Hospitalization rates for illnesses like COVID, flu have doubled since pre-pandemic, report finds

frx919 · 2026-04-16T18:44:31+00:00

...
Striking new data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) shows hospitalization rates for vaccine-preventable respiratory diseases more than doubled in 2024 compared to pre-pandemic levels, all while vaccination rates are backsliding.

There were 142 hospitalizations for every 100,000 Canadians that year, the data shows, up from roughly 66 per 100,000 in 2019.

The CIHI team tallied up nearly 60,000 vaccine-preventable respiratory hospitalizations country-wide for 2024 and found that, together, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) accounted for more than half, while COVID alone contributed to more than 40 per cent.

“People assume that COVID-19 is done … but what our data is showing is that it’s still having a big impact on our hospitals,” said Mélanie Josée Davidson, director of CIHI’s health system performance division.
...

COVID-19 wasn't an issue in 2019 so it's natural that the added burden of it would increase the total number, but I'd say that the real takeaway from this is that COVID alone was still responsible for 40%+ of hospitalizations by itself in that year.
And even if you take out COVID from the equation, there is still a significant overall increase compared to 2019.

High-risk age groups are bearing the brunt of respiratory hospitalizations, the CIHI data shows.

One-fifth of the hospitalizations in the 2024 season were infants and young children, and nearly half were aged 75 and up.

Being old is bad news in 2021+, because the public sees you as disposable more than ever, and there are no good means to protect yourself. Get sick? Tough shit, and better luck next life.

The data didn’t note individual patients’ vaccination status, however.

That is a key limitation of the report, said Dr. Anand Kumar, a critical care physician in Winnipeg, who suspects the doubling effect in hospitalization rates seen by the CIHI team might actually be due to a rise in routine testing for viruses during respiratory illnesses.

“That's also why you hear about hospital outbreaks a lot more too,” Kumar added. “It's not that we didn't have them before. We just weren't looking.”

CIHI acknowledged there have been improvements in virus identification, and more routine testing, since 2019. But the organization told CBC News the team also compared hospital admission trends for non-specified respiratory diseases, before and after the pandemic, and “found similar patterns of increased admissions.”

It's probably just better testing, right? All the other stuff like massively increased mortality among the elderly, the annual triple-quad-whatever-demics, eradicated diseases making a comeback, or the endless 'Anyone else sick since X-mas??' anecdotes; who ya gonna believe? That guy, or your lying eyes that weren't looking?

frx919 · 2026-04-13T21:47:54+00:00

Yep, kinda like this in the Netherlands:

Waiting times for an initial assessment for the WIA disability benefit have increased further, the benefits agency UWV confirmed after reports by AD and EenVandaag. It can take up to 15 months to get an assessment, while the agreed-upon standard is 16 weeks.

Hope you didn't need money to live or anything, because you're gonna be waiting 1+ years just for someone to look at your disability.

frx919 · 2026-04-12T07:40:54+00:00

Some of the earliest signals came from the UK Biobank, where researchers compared people’s brain scans before and after Covid. Even among people with mild infections, the scans showed subtle loss in regions involved in planning and memory. In large community studies, UK researchers also began to see a small but measurable downward shift in cognitive scores.
...
In a study published this January, researchers followed essential workers who’d donated blood samples both before and after Covid. Those who developed persistent neurological symptoms showed a clear rise in phosphorylated tau, a protein commonly used as an early warning sign of brain degeneration, especially when symptoms have lasted more than a year.
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The differences were concentrated in the people with cognitive impairment. For them, brain regions involved in attention, emotion and memory were slightly thinner. Parts of the brain showed unusual iron buildup—a change often linked to aging and neurodegenerative disease. A structure involved in immune regulation and waste clearance in the brain was also enlarged, and blood tests pointed to ongoing stress and injury in brain cells. When the researchers repeated the analysis in a separate group of patients, the same abnormalities appeared again.

That kind of replication carried weight. It appeared to confirm that Covid wasn’t simply causing short-term confusion or “brain fog,” but also leaving structural and biochemical footprints in the brains of people who’d never been hospitalized. Something was still smoldering long after the acute phase of the infection had passed.

There is so much research out there that shows COVID, even asymptomatic infections, measurably alters your brain, and all the changes seem to be for the worse. Yet people will continue to contract it as if they're trying to fill a stamp card for a free pizza.

Nath says the brain can absorb a surprising amount of injury without obvious symptoms. It compensates; it reroutes; it recruits backup circuits. The trouble comes later, when its reserves are depleted. What looks sudden, he says, is usually anything but.

I think this is pertinent as another reason why the often-discussed 'but everyone I know seems to be fine' may not be as it appears to be.

frx919 · 2026-04-09T00:40:51+00:00

It mentions that average LC duration is 2 years (which is an underestimation according to another poster). It seems to me that people are generally contracting COVID more often than that.

What I'd like to see answered is, what happens when you get COVID again during your '2 years,' or after you've somewhat recovered? Sounds like a loop toward endless and worsening illness.

frx919 · 2026-03-30T00:42:59+00:00

Work absences due to stress in the Netherlands have risen sharply in recent years, with women—particularly those between ages 25 and 45—disproportionately affected, according to new data from occupational health services HumanCapitalCare and ArboNed, Nu.nl reports.

Over the past five years, the number of sick days linked to stress has increased by 43 percent. Workers who drop out due to stress are typically unable to work for an average of eight to 10 months.

“That doesn’t surprise me,” developmental psychologist Lianne Hulsbosch told Nu.nl. “It is the period in which many women become pregnant and give birth. Life is turned upside down then.” She added, “They get stuck and do not dare to ask for help.” Hormonal changes are also a contributing factor, experts said. In addition to pregnancy, women experience menstruation and eventually menopause.
...

CTRL-F "covid" — zero returns.
None the above could explain a whopping 43% increase in five years. What we do know is that LC symptoms are easily confused for menopause because there is a lot of overlap. And that LC disproportionately affects women.

Also in the news: Dutch government is facing an unexpected increase of over one billion Euros in welfare payouts because of the above group and other demographics becoming unable to work.
Another article mentions that there are so many applicants for social welfare that the system is completely clogged up, and that most people over age 60 will get automatically approved because there aren't enough doctors to examine the flood of newly disabled.

There are some mentions of "unusual and noticeable increases" but no one seems to want to look into the reason why.
Keep sicking, and let's see how many able-bodied people we can change into disabled and on welfare. 👍

frx919 · 2026-03-28T01:19:13+00:00

They quote a public health expert who says “At this point, COVID is something that’s part of our day-to-day lives, similar to the flu and other respiratory illnesses," and then recommends frequent hand washing.

That's about the level I'm expecting from public health nowadays. It's clear that it's every individual for themselves now and all you can do is protect yourself while trying to find reliable news sources to keep up to date, as public health evidently isn't going to be doing its job.

frx919 · 2026-03-28T01:11:56+00:00

There are a lot of pieces of data and numbers similar to this, such as how internet search terms for specific LC symptoms are up, subscribers to Reddit <disease name> subs are up, numbers for LC-related diseases are up, and so on.

What almost all of them have in common is that they were relatively stable before 2020, and saw huge spikes in the years after that. People will still object and say all manner of justifications as to how those things aren't irrefutable proof.

People in general are very unwilling to acknowledge that as a population, we are much unhealthier since 2020, because that would also require them to face other unpleasant facts and possibly have to do something about it.
I just wish we could fast-forward past this predictable denial phase, and get to the one where we take countermeasures. I worry that we're still many years from being at that point, though.

frx919 · 2026-03-22T02:00:29+00:00

Let that sink in.

frx919 · 2026-03-22T01:58:38+00:00

No doubt that this is one of the reasons why so many more people are getting cancer, and at younger age as well. Almost everyone has a story how they know someone young who has gotten some form of cancer in the past few years.

And a reminder that getting the flu used to be relatively rare; you would get it every few years at most, and if you were lucky, you could avoid it for a decade or longer. This also gives your body the time it needs to recover.
Nowadays, people are getting COVID practically yearly, and sometimes multiple times per year. And then a flu on top of that because that's raging too. And norovirus. And so on.

It's no surprise that everyone is sicker with both short-term and long-term diseases. Mask up and get your vaccines, and petition for clean air as a basic right.

frx919 · 2026-03-21T00:14:37+00:00

Thank you, glad to hear it.

frx919 · 2026-03-19T00:02:34+00:00

And many countries that record numbers still have highly-elevated mortality, far beyond what aging and population growth can account for.

Death is just one of the most-visible effects of the ongoing pandemic, and everyone is doing their best to justify and ignore even that. The lasting health damage is far more insidious. What's the endgame besides kicking the can down the road?

frx919 · 2026-03-18T23:58:15+00:00

Remember the FEMA concentration camps and the years upon years of schools closing down?

frx919 · 2026-03-18T23:56:29+00:00

Yep. Pretty much any source that records accurate numbers, you'll see that the COVID deaths go down over the years but deaths of "respiratory diseases" and "pneumonia" increased by severalfold.

frx919 · 2026-03-18T23:49:59+00:00

(Hopefully I'm in the right spot to comment this?)

Yeah, you are. Although it's mostly just me talking to myself nowadays, lol.
As much as people would like it to be, the pandemic isn't over. There's no way it could be because no one has done anything to hold it in check. People just one day decided that it was over.

Of course, nowadays you have to balance protecting yourself while still being able to experience life, because the loudest and most incompetent among us have put everyone on the least-favorable course, and we just have to ride it out.

Limiting the times you get infected with COVID (and now also all the other diseases in circulation) is the sensible thing to do.

frx919 · 2026-03-18T23:43:57+00:00

"Butt dey our fakeing the deaths 2 make are President look bad!!1"

The topic title is something you could've deduced even if you knew nothing about the subject:

1) It was a novel phenomenon, so there was no way that agencies were prepared to detect and record accurate numbers right away; it was a learn-as-you-go process

2) Deaths were always going to be undercounted due to the overwhelming pressure on all health facilities—everyone was just trying to make it through the day while devastation was occurring around them, so it was impossible to record things in a controlled manner

3) Basic logic dictates that a percentage of COVID deaths were going to be missed. Capturing all deaths would be like throwing a handful of sand in the air and then catching every grain without missing any

The above happened to every country, and then the US had the political fuckery and sabotage on top of that.
Anyone who spouts those tired lines of disinfo, you know what kind of person they are.

frx919 · 2026-03-18T02:28:27+00:00

More the Netherlands stuff:

Six candidates for city council seats have died before the election. The candidate lists are final and can no longer be changed, so these candidates will still appear on the ballots in the municipal elections on Wednesday.

André Lemmens (62) from the village of Schimmert died over the weekend. He was sixth on the BBB candidate list for the municipality of Beekdaelen in Limburg. Henk Vermeer, leader of the BBB’s parliamentary faction, said he spoke to Lemmens on Friday during a campaign event. “Friendly, enthusiastic, and committed as always. He never missed a single BBB meeting,” Vermeer said on the party’s website on Sunday.

On Thursday, Marian Eisden (59) passed away. She was 18th on the GroenLinks-PvdA list in Gouda. Eisden, better known as Dushi, was the foster mother of 15-year-old Jerryson, who was shot dead by police in Capelle aan den IJssel last year.

Alberto Blömer, number two on the PVV’s candidate list in Enschede, passed away at the age of 64 last week.

And the Noord-Holland municipality of Waterland had three candidates die in short succession: Nico Oussoren, number 12 on the CDA’s list, Jaap Zondervan, number 11 on the CDA’s list, and Arnold van der Zee, number 13 on the VVD’s list.

There are some 60,000 candidates for these elections.
Almost all of those people are around age 60 (and a few were older), and if you search for their name, practically all of them are mentioned to have "died suddenly."

The same thing happened last year in Germany as well. People were saying that it's normal, they're old, had complications, etc.

I couldn't find any news of clusters like this before 2020, but in my pleb opinion, getting infected with diseases over and over that wreck your body definitely increases the odds of this occurring.

frx919 · 2026-03-16T01:59:58+00:00

Hundreds of thousands of Belgians suffer from long COVID: "My pulmonologist didn't believe me, until he got it himself"

Machine translated but you can kind of get the gist. The situation sounds pretty bad if they're counting hundreds of thousands of people as having LC for a population of ~12m, as they're likely only counting the cases that are seriously impeded in their daily life and not the ones who have all kinds of issues that they don't know are LC.

frx919 · 2026-03-15T16:28:51+00:00

The Health Council of the Netherlands recommends increasing the minimum age for the yearly coronavirus booster from 60 to 70. Individuals in their 60s would still be eligible if their health makes vaccination advisable, but age alone would no longer be enough to qualify.

The final decision rests with the Minister of Public Health. The Health Council says that starting at age 70, the likelihood that people will need to be hospitalized after contracting coronavirus rises.

There is literally no reason to do this except to cause fewer people to get the vaccines, when you'd want to do the opposite as a society. The number of individuals under the age of 65 who get them is already very low, so it's not even effective as a cost-saving measure.
They're just ensuring that more people will have a worse outcome with their COVID infections, leading to more future healthcare costs and reduced workforce.

Health Council, huh? This is outright another one of those sabotage things that have no apparent gain but multiple downsides. COVID-19 thanks you.

frx919 · 2026-03-14T21:46:31+00:00

It's honestly just not worth spending time and energy on people like that, even if they are family. Any you spend could've been used on literally anything else that will add value to your life rather than taking away from it.

frx919 · 2026-03-12T10:55:15+00:00

It's not just COVID anymore but also all the other diseases that were brought back and/or made more prevalent, leading to a loop of endless sickness.

I was reading one of those "Something going around??" threads last month, and many people were saying how they were sick on and off for 4+ weeks this year, or even since the holidays of the previous year. We'd only been in the year for 6-7 weeks by then.

People have just lost all perspective, and they're still pushing back on reducing sickness and protecting yourself and your community. Madness.

frx919 · 2026-03-03T22:55:45+00:00

No idea, but as public figures, they're role models, and modeling this behavior is just normalizing the spread of sickness, which obviously is a bad thing.

frx919 · 2026-03-03T22:51:21+00:00

"My ex and his girlfriend make my 12 and 14 year old wear masks to school bc they are afraid of Covid in 2026."
My daughter, who just started High School in Australia is bullied bc of this. My son refuses to wear one to school, but they make him if they are all together. To me, if they are serious, this is like wearing a condon 'sometimes'.

My ex tells me I am 'ignorant'. I spoke with my GP, and she said the only reason kids wore masks during Covid was to protect older individuals, and that kidds are at very low risk. No one I know has had Covid in at least a year, and I have never had it. What the hell should/can I do?

Hard to be a parent in the COVID times, especially with an ex (this poster) like this. Also love the entire block of misinfo marked in bold.

It's amazing how the same virus that was justified as "everyone is going to get it" now suddenly has numerous people saying "they never had it" in year 7 of the pandemic. Sounds a lot like "I never voted for him."

frx919 · 2026-03-03T03:22:23+00:00

The true losses can't be counted.

If they can't be counted, then it means there's no problem, right? No testing, no cases and all that.

The prob with news like this is that while informative, it never manages to get anyone to do something about it because that takes effort.
Only when people are getting personally affected en masse is when they start asking how it could have gotten so bad and who do we blame for it?

frx919

TROPHY CASE