Let Vaccine-Hesitant Patients Know Their Risk of Dying with COVID-19 Is 11 Times Higher

Data showing that vaccination lowers the risk of becoming infected with SARS-CoV-2, and that vaccination reduces the severity of disease on breakthrough cases, have been available for some time. That wasn’t enough to convince the entire population that getting a COVID-19 shot is a good idea, somehow. Maybe the three studies published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week will be more convincing. The most striking reveals that risk of death in people infected with COVID-19 is 11 times higher among the nonvaccinated compared with the vaccinated. The difference was consistent, if less jarring, when it comes to hospitalization (10 times more likely in the unvaccinated) and infection (4.5 times more likely).