Covid-19: Fact check—how many patients in hospital are unvaccinated?
BMJ 2022; 376 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.o5 (Published 04 January 2022) Cite this as: BMJ 2022;376:o5
- Bryan Christie
- Edinburgh
Intensive care units in the UK are filling up with patients with covid-19 who have not been fully vaccinated, a number of media reports have claimed over the past week.
It led to the prime minister, Boris Johnson, urging people to get vaccinated to reduce the pressure on hospitals. He said that he had been told by doctors that as many as 90% of patients with covid-19 in intensive care had not received a booster vaccination.1 Other media reports have suggested that 80-90% of patients in intensive care are unvaccinated.2
Are these reports accurate?
The Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre (ICNARC), which has been monitoring activity throughout the pandemic, provides information on admissions to intensive care.3 Its latest report, published on 31 December, showed that the proportion of patients admitted to critical care in December …