The term “the pandemic of the unvaccinated” may no longer be applicable.
According to Centers for Disease Control (CDC) data compiled by the Washington Post, 42 percent of the COVID omicron deaths that occurred in January and February had been vaccinated
While the CDC noted that most deaths come from the ranks of the unvaccinated ranks, the growing number of deaths of vaccinated people has changed the landscape.
“The pandemic’s toll is no longer falling almost exclusively on those who chose not to or could not get shots,” researchers told the Washington Post.
“A pandemic of — and by — the unvaccinated is not correct,” said Andrew Noymer, a public health professor at the University of California at Irvine.
Health experts point out the main reason why deaths among those that were vaccinated are up is because COVID deaths are concentrated among the elderly.
The Washington Post analysis showed more than 66 percent of COVID deaths during the omicron surge were among people 75 and older.
With COVID deaths now numbering more than a million Americans, the New York Times reported that a significant proportion of the nation’s oldest residents make up about three-quarters of the total COVID-related deaths.
The New York Times reported that, since the pandemic, the CDC has received data on deaths by vaccination status from only around half of the states, but at least 50,000 vaccinated people, many of them seniors, have died from COVID.
Health officials say the rise of deaths among seniors isn’t shocking since, even with the vaccine, elderly people are more vulnerable.
“Let’s just remind everybody that the vaccines are not 100 percent full proof,” said Dr. Julio Gonzalez, a physician based in Florida.
The analysis shows that, across the nation, hospitals, primarily in highly vaccinated areas, saw a shift in the COVID wards. Some states saw reports that almost half of the patients in intensive care unites had been vaccinated.
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