

Yes you are right the governments are not being transparent but my fear is (and the evidence suggests) its nothing to do with getting a booster... 

Littlesmile wrote: Yes you are right the governments are not being transparent but my fear is (and the evidence suggests) its nothing to do with getting a booster...

If it's not to induce fear to make people have boosters, then why would the government be less than transparent? 

What concerns me is that governments have spent so long crying "wolf" that if, and possibly when, a really bad variant comes along, no one will believe them. I understand that the fear is that the health services will be completely overwhelmed if lots of people get sick at the same time, and so the UK government is keen to get everyone to have a booster, and also that with each successive booster, more and more people will decide not have it. People who've already had their jabs and who have had Covid might well be thinking what's the point? 

I'm all for honest info sharing because anything less than that is treating people like infants, and people don't respond well to that. I have relatives in Europe who are already questioning the logic of yet another jab, and I think that feeling is spreading. When will it end? It's such an interesting subject and I'm not sure if there are answers to any of these questions. Only time will tell. I do wonder daily how the historians of future will judge us. If only I had a time machine.......

The selective use of stats or rather missing out the vital bit is everywhere - even the media are at it.

In Wales we had an article a month or so back about a fit healthy active unvaxed 40 something year old male who had died of covid.  The clear implication is that even if you yourself are fit and healthy you are likely to die from it if unvaxed:

The snag was basically it was a pack of lies that the unfortunate male deceased was fit and healthy.  In reality he was a body builder (likely steriod abuse) and someone then spent a lot of time going over his family's social media posts in the past to discover that he had asthma.

So the true reality was that he was a  high risk person with existing illnesses and highly likely to suffer severe illnesses if he caught covid.

Mind you this sort of thing has been going on for a while.  Grossly obese people who have died are listed in the media either with a face only picture thus avoiding anyone noticing the rest of them clocks in at a weight of 200Kg or the picture used  is taken 20 years ago when they dd not weight XXXXX kg.

I reckon in this case not only were they not admitted for covid (but for something else like falling off a ladder!) and never knew they had the virus but probably a fair number never did have the virus UNITIL they got into the blasted hospital!

doesn't matter the real actual reason from the perspective that the hospitals will be over run either way.

In this day and age who can be classed as healthy?? Who can be classed as 100% fit with no underlining health problems? I can honestly say I know no one personally around myself. Unfit, overweight, asthma, immune disorders, allergies, blood disorders, under weight, disability, MS, type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, stokes and of course just plain old age to name a few... I'm sure every single person here knows many people that are similar...If any one of these people I know got sick with covid and died I would never dream to blame it on anything other than covid. Yes they had underlining problems but they would still be here...

There are alot of what ifs, maybes and yes smoke and mirrors. Alot of he said/she said. Alot of 'stories' in the newspapers. And social media like Facebook is massively influenced... There are alot of questions to answer and I am one that encourages looking for answers... So to try and see the bigger picture I'm really trying hard to stick to facts and leave my personal opinions (and things I have heard) behind. Or try to anyway lol.

And yes the hospitals would be over run either way... which is one of the biggest worries..

Amen to all you said. Thank you for being level headed