Covid-19 infographic showing vaccine benefits ‘definitely not fake news’, says Groote Schuur Hospital

An infographic published on Monday by Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town showing the number of vaccinated versus unvaccinated patients currently in its wards is real, the hospital says.

“It’s definitely not fake news,” said hospital spokesperson Alaric Jacobs.

Jacobs declined to comment further, saying the province was preparing a similar infographic to show Covid-19 admissions in Western Cape hospitals.

“Better to show the provincial stats than just one hospital,” he said.

The infographic shows dramatic differences between the number of vaccinated versus unvaccinated people admitted to Groote Schuur’s wards.

There were 153 unvaccinated patients in hospital against three vaccinated patients, while there were 66 unvaccinated patients but no vaccinated patients in high care or ICU, of whom 32 were on ventilators. 

Anti-vaxxers immediately pushed back on Twitter, claiming without providing evidence that the infographic was fake news.

One Twitter user, “MissK”, claimed a similar graph from a US hospital showed up in another WhatsApp group and wondered how “would Grooteschuur [sic] and a US-based hospital have the same infographic design?”

The data from the unidentified US hospital infographic matched one allegedly issued by Sanford Health that showed 136 patients admitted with Covid-19 of whom seven were vaccinated, 37 in ICU (two vaccinated) and 19 on ventilators (one vaccinated).

Sanford Health, one of the largest private healthcare providers in the US, operates 46 hospitals but the graphic does not say which hospital it refers to.

The US is gripped by a stubborn wave of Covid-19 infections, reporting on average 150,316 new cases every day, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC).

Some 1,414 US Covid-19 patients died on September 3, the most recent date for which figures are available, with an average of 1,114 patients dying every day.

This is a developing story.

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