Data Manipulation by Hospitals and the Media – Again on the “Running Out of Beds” Scare

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Switzerland is not running out of ICU beds. It’s a fake news scare peddled by mainstream media and politicians.
The proof is in the data from the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) which records the number of ICU beds available and occupied. The data clearly shows that hospitals are adjusting the number of ICU beds on an as needed basis to keep occupancy as high as possible while still having a number of beds available for emergencies.

Here’s the data from Feb. 15 2021 to Dec. 10 2021:

Fig. 1 – Occupancy over Time Feb. 15 2021 to Dec. 10 2021

It’s clearly visible that at the beginning of the year in February, the total number of ICU was at 977, higher by about 130 beds than it is now with 843 beds. So we might conclude the maximum capacity of Swiss hospitals is around 1,000 ICU beds.

However, that’s not the end of the story. The same numbers from the FOPH for a longer period show this:

Fig. 2 – Occupancy over Time Mar 30, 2020 to Dec. 10 2021

On April 14, 2020 Swiss hospitals could run 1,508 ICU beds without collapsing – they had the physical beds and the personnel to run them. That number is almost twice of the number of beds they offer now.

The conclusion: Switzerland’s hospital are not running out of anything anytime soon, as is clearly demonstrated by the numbers from FOPH.

Source Data is here.