Data from Public Health England shows that more vaccinated people died of the Delta variant in the UK than the unvaccinated (death rate is 8.45 times higher for the vaccinated)

After 17 months of the Covid-19 pandemic, many who have been homebound for over a year want to go about their normal lives. However, just when you thought it was safe to finally toss your masks in the trash and enjoy life, the World Health Organization (WHO) and other public health officials say, not yet.

The recommendations from the WHO and others come as a new highly infectious variant of Covid-19 begins to spread in the U.S., eroding some of the progress made in the last few months and altering the course of the pandemic. Named the Delta variant (initially known as B.1.617.2) on 31 May 2021 by WHO, the virus was first identified in India. It’s also one of the five variants of concern identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Unlike the original SARS-CoV-2, this variant is a more transmissible form of the novel coronavirus and appears to cause more severe illness than others. So far, the Delta variant has spread to at least 85 countries and it now makes up more than 20 percent of all the virus cases in the United States.

According to the CDC, the delta variant has made Covid-19 more dangerous than ever for unvaccinated people. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said Wednesday that fully vaccinated people are “safe” from the current variants and do not need to wear masks. “If you are vaccinated, you are safe from the variants that are circulating here in the United States,” Walensky said on NBC’s “Today,” adding it was “exactly right” that vaccinated people do not need to wear masks.

However, it is a different story across the pond. On June 25, Public Health England, an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care in the United Kingdom, released a 69-page report titled, “SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern and variants under investigation in England.” The report was published to share detailed surveillance of Delta (VOC21APR-02, B.1.617.2) and Lambda (C.37, VUI-21JUN-01).

According to the report, Delta is now the dominant variant in the UK with “Delta variant accounting for approximately 95% of sequenced and 92% genotyped cases from June 7 to June 21, 2021.” During that period, a cursory analysis of the report shows that a total of  7,235 Delta variant cases were reported among fully vaccinated (after 2 doses) while a higher number, 53,822 Delta variant cases, were reported among the unvaccinated (Table 4 on page 13 of the report).

During the same period, a total of 50 out of 7,235 reported cases (0.69%) of vaccinated died from the Delta variant cases while a lower number, 44 out of 53,822 7,235 cases (0.08%) of unvaccinated, died from the Delta variant. The report also shows a higher rate of Overnight Hospitalization for “fully vaccinated” with a rate of 1.11%  and 0.89% for the “Unvaccinated.” Below is a summary of the findings from the report.

Summary: 

Higher rates of “cases” for the “unvaccinated” with higher rates of hospitalizations and deaths for the “fully vaccinated”.

Cases:
7,235 “Fully Vaccinated”
53,822 “Unvaccinated”

Overnight Hospitalization required:
1.11% of the “Fully Vaccinated”
0.89% of the “Unvaccinated”

Total Deaths:
50 were “Fully Vaccinated” = 0.69% died
44 were “Unvaccinated” = 0.08% died

Overall Result: The death rate was 8.45 times higher for the vaccinated.

July 3, 2021 Update: Made a change to the number of unvaccinated in paragraph 7 above from 7,235 to the correct number of 53,822. Hats off to Pat Cowley from Great Britain for bringing this to our attention.

“Hi Nickie, in case you weren’t already aware, the maths is wrong in your article. You note 44 deaths from 7,235 cases unvaccinated ( =0.08%) which is incorrect, it’s actually 0.6%. I think you meant to say 44 death from 53,822 unvaccinated, which does equal 0.08%.

Sent from Mail for Windows 10″