Proof that the corona-vaccine works
The age of corona patients admitted to hospital is shooting down. This month, people in their fifties are the largest group. Intensive Care foreman Diederik Gommers: ‘The people that get in hospital and in the Intence Care Unit in May are the non-vaccinated.’
This is evident from the new data from the National Intensive Care Evaluation (NICE). Gommers is delighted: ‘We were already convinced that the vaccine works and these figures show that it actually is. So you can already see an effect after the first shot’, emphasizes the professor of intensive care medicine. ‘The patients you get in the hospital and in the ICU in May are the people who have not been vaccinated,’ argues Gommers, who leads the IC of Rotterdam’s Erasmus MC. “We now see very clearly that – if you are vaccinated – you benefit.”
The new data on the ages of corona patients who are admitted to the nursing ward in the hospital shows that the age has dropped. More than a quarter (26.1 percent) of all patients in the corona ward is now 50 to 59 years old, making it the largest group. In March and April the largest group still consisted of people in their seventies. And in January and February, in addition to people in their seventies, they were also in their eighties who ended up in the nursing ward with corona. These groups have now largely been vaccinated.
According to professor of medical informatics Nicolette de Keizer of the Amsterdam UMC, the figures about the ages show “a really huge plunge”. “The numbers speak for themselves. The age groups that have been vaccinated have a much lower chance of getting to the ICU and in the hospital than groups that have not yet been vaccinated. The professor therefore makes an appeal: “Get vaccinated!”
Doubters over the line
Dave Dongelmans from the Amsterdam UMC and chairman of the NICE foundation, expects that these results will persuade doubters to still get a vaccination. “You are not going to convince the non-believers, but doubters will be sensitive to the fact that now it appears in practice that the jab works.”
Conversations are now changing
In January and February, only about a quarter of the covid patients admitted to the nursing ward were in their fifties or younger. Because more and more people in their sixties, seventies and eighties have been vaccinated against corona and therefore no longer end up in hospital or in the ICU, the age of the total patient group is falling. In the month of May, 46.6 percent of the patients on the nursing ward were already in their fifties or younger. So there are not many more people in their fifties in the hospital than before, but they do make up a relatively larger part of the total number of patients.
Teenagers and people in their 20s see their parents in their 50s admitted to the Intensive Care Unit.
IC leader Dave Dongelmans, Amsterdam UMC
Dave Dongelmans, intensivist at Amsterdam UMC: ‘Where in the beginning you mainly had bad news conversations with people who saw their parents die of age, the emphasis is now more on younger patients. Teens and twenties who see their parents in their fifties admitted to the Intensive Care.
Dongelmans hopes that the younger groups will soon be spared suffering by vaccinating quickly. ‘The decline is good, but there are still too many patients with covid on the ICs. Too many people are still dying with covid.’
We also get people in the ICU who have just had their first injection. And that is such a shame
IC leader Diederik Gommers, Erasmus MC
Antibodies after 14 days – follow the measures until the second shot
Chairman of the Dutch Association for Intensive Care Diederik Gommers emphasizes that it is also important to continue to follow the rules after the first vaccination. ‘We also get people in the ICU who have just had their first injection. And that is such a shame. Because you only get antibodies after about fourteen days and that is even better after three weeks. So you shouldn’t immediately start behaving differently after getting your shot.’
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This is an ongoing situation and it is advisable to check the websites of the relevant authorities to obtain the most up-to-date information.
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Markus Winkler 
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