COVID-19. The more vaccine doses, the greater the risk of staying in the ICU? It’s not true

3.5 million views and 11.5 thousand views likes has an English-language Twitter published on January 6 fast: “In Australia, the more vaccine doses you have, the more likely you are to end up in the ICU. Is this how vaccines usually work?” The post was accompanied by a graph of COVID-19 hospitalizations in intensive care units in November and December 2022 in the Australian state of New South Wales. It shows that unvaccinated people did not go to ICUs at all. In the group vaccinated with one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, six people were sent to these wards; two doses – 60; three – 95; four – 173.

Polish Internet users quickly picked up on the topic. Some even presented their own analyses. “In Australia, the more vaccine doses you have, the more likely you are to end up in the ICU. Is that how vaccines work?” one Twitter user asked on January 7. “It turns out that the more doses of deaththorn (…) the greater the chance of being in the intensive care unit. Probably also the greater the chance of leaving this world with the blessing of the experts,” another Twitter user commented on January 7.

The graph sent by Internet users presents real data on hospitalizations. On their basis, however, no conclusions can be drawn about the relationship between vaccination and hospital stays. All because of the very high level of vaccination in older age groups, i.e. those most at risk of hospitalization due to COVID-19.

On January 7, she argued that the thesis pushed by the authors of the above-mentioned posts is “bullshit”. on Twitter prof. Agnieszka Szuster-Ciesielska, a virologist from the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin. Szuster-Ciesielska sent to tweet an Internet user using the nickname Robert R, who, on the example of one of the entries, disassembled this manipulation into prime factors.

The data cited by Internet users comes from data review on the COVID-19 pandemic of the Ministry of Health of the Australian state of New South Wales. The latest available study concerns the last two weeks of 2022 – during this time, 58 patients vaccinated with at least four doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, 29 vaccinated with three doses, 17 after two doses and one patient after one dose of the vaccine were admitted to intensive care units. No unvaccinated person was admitted to the ICU. The status of 35 patients was reported as unknown. In total, the report reports 140 ICU hospitalizations.

On the same page of the study there is also information about the age of ICU admissions. Most of them – 42 – are people aged 70 to 79. Patients over the age of 60 accounted for 69 percent. all hospitalized in ICUs. In the group of all hospitalized – not only in intensive care – people over 60 years old, it is already 76 percent. patients. These data confirm the relationship observed since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic: the group most exposed to hospitalization and death from COVID-19 are seniors.

The above data can be compared with the data of the Australian government o vaccination level of the population in particular age groups. According to data available on January 10, unvaccinated patients or those with only one dose of vaccine accounted for only a fraction of all in the 60+ group. With such a high degree of vaccination of the population, no conclusions can be drawn about the effectiveness of the vaccines.

Australian statistics also show the high popularity of boosters in older age groups. Most people vaccinated with the fourth dose are in the 75-79 age group – 82 percent. In this age group, 18 percent people are vaccinated with three doses. There are no two-dose or one-dose vaccinated or unvaccinated. The high level of vaccination of the population proves the awareness of the higher risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19 with the co-occurrence of other diseases.

Similar manipulations are regularly distributed by COVID-19 vaccination skeptics. We described the first misinterpretations of epidemic data of this type in 2021, with the appearance of more cases in Israel – Internet users were untruthfully persuading at the timethat the increase in cases is proof of the failure of the mass vaccination campaign in this country.

In October 2021, the reports of the English-language portal had a lot of resonance, which reported that in Sweden and the UK, the majority of COVID-19 deaths in September were in vaccinated people. However, the texts duplicating these reports omitted information on which age groups the quoted data refer to, which led to incorrect conclusions.

“The fact that vaccinated people are infected is not unusual” – this is how the government’s Twitter profile “Szczepimy się” commented on the discussion of these manipulative theses on one of the Polish portals. The argumentation focuses on emphasizing the fact that in a vaccinated society, illnesses and deaths occur more and more often among vaccinated people – because fewer and fewer people remain unvaccinated. “If we vaccinated 100 percent of the population against a given disease, then all cases would occur among vaccinated people” – explained the website “Szczepimy się” at the time.

The author of the Twitter thread recommended by prof. Szuster-Ciesielska also refers to studies that confirm the effectiveness of booster doses in preventing hospitalization and deaths from COVID-19. These data clearly contradict the thesis of proponents of the manipulative theory that “the more doses of the vaccine, the greater the risk of staying in the ICU.”

In September 2022 published UK data analysis on the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines in preventing severe disease with BA.4 and BA.5 omicron mutations. It demonstrates a higher level of protection in patients vaccinated with the third and fourth doses compared to those vaccinated with one or two doses.

Booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines reduce the risk of infection and hospitalization, the website reported in October 2022 healthfeedback.org describing examples of spreading medical disinformation. The article referred to for the American study of October 2022. Its authors determined that three or four doses of the vaccine were between 72.4 and 97.5 percent. effective in preventing hospitalization for all omicron subvariants.