Ireland’s COVID situation has deteriorated somewhat in recent weeks due to concerns from public health officials about the effects of the virus that will brake the lifting of all remaining restrictions on Friday.
Despite successful vaccine deployments throughout the year, the number of hospitalizations, ICU admissions, and deaths has increased significantly as a result of Covid-19 since late summer.
But health officials are not the only ones expressing concern about these numbers.
The significant increase in ICU hospitalizations and mortality from Covid-19 has led to various claims from anti-vaccine groups on social media that are trying to undermine vaccine use.
Over the past few weeks, these groups have found that Covid-19 deaths since April have been more vaccinated than unvaccinated, based on weekly data released by the Health Protection and Monitoring Center (HPSC). Claims that there are more.
It says the vaccine isn’t working, unvaccinated people aren’t putting pressure on medical services, and Ireland is just pushing for vaccine use to connect with the government’s big pharma. It led to a claim.
None of these claims are true, and there is an important context that relies on HPSC data, that is, missing from the definition of a “vaccinated” person.
Vaccines still prevent much higher levels of serious illness and death than are currently experienced in Ireland, and unvaccinated people with Covid-19 are still higher than fully vaccinated people. It accounts for a percentage of deaths.
HPSC data
HPSC released the latest report on Covid-19’s death on Friday-you can read it here..
Between April 1st and October 16th of this year, there was a confirmed case of Covid-19 in Ireland, and it was found that 402 people were notified to the HPSC that they had died of the disease. these:
- Forty-two percent (or 155) died more than 14 days after receiving all recommended doses of the vaccine.
- 55.7% (or 224 deaths) of the population were among those who received at least one vaccination.
- 44.3% (or 178 deaths) of the population were among those who were not vaccinated or registered for vaccination with the Irish Covid-19 immune system.
(Note: People in the first group (fully vaccinated) are also included in the third group, so these percentages total more than 100).
Here, the number of Covid-19 deaths since April is the lowest in the category of fully vaccinated people, that is, those who died more than two weeks after receiving all doses of the given vaccine. Please note that there are up to.
Individuals are considered vaccinated against Covid-19 only after that time. Until then, vaccines do not provide complete protection against the virus, increasing the risk of serious illness and death.
However, despite this statistic, vaccine skeptics and blockade prevention groups suggest that HSPC’s own data defeat the purpose of the vaccination program.
They point out trends from health monitoring centers that publish their figures weekly, and the vaccine works because a higher percentage of partially or fully vaccinated people died of Covid-19 in the last few weeks. It suggests that it is no longer available.
In contrast, HSPC data show that the death toll of unvaccinated people is declining as a percentage of the total.
From April September 11, 59.4% of deaths (149 out of 251) occurred in people who were not recorded as vaccinated. This is compared to 44.3% (178 out of 402) of deaths between April and October 16th.
Meanwhile, the number of deaths from at least one vaccination increased from 40.6% (102 out of 251) to 55.7% (224 out of 402) by September 11 during the same period. October.
Similarly, the proportion of fully vaccinated individuals who died from Covid-19 ranged from 24.3% of deaths by September 11 (61 of 251) to 43.3% of deaths by October 16 (174 of 402). People) have almost doubled.
In other words, 29 unvaccinated individuals compared to 149 who received at least one vaccination between September 11th and October 16th (including 113 who were fully vaccinated). Only died in Covid-19.
Deaths occur in vaccinated people because of what is known as the “breakthrough” case described earlier. here..
The main purpose of the Covid-19 vaccine is to prevent Covid-19 from causing serious illness or death in people. Unfortunately, this is not always the case, as vaccines are not 100% effective in preventing the spread of infection. Of the virus.
In most cases, vaccines prevent serious illness and death, but they can sometimes be fatal.
additional data
Earlier this week journal We asked members of the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) to explain why vaccinated people died as a result of Covid-19 than unvaccinated people. ..
In NPHET’s first media briefing over two months, Professor Philip Nolan said the Covid-19 vaccine does not completely reduce the risk of viral death, especially among the elderly.
“The situation is that the vast majority of people at risk of dying from this virus, in fact almost 100%, are vaccinated,” he explained.
“And that means [that] Vaccination significantly reduces the risk of death from this virus, but it does not eliminate the risk.
“Sadly, very high levels of circulating viruses mean that some older people are infected and very few people die.”
HPSC data on death from Covid-19 -Including age profile-It also outlines the effects of the virus on older people after September.
This is because the median ages of new Covid-19 deaths during the 6 weeks from September 8 to October 19 (approximately the period covered by vaccination data) were 81, 74, 79, 79, 85 and 76, respectively. It shows that it was.
Similar data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), which also publishes information about Covid-19, shows that 156 deaths were recorded between September 11 and October 19.
Of these deaths, 136 were people aged 65 and over, including 81 over 80 (in fact, 8 of the remaining 12 deaths were not aged. It was).
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The vaccination status of these individuals is unknown, but shows that almost everyone over the age of 60 in Ireland is fully vaccinated, but those over the age of 65 are affected by Covid-19. ..
However, this does not mean that the vaccine is not working. In fact, as Nolan elaborated further this week, the situation could be exacerbated without the vaccine.
“In a simple calculation, vaccination could have prevented at least 1,700 deaths from June to the present, in terms of additional protection against infection,” he said.
Also, adding the fact that it protects so many people from infection can actually prevent so many deaths.
There is no way to point out all deaths did not do it It occurs among the elderly as a result of vaccine deployment: it is not possible to simply point out numbers that do not exist.
Impact of unvaccinated
However, what can be pointed out is how likely Covid-19 deaths will occur among unvaccinated people.
Following Nolan’s comment this week, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Tony Holohan said that while many vaccinated people have died from the virus, unvaccinated people have significantly more deaths per capita. I explained that it exceeded.
“Most of the reported deaths may be among vaccinated people, but it is important to say that the rate of unvaccinated deaths is much higher than in the general population.” He said.
According to recent figures quoted by public health officials, the total number of unvaccinated people in Ireland (that is, people over the age of 12 who are vaccinated) is about 300,000.
This corresponds to one death per 1,685 Irish unvaccinated people since April, or one death per 10,344 people since September 11 (date of first HPSC vaccine death report). ..
Official figures also show that 3.8 million Irish people have been vaccinated at least once (as of October 18).
This is equivalent to one death per 16,964 people since April and one death per 25,503 people since September 11, with a lower per capita mortality rate than the unvaccinated population.
The disproportionate impact of unvaccinated people on medical services is not just fatal HPSC data on admission to the intensive care unitAn important part of medical services approaching capacity.
From April 1st to October 16th, 68% of the 438 people admitted to the intensive care unit were unvaccinated. This includes 59% of 137 ICU hospitalizations since September 11.
The inevitable cases of Covid-19 will continue to emerge and can cause serious illness, but it is much less likely to occur among vaccinated people.
Most of the burden of medical services on Covid-19 continues to be caused by people who are not fully vaccinated.
