Intensive care unit in Antwerp: The majority of patients are vaccinated? Don’t panic, it’s just statistics

In a video, a chief doctor of a hospital in Antwerp, Belgium, says that everyone in the intensive care unit there has been vaccinated. The short excerpt was distributed with subtitles on social networks in several countries – for example in Austria by the right-wing populist party FPÖ and the website Unzensuriert. It was also shared thousands of times on Facebook in German-speaking countries (here and here).

With the help of the fact-checking team from the Belgian magazine Knack, we researched the context of the video. The interview came from a news report on the Belgian TV broadcaster ATV, aired on 5 November 2021, about the hospital company GZA in Belgium, which operates hospitals in four locations, one of them being Antwerp. The chief physician there, Kristiaan Deckers, actually said in an interview that in the past it was mainly unvaccinated patients who were treated, while now all people in the intensive care units are vaccinated.

Vaccinated intensive care patients at the Antwerp hospital were on average 55 to 60 years old

However, only the section of the video with the latter information was distributed on social networks. What is missing is the part that follows in the original interview, where it is said that most of these people had previous illnesses and a weakened immune system as a result. They were all, on average, between 55 and 60 years old.

Together with our colleagues from Knack, we asked more information to the Belgian hospital company GZA in Antwerp. Press spokeswoman Astrid Schoenmaeckers emailed us on 18 November stating that the video had “apparently” been taken out of context. “It is true that at the time of the video all patients in our intensive care unit were fully vaccinated, but 80 percent of them also had previous illnesses that impaired their immune system.” Currently, 62 percent of Covid patients are fully vaccinated, most of which presented previous illnesses.

Schoenmaeckers also points to the high vaccination rate in Belgium, which is 75 percent of the total population and 87 percent for those over 18 years of age. “As you know, vaccination effectiveness varies according to age group and the level of immunization, so it is no surprise to see fully vaccinated people from risk groups in our hospitals.” That makes a high vaccination rate and booster vaccinations all the more important.

In the Flanders region, more than 95 percent of older people are vaccinated against Covid-19

The vaccination rates for Belgium can be found on the website of the Sciensano Health Institute. For 55 to 64 year olds the rate is 92 percent, for 65 to 74 year olds it is 93 percent.

In the Flanders region, where the city of Antwerp is located, the rates are even higher: 95 percent of 55 to 64 year olds and 96 percent of 65 to 84 year olds are fully vaccinated.