We Don't Know Enough About Risks to the Vaccinated
Americans have too little information on infections and hospitalizations among those who have gotten the shots, and the numbers can be spun in different ways.
There isn't enough data to help people navigate once they are vaccinated.
Photographer: NurPhoto/NurPhotoA year and a half into the pandemic, Americans are more confused than ever about the risks they face, and that goes for experts and lay people alike. Cases and hospitalizations are going up in almost every state, but the messages we’re getting are mixed about the risks to the fully vaccinated.
The New York Times recently reported that in a limited number of states that do such reporting, 12% to 24% of people hospitalized for Covid-19 are fully vaccinated. We’ve heard that the vaccine is wearing off fast in Israel, where Covid-19 is in a raging surge, and that in the U.K., the majority of recent deaths have been among the vaccinated. And yet the Centers for Disease Control has used data from Los Angeles County to produce the more reassuring statistic that unvaccinated people are 29 times more likely to be hospitalized than the vaccinated.