Ventilators Save Lives, Did Not Cause ‘Nearly All’ COVID-19 Deaths
SciCheck Digest
Ventilators can be lifesaving for critically ill COVID-19 patients. A social media claim that a new study shows ventilators killed “nearly all” COVID-19 patients is “quite wrong,” according to the study’s co-author. Ventilator-associated complications can contribute to deaths, but patients are typically put on ventilators when they would otherwise die.
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COVID-19 can cause lung damage and respiratory failure. In patients who are unable to breathe well enough to supply oxygen to their bodies, mechanical ventilators can be lifesaving and give them time to recover. Ventilators help people breathe by pushing air into their lungs via a tube inserted down their windpipe.
Yet, social media posts have shared an article from the People’s Voice with a false headline: “Official Report: Ventilators Killed Nearly ALL COVID Patients.” The People’s Voice, formerly News Punch, frequently publishes articles with false and inflammatory headlines.
The posts misrepresent the conclusions of a study published in April in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. The idea that ventilators — and not COVID-19 — killed nearly all COVID-19 patients is “quite wrong,” study co-author Dr. Benjamin Singer, a pulmonary and critical care physician at Northwestern Medicine, told us.
, a Republican from Kentucky, also misrepresented the conclusions of the study, , “How many COVID patients died due to the use of ventilators? A recent examination of the data
