99% of COVID Deaths Now Unvaccinated, Experts Say

COVID cases, hospitalizations and deaths rise again as virus is extremely contagious delta variant of the coronavirus is establishing itself as the dominant strain in the United States. In some parts of the country, there are more hospitalizations and cases of COVID than there were last winter, the peak of the pandemic.

The vast majority of people hospitalized with COVID and dying from the disease have not been vaccinated, according to public health officials. More than 97% of hospitalizations due to COVID are currently unvaccinated people, said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention on Friday, adding: “There is a clear message going: this is becoming a pandemic of not vaccinated. In early July, Dr.Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to the president, told CBS that 99.2% of deaths from COVID are now unvaccinated.

In Texas, 99.5% of people who died from COVID from February to July 14 have not been vaccinated, according to the Texas Tribune report on preliminary data from the Texas Department of State Health Services. (The vaccines became available to adults in the state in late March. Those at risk were able to get them sooner.) In southern Missouri, an area that dominates the country as a delta variant hotspot, ” almost every COVID-19 patient in Springfield hospitals is unvaccinated, “the Atlantic reported. The approximately dozen who were vaccinated, the report said, were elderly or immunocompromised – people for whom studies have shown that vaccines are probably not as effective.

Scott Gottlieb, chief of the Food and Drug Administration under the Trump administration, told CBS on Sunday that the delta variant of the coronavirus is so contagious that most people will get it if they haven’t been vaccinated or previously infected. by COVID.

“And for most people who get this delta variant, it will be the most serious virus they get in their lifetime in terms of their risk of putting them in the hospital,” Gottlieb said.

No vaccine is 100%

The three COVID vaccines available in the United States – Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson – have been shown to be effective against all variants of the coronavirus currently in circulation, including the delta. The vaccines vary slightly in their efficacy based on clinical trials, but all have exceeded typical vaccine efficacy rates when deployed. For the scale, the flu shot is about 40% to 60% effective each season.

It is important to note that all three vaccines are effective against serious illnesses caused by the delta.

In an interview with PBS, Dr Anthony Fauci said that “groundbreaking cases”, or people testing positive for COVID after being vaccinated, are to be expected, but vaccinated people who are infected “generally have no symptom, or very mild symptoms instead of continuing and developing significant disease. “

“That’s the good news about it [and] sobering news where a lot of people are infected, ”Fauci said.

As of May, the CDC has only tracked groundbreaking COVID-19 cases if they result in hospitalization or death. Some health experts disagree with this, saying that in order to get a full picture of how well our vaccines are working and to determine whether or not we need boosters, we need to keep track of all cases.

Risks / benefits of the vaccine and reduced life expectancy

One of the reasons that many people have chosen not to be vaccinated is the novelty of coronavirus vaccines, or the fact that vaccines have FDA emergency use authorization unlike normal authorization. Although all vaccines have been clinically tested and continue to be safe, people’s mistrust of Side effects can prevent them from getting vaccinated.

The reported side effects that have caused the most concern are all extremely rare, have been investigated by health officials and continue to be monitored. They include the risk of myocarditis, or heart inflammation, in Pfizer or Moderna vaccines (mostly occurring in men under 30, the majority of cases being mild) as well as a blood clotting mess and Johnson & Johnson vaccine-associated autoimmune disease.

At a meeting last month, the CDC’s advisory committee on immunization practices found that the benefits of mRNA vaccines outweighed the risk of myocarditis because they ultimately prevented hospitalizations, even in men from less than 30 years after receiving the second dose of an mRNA vaccine. . As of June 11, when ACIP data was collected, 636 cases of myocarditis have been reported out of 133 million second doses of an mRNA vaccine.

The extremely rare blood clotting disorder associated with Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine has prompted some health experts to advise women under the age of 50 (the group that has been affected in most cases) to get the Pfizer vaccine or Moderna instead, if available, due to ACIP weigh-in. benefits and risks for this population. The risk of severe COVID in women under 50 is low on average, so it is worth waiting for one of the other vaccines to become available rather than going with J&J. However, it should be noted that the risk of blood clotting after J&J vaccination in the general population remains very low, only slightly higher. 1 in a million.

Guillain-Barré syndrome, a neurological disorder linked to another rare side effect of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine, occurs in about 8 out of 1 million doses of the vaccine, according to the CDC, and the benefits of vaccination outweigh on the risks. However, people with a history of neurological disorder should choose an mRNA vaccine.

Vaccines, like other types of drugs, almost always have a specific risk-benefit profile. The reason public health officials are calling for the COVID-19 vaccination is simply because of the severity of the disease and the number of people it kills. In a recent report, the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics found that life expectancy in the United States declined by 1.5 years in 2020, the largest drop since World War II, reported NPR. Black and Hispanic communities have seen the biggest drops in life expectancy.

Infertility, microchips, and other misinformation

Another reason some people have chosen not to get the vaccine is the misinformation about vaccines that continues to circulate online. There is no evidence of a claim that links the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to female infertility. Many people who have received an mRNA vaccine have continued to get pregnant after their injection, or are pregnant when they get the vaccine. Another lie is that vaccines contain a microchip.

President Joe Biden and US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy recently sparked a heated conversation about the role of social media companies in spreading false public health information, with the president saying that technology companies “Kill people” by allowing misinformation to spread online.

Amid a wave of conflicting opinions about vaccines and COVID, however, one difficult fact does not change: the number of unvaccinated people falling ill or dying from COVID-19. And as residents of communities affected by COVID see an upsurge in illnesses, hospitalizations or deaths of community members, many are choosing to be vaccinated, even though they have previously refused.

During Friday’s press conference, Jeff Zients, head of the White House COVID-19 task force, said the five states with the highest number of COVID cases – Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri and Nevada – had more people receiving new vaccines than the national average.

“Vaccinating more and more Americans every day is an individual by individual, community by community effort,” Zients said. “And that kind of one-on-one, localized approach takes a while, but it works.”

The information in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute health or medical advice. Always consult a doctor or other qualified healthcare professional with any questions you may have about a health problem or health goals.