Unvaccinated people accounted for the overwhelming majority of deaths in the United States throughout much of the coronavirus pandemic. But that has changed in recent months, according to a Washington Post analysis of state and federal data.
WASHINGTON —
As a group, the unvaccinated remain far more vulnerable to the worst consequences of infection - and are far more likely to die - than people who are vaccinated, and they are especially more at risk than people who have received a booster shot."It's still absolutely more dangerous to be unvaccinated than vaccinated," said Andrew Noymer, a public health professor at the University of California at Irvine who studies covid-19 mortality.
Even though the death rates for the vaccinated elderly and immunocompromised are low, their losses numbered in the thousands when cases exploded, leaving behind blindsided families. But experts say the rising number of vaccinated people dying should not cause panic in those who got shots, the vast majority of whom will survive infections.
A fever-stricken Bennett limped into the hospital alongside his wife, who was also infected, a week before Christmas. He died Jan. 13, among the 125,000 Americans who succumbed to covid-19 in January and February. While experts say even the medically vulnerable should feel assured that a vaccine will probably save their lives, they should remain vigilant for signs of infection. As more therapeutics become available, early detection and treatment is key.
"In his last voice conversation with me, he said, 'I thought I was doing everything right,'" recalled Lady Booth Olson, another daughter, who lives in Virginia. "I believe society is getting complacent, and clearly somebody he was around was carrying the virus. ... We'll never know." As is often the case for covid-19 patients, his condition rapidly turned for the worse. His daughter Rebecca Booth, the physician, suspects a previous bout with leukemia made it harder for his immune system to fight off the virus. He died March 6.
Gregory Marelich, chair of critical care for the 21 hospitals in that system, said most of the vaccinated and boosted people he saw in ICUs were immunosuppressed, usually after organ transplants or because of medications for diseases such as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis. With Michigan battling back-to-back surges of the delta and omicron variants, Jessica Estep wasn't able to dodge the virus any longer - she fell ill in mid-December. After surviving a cancer doctors described as incurable, Estep died Jan. 27. Physicians said the coronavirus essentially turned her lungs into concrete, her mother said.
Bennett wore a music festival shirt her husband gave her as she walked into a grocery store to get her third shot in March. Her husband urged her to get one when they returned to Washington, but she became sick at the same time he did. She scheduled the appointment for the earliest she could get the shot: 90 days after receiving monoclonal antibodies to treat the disease.
"Last time we got it, we took selfies: 'Look, we had vaccines,'" Bennett said, beginning to sob. "This one leaves me crying, missing him so much.""He would want you to do this," the pharmacist said. "You have to know."Death rates compare the number of deaths in various groups with an adjustment for the number of people in each group.
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