Warn Unvaccinated Patients: Breakthrough COVID-19 Cases Are Increasing, but Are Far Less Deadly

Too many patients are telling the media that they refuse to get vaccinated against COVID-19 because “it doesn’t work,” pointing to the growing number of breakthrough cases as justification. While it’s true that the number of confirmed cases in patients who are fully vaccinated continues to increase (and is likely to grow more steeply now that the Omicron variant is spreading around the globe), the associated death rate is simply not keeping pace. In fact, according to Rochelle Walensky, MD, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, unvaccinated people who contract the virus are 14 times more likely to die from related complications. Further, unvaccinated people are six times more likely to get the virus. At the time of Walensky’s comments, the 7-day average of new COVID-19 cases was up 18% over the previous week’s and there was an average of 1,000 deaths per day in the U.S.