At the peak of the Omicron wave, New York City saw 26 times more deaths among the unvaccinated than vaccinated people. A pop-up COVID-19 testing site is shown in a neighbourhood among those that have seen some of the highest number of city deaths on February 23 in the Queens borough of New York City.
Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Antivaxx covidiots, scraping around for something to support their selfish stupidity will often point to the fact that vaccinated people are still catching the omicron variant of COVID-19 as evidence that the vaccines don't work. At least only the lunatic fringe conspiracists are still coming up with the more insane claims such as that the vaccine is designed to turn you gay, or make you magnetic so you can be controlled by Bill Gates, or that it is designed to kill you as part of some nefarious eugenic population control.
But what are the merits of this claim of non-effectiveness, as though governments worldwide are spending vast sums of money to give their people something that doesn't work, as well as being in on a vast global conspiracy involving tens or hundreds of millions of people?
The facts are, as explained in this Newsweek report, not on the side of the antivaxxers, not because they are wrong to claim that vaccinated people can still catch COVID-19, but because they are wrong to claim this means the vaccines are not effective.
In fact, the evidence is that, as the vaccine manufacturers always claimed, that, while not 100% effective and while not giving permanent protection as immunity was likely to decline over time, so top-up boosters will be needed, the vaccines give you a very significantly increased probability of avoiding serious illness and death. And this is borne out by the facts, both in the USA and in the UK.
If you look at the data, you can't walk away from the facts. And the facts are stunningly obvious when you look at the hospitalization and deaths among unvaccinated versus vaccinated; versus vaccinated and boosted
For instance, in the USA last December, unvaccinated people were sixteen times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 and fifteen times more likely to die from it, than vaccinated people. In New York, once the epicentre of the pandemic in the USA, the disparity was even more marked. There, the unvaccinated were twenty-four times more likely to be hospitalized and 26 times more likely to die of COVID-19 than vaccinated people.Dr. Anthony Fauci
Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Cited in Newsweek.
Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Cited in Newsweek.
In addition, as the omicron variant begins to decline from its peak, the disparity is increasing! During the week of January 15, hospitalizations among the unvaccinated dropped from 764 per 100,000 people to 587 per 100,000 people. However, vaccinated hospitalizations dropped by half in the same time period, a significantly greater decrease. The most recent data showed unvaccinated people were 36 times more likely to be hospitalized and 30 times more likely to die.
Indeed, the disparity is so great that it has been likened to a self-genocide of those gullible enough to have fallen for the disinformation coming from the Trumpanzee, antivaxx extreme right and their allies in the Christian evangelical churches and the Republican Party. Probably for the first time in history, a major political party os following policies and platforms that are leading to the avoidable deaths of their own supporters.
Daily New Confirmed Cases
Daily Hospital Beds Occupied and Mechanical Ventilators Used by Covid-19 Patients
Daily Deaths from Covid-19 by Date Reported
Accumulative number of people over age 12-years who have received, first, second and booster vaccinations, by date of vaccinationClick the buttons to see enlarged views of the charts.
The first chart shows the daily confirmed cases. Note the successive peaks caused by the initial wave then the α, δ and starting in November 2021, the ο variant waves. The mass vaccination campaign started in early January, 2021 and continued through the summer. It now stands at 90.9% of those over 12-years-old with at least 1 vaccination, 83.98% with 2 doses and 64.59% with boosters. In other words, almost 91% have some protection and almost 65% are fully protected.
The second chart shows the number of people in hospital with COVID-19 by date and (with the orange line) the number of those people on a mechanical ventilator. Note again the successive waves with the different variants and the almost flat line, and even declining, of those seriously unwell enough to require mechanical assistance to breathe. Compare also the height of the hospitalization peaks compared to the number of cases for each wave, and how hospitalizations as a proportion of cases declines as the vaccination campaign progressed
Thirdly, the next chart shows the number of deaths recorded by date reported, of those who had a confirmed infection with COVID-19 in the preceding 28 days. The notched appearance of this chart is a function of the fact that many deaths over a weekend or a public holiday are not reported until the next working day so that day tends to be inflated. Note again the relatively low level of the peaks compared to the case numbers as the vaccination campaign progressed.
The last chart shows the accumulated figures for vaccine take-up for first, second and booster dose for people over 12-years-old. The take-up has been lowest in the 12-18-year-old group and highest in the 80+ year-old group. Cases of the omicron variant are now commonest in the younger groups, which could, in part account for the apparent lower morbidity associated with omicron.
In the UK, the vaccination campaigns, including the recent boosters, has radically changed the nature of the pandemic and changed it to one which our NHS is able to manage, albeit with difficulty, from one which would have completely overwhelmed it ,had the population been as vulnerable to the virus as we were in the first year of the pandemic.
The COVID-19 death toll in the USA now stands at 882,881 from 74,067,514 confirmed cases (Johns Hopkins 29 Jan 2022).
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