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Analysis: Nearly all COVID-19 deaths among unvaccinated people

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Headshot of <span class="author-name text-name1">Alex Peebles</span>
Alex Peebles Reporter
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(AP) — Nearly all COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. now are in people who weren’t vaccinated, a staggering demonstration of how effective the shots have been and an indication that deaths per day — now down to under 300 — could be practically zero if everyone eligible got the vaccine.

An Associated Press analysis of available government data from May shows that “breakthrough” infections in fully vaccinated people accounted for fewer than 1,200 of more than 853,000 COVID-19 hospitalizations. That’s about 0.1%.

And only about 150 of the more than 18,000 COVID-19 deaths in May were in fully vaccinated people. That translates to about 0.8%, or five deaths per day on average.

The AP analyzed figures provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC itself has not estimated what percentage of hospitalizations and deaths are in fully vaccinated people, citing limitations in the data.

Among them: Only about 45 states report breakthrough infections, and some are more aggressive than others in looking for such cases. So the data probably understates such infections, CDC officials said.

Still, the overall trend that emerges from the data echoes what many health care authorities are seeing around the country and what top experts are saying.

Earlier this month, Andy Slavitt, a former adviser to the Biden administration on COVID-19, suggested that 98% to 99% of the Americans dying of the coronavirus are unvaccinated.

And CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said on Tuesday that the vaccine is so effective that “nearly every death, especially among adults, due to COVID-19, is, at this point, entirely preventable.” She called such deaths “particularly tragic.”

Deaths in the U.S. have plummeted from a peak of more than 3,400 day on average in mid-January, one month into the vaccination drive.

About 63% of all vaccine-eligible Americans — those 12 and older — have received at least one dose, and 53% are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. While vaccine remains scarce in much of the world, the U.S. supply is so abundant and demand has slumped so dramatically that shots sit unused.

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Gwen Baumgardner: A WORLD WITHOUT COVID DEATHS.
NEW ANALYSIS FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS SHOWS — IT’S POSSIBLE.
IT LOOKED AT GOVERNMENT DATA FROM THE MONTH OF MAY — AND FOUND JUST POINT 1 PERCENT OF U-S HOSPITALIZATIONS — AND POINT 8 PERCENT OF U-S DEATHS WERE PEOPLE WHO WERE FULLY VACCINATED.
THAT MEANS VIRTUALLY ALL U-S COVID DEATHS COULD — IN THEORY — BE PREVENTED BY GETTING VACCINATED.
HOWEVER — IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE — WHILE A-P GOT ITS NUMBERS FROM THE C-D-C — THE CENTERS THEMSELVES ARE NOT ESTIMATING WHAT PERCENTAGES OF HOSPITALIZATIONS AND DEATHS ARE FULLY VACCINATED PEOPLE.
ONLY 45 STATES ARE REPORTING INFECTIONS AMONG PEOPLE WHO GOT VACCINATED — AND SOME ARE MORE CONSISTENT IN THEIR REPORTING THAN OTHERS.