CLAIM: A new study found that ventilators were responsible for nearly all COVID-19 patient deaths.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: Misleading. The study being referenced found that a secondary pneumonia associated with mechanical ventilation contributes to a patient’s death when it doesn’t respond to treatment. But a study author said that the patients placed on a ventilator would have died without that intervention, and that COVID-19 is still the primary cause of death.
THE FACTS: A headline shared widely on social media is spreading an erroneous narrative that COVID-19 deaths were actually caused by medical interventions, not the disease.
“Official Report: Ventilators Killed Nearly ALL COVID Patients,” reads a headline that has racked up tens of thousands of likes and shares.
The story appeared on The People’s Voice, a website previously known as NewsPunch and Your News Wire that has routinely spread misinformation. The story references a study conducted by Northwestern University researchers and published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
But the headline distorts the facts, a study author told The Associated Press.
The research looked at the outcomes of mechanically ventilated patients with pneumonia, not only from COVID-19 but from other causes, too, said Benjamin Singer, an associate professor of medicine at Northwestern University. The point of the study was to evaluate what happens to patients during their ICU stay and whether certain factors contribute to good or bad outcomes.
“One of the major features that we found that contributes to poor outcomes is if patients develop a secondary pneumonia, meaning a pneumonia that occurs while they’re already on the ventilator for pneumonia,” Singer said. “And specifically, if that secondary pneumonia does not resolve, meaning that despite antibiotics and supportive care, the patient does not resolve their pneumonia.”
In other words, a secondary pneumonia that can’t be treated further contributes to their death.
Ventilator-associated pneumonia, as it’s called, is a known issue in the field, and not COVID-19 specific: A patient’s lungs aren’t operating normally, Singer said, and a tube in the windpipe presents an opening for bacteria.
But it’s a mischaracterization to say that the ventilators are responsible for the deaths, Singer said, likening the circumstances to a patient in a severe car crash who dies despite surgery attempts; it’s the car crash that’s ultimately the cause of death.
The misrepresentation appears to stem from a lack of understanding about the clinical decision-making when it comes to ventilators, said Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security who was not involved with the study.
“We don’t put people on mechanical ventilators lightly,” Adalja said, adding that ventilators are used as a life-saving measure for patients in respiratory failure.
Singer agreed.
“These are all patients who would have died if they had not been put up on a mechanical ventilator,” Singer said. “You can’t be at risk for a ventilator secondary pneumonia if you’re dead.”
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This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.
