@way 2 go
A spokesperson for the Office for National Statistics told Reuters via email: “Looking at the proportion of deaths among the fully vaccinated without accounting for the vaccination rate is highly misleading. For instance, if everyone were vaccinated, 100% of people would die vaccinated.”
Echoing this, Professor of Biostatistics Elizabeth Williamson told Reuters via email that the “graph in no way indicated a negative vaccine effectiveness”.
She explained: “In a world where most people are vaccinated… we would expect to see the proportion of vaccinated people who die from COVID-19 to be lower than the proportion of unvaccinated people who die from COVID-19. At the same time, we would expect the number of vaccinated people dying from COVID-19 to be higher than unvaccinated, simply because there are so many more vaccinated people... In addition, those at the highest risk are also the most likely to be vaccinated, exacerbating this phenomenon.”
The UKHSA also previously told Reuters (here) that, given vaccine uptake levels in England are very high, it is expected that a large proportion of cases and deaths would occur in vaccinated individuals, even with a highly effective vaccine, because a larger proportion of the population are vaccinated than unvaccinated.
A spokesperson for the Office for National Statistics told Reuters via email: “Looking at the proportion of deaths among the fully vaccinated without accounting for the vaccination rate is highly misleading. For instance, if everyone were vaccinated, 100% of people would die vaccinated.”
Echoing this, Professor of Biostatistics Elizabeth Williamson told Reuters via email that the “graph in no way indicated a negative vaccine effectiveness”.
She explained: “In a world where most people are vaccinated… we would expect to see the proportion of vaccinated people who die from COVID-19 to be lower than the proportion of unvaccinated people who die from COVID-19. At the same time, we would expect the number of vaccinated people dying from COVID-19 to be higher than unvaccinated, simply because there are so many more vaccinated people... In addition, those at the highest risk are also the most likely to be vaccinated, exacerbating this phenomenon.”
The UKHSA also previously told Reuters (here) that, given vaccine uptake levels in England are very high, it is expected that a large proportion of cases and deaths would occur in vaccinated individuals, even with a highly effective vaccine, because a larger proportion of the population are vaccinated than unvaccinated.
Fact Check-Graph showing England’s COVID-19 death statistics misrepresents impact of vaccines
Social media users are sharing a graph which shows the number of COVID-19 deaths by vaccination status in England between April 1 and May 31. It reveals that 94% of deaths in that period were among those who are vaccinated. However, this statistic on its own is misleading...
www.reuters.com