Unvaccinated people are among those dying of Covid-19
5 January 2022
What was claimed
People who haven’t had the Covid-19 vaccine are not dying.
Our verdict
Sadly they are. In the UK, hundreds of unvaccinated people died with Covid-19 in the last few weeks of 2021 alone. They are also more likely to die of Covid-19 than vaccinated people.
A post on Facebook with almost 3,000 shares claims: “Biggest elephant in the room…the unjabbed aren’t dying”.
People who haven’t had any immunisations against Covid-19 are certainly dying from the disease. For example, the latest data shows that in England, at least 782 unvaccinated people died with Covid-19 between 21 November and 19 December 2021.
As we’ve written before, it is true that at the moment more vaccinated than unvaccinated people are dying with Covid-19. This is because so many people have now been vaccinated, and uptake has been so high amongst the most vulnerable.
As the UK Health Security Agency says: “It is expected that a large proportion of cases, hospitalisations and deaths would occur in vaccinated individuals, simply because a larger proportion of the population are vaccinated than unvaccinated and no vaccine is 100% effective. This is especially true because vaccination has been prioritised in individuals who are more susceptible or more at risk of severe disease.”
However, this doesn’t mean that unvaccinated people “aren’t dying” of Covid-19. And in fact, the mortality rates (that take age into account) for deaths involving Covid-19 are lower for those who have been vaccinated a second time at least 21 days previously, compared to those who haven’t been vaccinated at all.
Data throughout the UK has shown that two doses are between 65% and 95% effective at preventing symptomatic Delta variant Covid-19, with even higher protection against severe disease and death— though the picture for the Omicron variant is less clear, particularly when it comes to the effect on severe disease and death.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because people who aren’t vaccinated are dying of Covid-19.
*** This article has been archived for your research. The original version from Full Fact can be found here ***
