Americans Vaccinated Against Coronavirus Have Lower Mortality Rates — Even From Non-Covid Causes

People who are vaccinated against Covid-19 are less likely to die for any reason — including from non-coronavirus causes — than the unvaccinated, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study released Friday, which researchers framed as more proof of the vaccines’ safety despite stubborn levels of vaccine hesitancy.

KEY FACTS
Partially and fully vaccinated people died from non-coronavirus causes at a lower rate than their unvaccinated peers, according to the study, which looked at millions of patients at seven U.S. health organizations from December to July.

All three vaccines approved by U.S. regulators were tied to lower non-Covid death rates, though the difference in mortality among people who took Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine was slightly smaller than for recipients of Pfizer or Moderna’s vaccines.

Vaccinated members of virtually every racial and age group had lower non-coronavirus mortality rates than unvaccinated people, but the difference was smallest for children ages 12 to 17, possibly because the study looked at just a dozen deaths in that group.

This result suggests the vaccines don’t increase a patient’s risk of death, which “reinforces the safety profile of currently approved COVID-19 vaccines,” the study said.

Vaccines could be tied to lower non-Covid death rates because people who got vaccinated are “inherently healthier or engage in fewer risk behaviors,” or because some deaths caused by the coronavirus weren’t properly classified, the authors wrote.

Another CDC study from last month showed fully vaccinated Americans are also significantly less likely to die from Covid-19 than the unvaccinated.

CONTRA
The study’s results were adjusted for race, age and sex, but didn’t factor in other characteristics like underlying health conditions or socioeconomic status. Still, the researchers said their study is reliable because it covers a large and diverse population.

BIG NUMBER
23%. That’s the share of U.S. adults who told the Kaiser Family Foundation last month they either definitely won’t take a Covid-19 vaccine, will only get vaccinated if it’s mandatory, or are taking a “wait and see” approach to their vaccination status. Levels of vaccine hesitancy have dropped steadily this year, and 77.5% of Americans ages 12 and over are now partially or fully vaccinated, but tens of millions of eligible people have still not gotten a jab.

KEY BACKGROUND
All three Covid-19 vaccines approved in the United States were found to be safe in clinical trials, and real-world studies have backed up their safety and effectiveness. The CDC says reports of side effects from the vaccines — including severe allergic reactions, blood clots and a heart condition called myocarditis — are rare. Plus, studies have indicated the vaccines are extremely effective at staving off hospitalizations and deaths from Covid-19. Still, many unvaccinated Americans have told pollsters they’re wary about the vaccines’ safety or skeptical of their effectiveness, and some public health officials believe patients could be deterred by false rumors about the vaccines that have proliferated on social media. https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2021/10/22/americans-vaccinated-against-coronavirus-have-lower-mortality-rates—even-from-non-covid-causes—cdc-says