Since at least October 2020, we have been trying to find out how many of North Carolina’s Covid-19 hospitalizations were for people whose Covid infection was so bad that it put them in the hospital (i.e., hospitalized for Covid). It’s a distinctly different population from those who are in the hospital for an unrelated reason but — since everyone admitted to the hospital for everything from a heart attack to a routine planned procedure is tested upon admission — who tested positive (i.e., hospitalized with Covid).

DHHS makes no distinction between a hospitalization for COVID and a hospitalization with COVID.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has from the very beginning conflated those populations, admittedly, as has the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other government health agencies. It’s hard not to be cynical about why. One, hospitals get more money for Covid patients. Two, making it seem as if Covid is putting way more people into the hospital than it actually is has kept people more fearful and therefore more amenable to extreme actions by the governor and government health officials. 

Nevertheless, back then we asked:

DHHS admits no distinction between a hospitalization for COVID and hospitalization with COVID. Hospitalizations for COVID are the dangerous infections people rightly worry about. Hospitalizations with COVID are when people are in the hospital for other reasons — a chest ailment, a car accident, a medical procedure, etc. — and as part of the routine clinical assessment, they test positive for COVID.

How many people are in one group and not the next? It’s hard to tell from this vantage point. Counting the two groups together, however, only inflates the number and gives the impression that dangerous infections are higher than they are. How much higher, who can tell?

Occasionally cracks show. Over the summer, when cases and hospitalizations put an end to the “99% effective” talking point with respect to the vaccines, the CDC put forth a report showing that roughly one-fourth of “breakthrough” Covid-19 hospitalizations (26%) and deaths (24%) were “asymptomatic or not related to Covid-19.” In response, we asked:

This revelation leaves several questions, however. Do “breakthrough” hospitalizations and deaths behave differently from other Covid-19 infections? Would that mean more inflation in “breakthrough” cases — or less?

How many of North Carolina’s Covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths were “not related to Covid-19”? Is it more or less than one-fourth? We still don’t know.

All we know is, again, the official numbers are inflated. By how much, they still won’t say.

One-third at UNC, 60% at WakeMed

Finally, someone else asked. Joe Fisher for WRAL reported that “Increased COVID hospitalization numbers may not tell full story.” Here’s a snippet: 

… the WRAL Investigates team learned that 1 in 3 of those patients actually went to the hospital for unrelated issues.

Omicron is spreading so fast that even people showing up to the hospital for unrelated issues are testing positive for COVID-19 once they arrive.

“Some people who fall from ladders or get a heart attack or have to come in because of a gallbladder issue test positive,” said Dr. David Wohl, infectious diseases specialist at UNC Health.

“Some people who fall from ladders or get a heart attack or have to come in because of a gallbladder issue test positive,” said Dr. David Wohl, infectious diseases specialist at UNC Health.

UNC Health is treating 615 COVID patients. However, one third were admitted to the hospital for other reasons, then, they tested positive for the virus. 

The numbers are even higher at WakeMed, where 60% of COVID patients were admitted for non-COVID illness.

Finally, as we and the CDC both have pointed out (see above), the same problem afflicting hospitalization statistics also afflicts death statistics.