Stanford doctor says majority of hospitalizations in Texas 'have - nothing to do with COVID-19' Posted: Jul 7th, 2020 - 3:54 pm
A doctor at Stanford University said the spike in hospital patients in Texas has "nothing to do with COVID-19.”
Dr. Scott Atlas, a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and the former chief of neuroradiology at the university’s medical center, joined Fox News’s The Story on Monday and said the public should not panic about the spike in hospitalizations.
“When I looked at every single hospital area in Texas today, 15-20% of people in the hospital as inpatients are COVID-positive patients. That means 80-85% have nothing to do with COVID-19. And the same thing goes with some of these other states. There are people hospitalized, a large number, because they are tested as COVID-positive, somehow they are categorized as COVID hospitalizations. That’s a problem,” he said.
Atlas said people need to look at who is diagnosed with the coronavirus, as the fatality rate is lower for people under 70 years of age.
"When we see this focus on more cases, it doesn't really matter how many cases — it only matters who gets the cases. Because we know the infection-fatality rate for people under 70 is 0.04% on the latest analysis — that's less than or equal to seasonal flu," he said.
"The cases themselves should not be and were never the focus. It's only the tragic consequences of the cases. So, when we look at the cases in every state, the overwhelming majority are younger, healthier people," Atlas said.
Officials in Texas reported the state’s biggest daily increase in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases last week, with 8,258 cases. Other states, such as Florida and Arizona, have reported an increase in cases as well, sparking fears of a second wave hitting the United States.
"We realize we have to wait to have the story play out here. But right now, the cases have been going up for three weeks — we have no increase, in fact, we have a decrease in death rates," Atlas said. "So, it doesn't matter if you get the illness if you're going to fully recover and be fine from it, and that is what people must understand. For younger, healthier people, there's not a high risk from this disease at all."
LINK/URL: Stanford doctor says majority of hospitalizations in Texas 'have
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