Yes, your friend had no hospitalization. We don't count people who see a doctor a few times and have long term side-effects as hospitalized from COVID, so in an apples-to-apples comparison the example of your friend should not go into that column.
> A total of 76% of cases of myocarditis were described as mild and 22% as intermediate; 1 case was associated with cardiogenic shock (Out of 100 cases)
In that case, I'm wondering how valuable the hospitalization metric is. Someone can be incidentally hospitalized, and discharged with no serious long term issues, the ER is the only option for many non insured in the USA, while a life altering long term side effect may never result in hospitalization, but is something that should go into the risk profile of either catching covid or an adverse reaction to the vaccine. But we have to work with what we have.
Another question- if I go into the hospital for a broken arm, then fail a covid test- am I counted as a covid hospitalization? I remember watching one video early on in the pandemic of a "whistleblower nurse" lamenting the scenario where a patient would be admitted into the hospital for some reason, test negative for covid, be held for quarantine, then test positive for covid- presumably because they caught covid while in the hospital.
It's quite rare to be incidentally hospitalized. If you are hospitalized, you are very very sick. You don't get hospitalized for a broken arm, you get a cast and maybe some painkillers and you're sent home.
If you are sick enough to be hospitalized, you are likely to be sick enough that COVID is dangerous to you and requires medical attention.
Since we're doing anecdotes, I have a friend who recently got an infection (not COVID) that left him bedridden and so dizzy he couldn't walk more than few steps, the doctors decided against hospitalization as he presented to the hospital because his symptoms were too mild. They ran a few tests, determined it was an infection, prescribed antibiotics and sent him home.
So yes, hospitalization is a very good predictor. Fyi, hospitalization rates for the general population is right around 0.1%, more or less, and definitely a lot less for people under 40, in normal times
There are many hospital patients who are admitted for other conditions and diagnosed with asymptomatic COVID-19 during routine admission screening. This is particularly common among pediatric patients.
And if you show up to the ER they don't send you to a hospital bed, they don't have hospital beds to give out like candy these days. Even if you have a suspected heart attack (based on cardiac enzymes in your blood not just clutching at your chest acting like you're in a stage play) then you're still going to be waiting hours for a bed to open up. Someone with the sniffles isn't ever getting close to a bed.
Even before covid, hospital resources in many countries are quite limited, a big responsibility of ER doctors is to triage patients, they would not hospitalize anyone for non-serious reasons just because you asked (in the UK). You can be hospitalized without a firm diagnosis if your symptoms possibly indicate something life threatening like stroke.
Here is the source: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2110737:
> A total of 76% of cases of myocarditis were described as mild and 22% as intermediate; 1 case was associated with cardiogenic shock (Out of 100 cases)