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WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden on Wednesday offered an absolute guarantee that people who receive their COVID-19 vaccines are fully protected against infection, disease and death from the coronavirus. The reality is not that clear.
Vaccines are extremely effective, but ‘breakthrough’ infections do occur and cases of delta variant driving among the unvaccinated in the United States are not fully understood.
Biden also inflated the impact of his policies on the American jobs created during his first half of tenure, deceptively claiming his administration had done more than any other president. He forgets to mention that he had population growth on his side in his comparison.
A look at his words in a CNN town hall:
PANDEMIC
BIDEN: “If you are vaccinated you are not going to be hospitalized, you are not going to be in the IC unit and you are not going to die. – city Hall.
THE FACTS: His remark accurately captures the strong protection offered by COVID-10 vaccines as cases rise among people who have resisted the shots. But he neglects the rare exceptions.
As of July 12, the government had identified 5,492 vaccinated people tested positive for the coronavirus and hospitalized or dead. That’s over 159 million Americans who are fully vaccinated. The Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr Rochelle Walensky, said that “99.5% of all deaths from COVID-19 are unvaccinated.”
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BIDEN: “You are not going to get COVID if you have these vaccines.” – city Hall.
THE FACTS: Again, he painted with a brush that was too broad as he described in crude terms the disparity between those who had their shots and those who didn’t. The disparity is real, but a small number of breakthrough infections are occurring and health officials say they are not a cause for alarm.
No vaccine is perfect, and the government is closely monitoring whether new coronavirus mutants start to foil COVID-19 injections. But for now, federal health officials say that even when breakthrough infections do occur, they tend to be mild – vaccines so far remain strongly protective against serious illness.
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BIDEN, when asked about the vaccinated people who are infected: “It may be possible, I don’t know of any where they are hospitalized, in intensive care and / or have died, so at least I can say even if they contracted it, which I’m ‘I’m sorry they did, it’s such a small percentage and it’s not a threat to life – remarks to reporters after the event.
THE FACTS: Again, too far. This is clear from the CDC’s finding that 5,492 vaccinated people who tested positive for the coronavirus were hospitalized or died as of July 12. It is not “none”. But he’s right that this is a small percentage of the more than 159 million fully vaccinated Americans.
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JOBS
BIDEN: “We created more jobs in the first six months of our administration than at any time in American history. No president, no administration has ever created so many jobs. – city Hall.
THE FACTS: His claim is misleading.
While Biden’s administration in his first half as president saw more jobs created than any other president – just over 3 million in the five months followed by employment reports – this is partly because the American population is larger than in the past.
Calculated as a percentage of the labor force, employment growth under President Jimmy Carter grew faster from February to June 1977 than in the same five months this year: Carter’s 2.2%, compared with 2.1 % for Biden.
Since the late 1970s, the American population has grown by over 100 million people.
It is true, however, that the economy is growing rapidly – it grew at an annual rate of 6.4% in the first three months of the year – and is expected to grow this year at the fastest rate since 1984.
Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion bailout helped strong growth, but much of the expansion also reflects a broader rebound from the unusually strong pandemic recession, the deepest slowdown since the 1930s Even before the Biden package, for example, the International Monetary Fund forecast US growth of more than 5% for this year.
Biden also leaves out the fact that the US economy remains at 6.8 million jobs below its pre-pandemic level, and the unemployment rate is high at 5.9%, from a low of 3. , 5% in five decades before the pandemic.
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Associated Press editors Lauran Neergaard and Christopher Rugaber in Washington and David Klepper in Providence, Rhode Island, contributed to this report.
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Editor’s note – A look at the veracity of the assertions of political figures.
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Find AP Fact Checks at http://apnews.com/APFactCheck
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