Source page: McKinsey & Company
Commentary
COVID-19 hospitalizations: Where we are now
COVID-19 | Public Health
September 20, 2021 – Hospitalizations from COVID-19 have risen recently. Clicking through data from the week of August 22, 2021 for the United States, United Kingdom, and France, we can see more precisely how hospital admissions compare with long-term averages of other public-health threats.
Interactive
To read the article, see “COVID-19: A comparison with other public-health burdens,” September 8, 2021.
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Visual form
Country-tabbed vertical bar comparison. The chart shows COVID-19 hospitalization bars for each selected country, with smaller benchmark bars for influenza, traffic injuries, HIV, and cancer in the lower comparison area.
Layout / body structure
The chart is organized as one chart with country tabs for US, UK, and France. Read each country view from the headline down to the three large COVID-19 bars, then continue to the lower benchmark section that keeps non-COVID public-health threats on the same per-million scale.
What is being compared
It compares COVID-19 hospitalization rates for the entire population, unvaccinated people, and vaccinated people within the selected country, then compares those rates with long-term hospitalization or burden benchmarks for other public-health threats.
Measurement system
The unit is hospitalizations or comparable burden per million people. The upper COVID-19 bars and the lower benchmark bars use the same scale, so vaccinated and unvaccinated COVID-19 rates can be read against influenza, traffic injuries, HIV, and cancer benchmarks.
Visible structure inside the graphic
The top half uses three large dark bars labeled Entire population, Unvaccinated, and Vaccinated. The bottom half uses smaller blue benchmark bars grouped under Influenza and Other. The visible US view shows 267, 538, and 21 for the COVID-19 bars, with benchmark bars including 26, 78, 13, 20, and 210.
Main takeaway from the visual
The chart makes the vaccination-status gap immediately visible: the unvaccinated hospitalization bar is far taller than the vaccinated bar, while vaccinated hospitalizations sit near familiar lower benchmark levels in the US view.
Key standout values or extremes
In the US view, unvaccinated hospitalizations are 538 per million, more than double the entire-population rate of 267 and far above vaccinated hospitalizations at 21. The vaccinated value is close to traffic injuries at 20 and below the influenza 2019 peak of 78, while the cancer benchmark is 210.
Controls / sequence, when applicable
The country tabs switch between US, UK, and France while keeping the same bar-and-benchmark layout.
Companion media, when applicable
There is no separate companion audio or video; the chart is the full visual on this page.