After 19 months of wall-to-wall coronavirus media coverage, the public can probably be forgiven for overestimating the power of COVID-19.
According to a Gallup survey of over 3,000 U.S. adults taken this August, just 8% correctly identified the hospitalization rate for unvaccinated people. Democrats, in particular, were out of touch with reality, as 98% overestimated the percentage of hospitalized unvaccinated people who got COVID-19.
Since the vaccine was rolled out in December 2020, just 0.89% of unvaccinated people in the United States have been hospitalized due to COVID-19. That is less than 1%. In sharp contrast, 41% of Democrats believe that the hospitalization rate for the unvaccinated is 50% or higher. Meanwhile, 20% of Republicans placed the hospitalization rate at between 2% and 5%.
Despite the headlines they receive, vaccinated people very rarely go to the hospital due to COVID-19. Gallup placed the actual percentage at 0.01%. This implies that the vaccine is 99% effective at keeping people out of the hospital due to the coronavirus.
People in both parties wildly overestimated the hospitalization rates for vaccinated people. For example, almost 20% of Republicans and 25% of Democrats thought the percentage of vaccinated people going to the hospital due to COVID-19 was between 2% and 5%, while 7% thought the hospitalization rate for the vaccinated was over 50%.
COVID-19 is bad. It kills. But it is not nearly as bad as most people think it is.
Also, the vaccines work. If you hate hospitals as much as we do, why take the chance?
