A report from The Washington Post website notes that, as of August, a majority of the Americans who died of Covid-19 had received at least the first series of its vaccine.
“It’s no longer a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” the story’s headline announced.
An official with the Kaiser Family Foundation who studied deaths reported in August said 58% of the fatalities were people who had received the original vaccine or booster shots.
The Post said this continues a trend that has been building for a year. In September 2021, vaccinated people accounted for 23% of Covid deaths. In January and February of this year, that figure had risen to 42%.
The story added that being unvaccinated is still a big risk. But it noted that the effectiveness of the vaccine fades over time, and pointed to a recent Centers for Disease Control analysis that says regular booster shots are helping keep the risk of death low, especially among the elderly.
A Kaiser foundation official pointed out that the rising percentage of deaths among the vaccinated is not a complete surprise. So many Americans completed the first series of shots that “it makes sense that vaccinated people are making up a greater share of fatalities,” the Post said.
According to the CDC, 267 million people, or 80% of the population, received at least one dose of the original vaccine, and 68% completed the original series. However, only 11% have taken a booster dose since then.
Also, variants of the original virus are more resistant. And people at the greatest risk of dying, especially the elderly, are more likely to have received the vaccine and booster shots.
Even though a larger percentage of deaths involve vaccinated people, don’t be fooled. Avoiding the vaccine remains a risky decision.
In August, unvaccinated people died at six times the rate of those who received the original shots, and at eight times the rate of those who also got a booster shot.
Jack Ryan, Enterprise-Journal
