Majority of COVID-19 Deaths in United States Were Vaccinated People, New Study Shows

A new study has found that 58% of COVID-19 deaths in August were people who had been vaccinated or received a booster shot.

Analysis conducted for The Washington Post's The Health 202 by the vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, Cynthia Cox, showed that more than two-thirds of the deceased had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

The Washington Post reported that this follows the troubling trend that has emerged over the last year in which the death rate of people who were vaccinated has increased. Cox told The Health 202 that people can "no longer say this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated," WION News reported.

The analysis was released just a day after Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, encouraged Americans to get their booster shots.

Fauci cited the study of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that found that booster shots provide better protection against symptomatic infection of COVID-19. The Health 202 data also showed that the elderly remain the most vulnerable and make up most people dying due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 Deaths

Vaccination rates have increased, but new variants appeared, and the share of deaths among vaccinated people has been steadily rising.

Vaccinated people made up just 23% of COVID-19 deaths in September last year. By January and February this year, it increased to up to 42 percent, according to Cox's colleagues Fenit Nirappil and Dan Keating.

Cox said she was not surprised by the change in number. She noted that there were several reasons behind it, such as many Americans have already received at least their initial shot of COVID-19 vaccines, including individuals at risk of dying from COVID-19 like the elderly, so it makes sense that vaccinated people make up a greater share of fatalities.

In addition, she said COVID-19 vaccines lose potency against the virus over time, and new variants will most likely be able to resist the vaccines, so continued boosters are needed to prevent illness and death.

In July, the BA. 5 omicron subvariant became the dominant COVID-19 strain and consistently accounted for most new COVID-19 infections across the U.S. until earlier this month.

Senior officials said the Biden administration would direct some of its remaining resources to fight the COVID-19 pandemic into a $475 million campaign to support community health centers and organizations working on getting the elderly and people with disabilities boosted.

COVID-19 Amid Holiday Season

Experts expect that Thanksgiving gatherings will ramp up social meet-ups and give new COVID-19 subvariants a chance to infect vulnerable people, which may result in cases and hospitalizations increase.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, said there are concerns that they may see increases in COVID-19 infections amid flu numbers rising. More than 300 Americans die on average, and 3,400 people are brought to the hospital each day with COVID infections.

Subvariants can be worrisome in the United States as Americans are not as well-vaccinated or boosted as in other countries. CDC data showed that two-thirds of the population had completed the first series of COVID-19 vaccines, and only 11% of those had gotten an updated booster.

Shishi Luo, associate director of bioinformatics and infectious disease at the genetic testing company Helix, said they expect more cases as COVID "positivity is going up." He added that, in general, the country should "see more people who are sick."

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

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