Latest CDC Data: Unvaccinated Adults 97 Times More Likely to Die from COVID-19 Than Boosted Adults – FactCheck.org

SciCheck Digest

As of early December, unvaccinated adults were about 97 times more likely to die from COVID-19 than fully vaccinated people who had received boosters, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. But a Twitter user falsely implied that the death rate for the unvaccinated included people who had only one or two doses of a vaccine. The CDC said unvaccinated means someone has not been verified to have received COVID-19 vaccine.

How effective are the vaccines?

All of the authorized and approved vaccines are effective at preventing symptomatic disease.

The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which is the first COVID-19 vaccineto receive full approval from the Food and Drug Administration, showed a final efficacyof 91% against symptomatic illness in its phase 3 trial, meaningthat under the conditions of the trial the vaccine reduced the risk of getting sick by 91%. The Moderna vaccine showed similar results in its clinical trial, with an efficacy of 94%against disease at the time of emergency use authorization.

Johnson & Johnson, which partly tested its vaccine in South Africa when the beta variant emerged, reported an efficacy of 66% in preventing moderate to severe COVID-19 and an efficacy of 85% in preventing severe or critical COVID-19.

Subsequent studies have demonstratedthat the vaccines are effective under real-world conditions, includingagainst the highly contagious delta variant, although they are lesseffectivein preventing infection and mild disease compared with earlier versions of the virus. Most studies show the vaccines remainhighly effectivein preventing serious disease, hospitalization and death from delta.

Data also suggest that vaccinated people arelesslikelyto transmit the coronavirus if they do become infected.

Link to this

A Feb. 5 tweet from President Joe Bidens official government Twitter account @POTUS said that unvaccinated individuals are 97 times more likely to die from COVID-19 compared to those who are boosted.

Thats accurate, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions most recent analysis of data from 24 U.S. jurisdictions.

The CDC says that, as of Dec. 4, the weekly COVID-19 death rate among unvaccinated adults was 9.74 per 100,000 population, and the rate was 0.1 per 100,000 population for people 18 and older who were fully vaccinated with a booster dose.

The White House confirmed in an email to FactCheck.org that the tweet was based on the CDCs data from early December.

However, a Twitter user falsely implied that the death rate for the unvaccinated was inflated by including people who had received only one or two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Heres the deal: classifying people who have 1 or 2 jabs as unvaccinated is ridiculous, Libertarians: Diligently Plotting tweeted in response to the POTUS account. An image of that tweet was posted to the Facebook page of Libertarians: Diligently Plotting to Take Over the World & Leave You Alone, which has over 71,000 followers.

But the CDC said it only counted people who had not received any COVID-19 vaccine doses as unvaccinated.

A footnote on the CDCs Rates of COVID-19 Cases and Deaths by Vaccination Status webpage says unvaccinated means people who have not been verified to have received COVID-19 vaccine. In addition, that CDC page says partially vaccinated people who received at least one FDA-authorized vaccine dose but did not complete a primary series were excluded.

For most people, the primary vaccination series is: two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, given three weeks apart; two doses of the Moderna vaccine, given four weeks apart; or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Someone is not considered fully vaccinated until at least 14 days after the second dose of either the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna vaccine or at least 14 days after one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Whats more, the CDC separately tracks fully vaccinated people who have only received the primary vaccination series. As of Dec. 4, the weekly COVID-19 death rate among adults fully vaccinated without booster dose was 0.71 per 100,000 which was about seven times higher than the rate for those fully vaccinated who also had received a booster shot.

Weve reproduced the graph from the CDCs page below:

Heres how CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky explained the data in a Feb. 2 press briefing by the White House COVID-19 Response Team and public health officials:

Walensky, Feb. 2: Similar to what I showed you last week, vaccination and booster doses substantially decrease the risk of death from COVID-19. Looking at the data from the week ending Dec. 4, the number of average weekly deaths for those who are unvaccinated was 9.7 per 100,000 people, but only 0.7 per 100,000 people for those who were vaccinated.

This means the risk of dying from COVID-19 was 14 times higher for people who were unvaccinated compared to those who received only a primary series.

For those who were boosted, the average of weekly deaths was 0.1 per 100,000 people, meaning that unvaccinated individuals were 97 times more likely to die compared to those who were boosted.

She clearly provided different COVID-19 risk assessments for the unvaccinated, the fully vaccinated without a booster and the fully vaccinated who had been boosted.

Editors note:SciChecks COVID-19/Vaccination Projectis made possible by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The foundation hasno controlover our editorial decisions, and the views expressed in our articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the foundation. The goal of the project is to increase exposure to accurate information about COVID-19 and vaccines, while decreasing the impact of misinformation.

President Joe Biden (@POTUS). Heres the deal: Unvaccinated individuals are 97 times more likely to die compared to those who are boosted. Protect yourself and those around you by getting vaccinated and boosted today. Twitter. 5 Feb 2022.

Libertarians: Diligently Plotting (@LibertariansDP). Heres the deal: classifying people who have 1 or 2 jabs as unvaccinated is ridiculous. Twitter. 5 Feb 2022.

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Rates of COVID-19 Cases and Deaths by Vaccination Status. Cdc.gov. Accessed 8 Feb 2022.

White House. Press Briefing by White House COVID-19 Response Team and Public Health Officials. Transcript. Whitehouse.gov. 2 Feb 2022.

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Latest CDC Data: Unvaccinated Adults 97 Times More Likely to Die from COVID-19 Than Boosted Adults - FactCheck.org