Approximately 77 percent of the COVID-19-related deaths recorded from August 1st to September 24th are among unvaccinated persons, newly released cumulative data from the Ministry of Health and Wellness (MOHW) informed this week.
The MOHW’s data—provided via updated graphics—shows that among the 65 COVID deaths for this period, 50 of those persons were unvaccinated. The data also shows that only 10 persons (about 15 percent) were fully vaccinated, and five (about 7.7 percent) had received only one dose (“semi-vaccinated”). It must be underscored that fully vaccinated implies that it has been at least two weeks since the persons in question had received their second jab of any two-dose vaccine.
The CDC—in its September 15th 2021, report, titled “Science Brief: COVID-19 Vaccines and Vaccinations”—once again reiterated that the efficacy levels remains strongest among the fully vaccinated. On this point, the CDC wrote: “For two-dose COVID-19 vaccines, multiple studies have shown greater neutralization against variants after the second dose (i.e. among fully vaccinated people) compared with after the first dose alone.”
Nevertheless, several research works do indicate that the “semi-vaccinated” do enjoy some level of protection, a finding that appears to be borne out in the MOHW’s data. Of course, it must be highlighted that the data is only for a limited period, and it is worth tracking over the next several weeks and months.
Additionally, In the case of the vaccinated among the deaths, the question becomes whether or not there were other contributing factors, including complications caused by comorbidity. On this point, it is noteworthy that all ten fully-vaccinated persons who died from COVID-related reasons are 50 years and older, with six out of the ten for the reported period being individuals above 60 years of age.
Among the “semi-vaccinated”, three of the five were 50 years or older. The remaining two are between 30 and 49 years of age.
For weeks now health officials both locally and internationally have been dubbing the ongoing spread of COVID-19 as the “pandemic of the unvaccinated”. The term stems from the vantage point that with the advent of the various COVID-19 vaccines, there is no longer any reason from the disease to be as prevalent and cause as many deaths as it continues to do. The medical community maintains that strong vaccine uptake could significantly defend against severe illness and limit the disease’s ability to mutate and produce potentially stronger or more transmissible variants.