The Facts about the Unvaccinated & Boosters

We deal with facts and figures all the time. But one figure -- posted to President Joe Biden's official government Twitter account on Feb. 5 -- was startling: "Unvaccinated individuals are 97 times more likely to die compared to those who are boosted."

It is accurate, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As FactCheck.org staffer D'Angelo Gore writes, "The CDC says that, as of Dec. 4, the weekly COVID-19 death rate among unvaccinated adults was 9.74 per 100,000 population, and the rate was 0.1 per 100,000 population for people 18 and older who were fully vaccinated with a booster dose."

But, for some, facts don't matter. One Twitter user responded to the president's tweet by falsely implying the "unvaccinated" included those who had received "1 or 2 jabs" of the vaccine. But that's not true. 

The CDC’s “Rates of COVID-19 Cases and Deaths by Vaccination Status” webpage contains a footnote that defines  “unvaccinated" as those who have “not been verified to have received COVID-19 vaccine.”

Read the full story, "Latest CDC Data: Unvaccinated Adults 97 Times More Likely to Die from COVID-19 Than Boosted Adults."

Reader: An unvaccinated elderly friend of mine has Covid and is receiving hydroxychloroquine treatment. What does the CDC or the medical science community in general have to say about the efficacy of this substance or known side effects if any?

FactCheck.org Director Eugene Kiely: There hasn’t been much new about hydroxychloroquine. The last story we did about the subject was in July 2021, “No New Revelation on Hydroxychloroquine and COVID-19.”

As we wrote at the time: 

[R]andomized controlled clinical trials, in which one group of patients is given the medication and another receives standard care, haven’t found a benefit in mortality or other clinical outcomes in hospitalized patients.

Data from such a trial, among other evidence, led the Food and Drug Administration in June 2020 to revoke an emergency use authorization it had issued three months earlier giving some patients easier access to hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine if they couldn’t participate in a clinical trial. In revoking the EUA, the agency said the drugs, which are also used to treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, were “unlikely to be effective in treating COVID-19 for the authorized uses in the EUA.” The FDA said the “known and potential benefits” of the drugs “no longer outweigh” the risks.

As of July 2021, the CDC’s treatment guidelines said this on its website about the risks of taking “Chloroquine or Hydroxychloroquine and/or Azithromycin”:

Adverse Effects
Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine have similar toxicity profiles, although hydroxychloroquine is better tolerated and has a lower incidence of toxicity than chloroquine. Cardiac adverse events that have been reported in people who received hydroxychloroquine include QTc prolongation, Torsades de Pointes, ventricular arrythmia, and cardiac deaths.

The use of azithromycin has also been associated with QTc prolongation, and using it in combination with hydroxychloroquine has been associated with a higher incidence of QTc prolongation and cardiac adverse events in patients with COVID-19.

QTc prolongation is a heart condition in which the heart muscle takes longer than usual to contract and relax. It could cause a heart attack.

Bottom line, the CDC says: "The COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines Panel (the Panel) recommends against the use of chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine and/or azithromycin for the treatment of COVID-19 in hospitalized patients (AI) and in nonhospitalized patients (AIIa)."

Wrapping Up

Here's what else we've got for you this week:

• "COVID-19 Booster Enhances Protection, Contrary to ‘Immune Fatigue’ Claims": A COVID-19 booster dose increases protection against the coronavirus. But in an interview, comedian Bill Maher incorrectly said COVID-19 booster shots were “useless” and could cause “immune system fatigue.” Online, others have made similar claims. There is no basis for the notion that the immune system would tire out, even after repeated boosters. 
• "Biden Repeats False Claims at Gun Violence Meeting": In remarks at a Feb. 3 gun violence prevention task force meeting, President Joe Biden repeated claims about gun rights and gun manufacturing that fact-checkers have previously found to be false.
• "Florida Video Shows Legal Migrant Workers, Not ‘Busloads of Illegals’": Dozens of people stayed at a Florida hotel in January while employed as temporary farmworkers for a wholesale plant nursery. But a Facebook video and a tweet by State Rep. Anthony Sabatini falsely claimed they were “illegals” — sparking a protest outside the hotel. Attorneys for the nursery said all of them had visas to work in the U.S.
• "Facebook Post Misleads on NIH’s Position on Ivermectin": The National Institutes of Health has not recommended and the Food and Drug Administration has not approved ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment. But a Facebook post misleadingly implies that an article published on the NIH website is an endorsement of the drug to treat COVID-19. The NIH and FDA have said more clinical studies are needed.  

• "DeSantis da información engañosa sobre tratamientos con anticuerpos contra el COVID-19 resistentes a ómicron": Luego de que la Administración de Medicamentos y Alimentos (FDA, por sus siglas en inglés) retirara su autorización para el uso de dos tratamientos contra el COVID-19 con anticuerpos monoclonales por la alta probabilidad de que no sean efectivos contra la variante ómicron, el gobernador de Florida, Ron DeSantis, afirmó erróneamente que la decisión se había adoptado “sin un ápice de información clínica” que la fundamente. Puede que no haya estadísticas de pacientes, pero los estudios de laboratorios que sugieren que los tratamientos no ayudarán a las personas infectadas por ómicron son robustos. 
• "Estudios muestran que las dosis de refuerzo potencian la inmunidad contra ómicron": Ni la serie de vacunación primaria ni la inmunidad natural están deteniendo mayormente las infecciones por la variante ómicron, pero las investigaciones muestran que las dosis de refuerzo aumentan sustancialmente la protección. Sin embargo, el senador republicano Rand Paul afirmó que un caso de COVID-19 proporciona “mejor inmunidad que la vacuna”.