Even with the delta variant, new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention affirms that COVID vaccines are remarkably effective at preventing hospitalizations and deaths among those infected.
From July 11 to Sept. 4, roughly 1 in 2,000 unvaccinated seniors 80 or older died from COVID. During the same period, just 1 in 10,000 fully vaccinated seniors died from the disease. The disparity of the death rate, while lower overall, was similarly pronounced for younger seniors between the vaccinated and unvaccinated. Even among adults aged 50-64, the death rate of the unvaccinated was twice as high as the fully vaccinated.
The younger the demographic, the less significant the absolute difference of outcome was. Why? Somehow, the coronavirus is less of a threat to the younger you — vaccinated or unvaccinated.
The death rate for fully vaccinated adults ages 30-49 was just 0.11 out of 10,000. But the death rate for unvaccinated teenagers younger than 18 was less than half that. Even unvaccinated adults ages 18-29 had a lower death rate than fully vaccinated adults older than 50. All of this is to say that it is far less important to vaccinate minors than to vaccinate older populations.
The new CDC data provides yet another point in favor of unmasking in schools as soon as possible and letting children return to total normalcy whether they’re vaccinated or not.
Children ages 5-11 are twice as likely to die from suicide and three times as likely to die from the flu as teenagers are to die from the coronavirus. The vaccines are free and available to literally anyone who wants one. We didn’t shut down schools to stop the flu, and we surely increased self-harm when we did that because of COVID. The data simply do not justify prolonging this madness one minute longer.
