Misinformation and the Official Line.
Posted by Ed Folsom, May 9, 2022
Maine remains one of the most highly vaccinated states in the U.S. against COVID-19, with 73.98% of the population having received a “final” vaccine dose. According to the U.S. CDC, Maine also has the highest rate in the U.S. of people testing positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus over the past 7 days, at 417.3 per 100,000 population. Vermont, another of the most vaccinated U.S. states, has the second highest 7-day rate at 394.7 people per 100,000. In fact, the New England region currently dominates the top slots of U.S. states with the highest number of new cases per 100,000. And, those same states are at the tip-top of the most highly-vaccinated U.S. states.
Remember when every case spike in a state with a Republican governor and/or less-than-top-tier vaccination rate was blamed on that state’s COVID-19 masking policy, anti-lockdown policy, low vaccination rate, and/or some form of COVID denialism. Oh, I do. I’m old enough to remember 4 months ago, and the roughly 2 years before that. Yes, I am. Why, I even remember last winter, when case spikes in Maine’s northern and interior counties were blamed on the same phenomena; when temporarily lower case numbers in Cumberland County and the mid-coast were attributed to the virtues of Maine’s most highly-vaccinated, scrupulous followers of all governmental COVID-19 edicts who reside in those places.
Well, darned if Cumberland County and the mid-coast aren’t still the most highly vaccinated places in Maine. And darned if they aren’t currently experiencing Maine’s highest rates of new cases per 100,000. Yes-siree. It must all be about what they’re doing wrong. At least that’s the lesson the government/media/social media complex has bullied and bludgeoned us with since early 2020. Remember, and never forget: When the numbers rise or fall, it’s all because of what you did or didn’t do.
Remember when we were told that the COVID-19 vaccines would stop the spread of COVID-19? That was official misinformation. From the end of February through May 6, 2022, Maine’s CDC has shown an overall increase of 22,892 newly recorded COVID-19 cases (rising from 190,831 to 213,723) of which 18,523 were among people with a “final” vaccine dose (a rise from 67,402 to 85,925). That’s a breakthrough case rate for the period of 80.91%!
That means, while only 73.98% of Maine’s population has received a final vaccine dose, 80.91% of the new cases in this period were recorded in this group, leaving only 19.09% of the newly recorded cases among the remaining 26.02% of Maine’s population that is not fully vaccinated. That’s a higher infection rate among the fully vaccinated than among the unwashed – Oops. From the date in January of 2021 when the first person in Maine could have been fully vaccinated through May 6, 2022, slightly over 40% of all recorded COVID-19 cases have been recorded among the fully vaccinated.
Remember when we were told that even if the vaccines weren’t quite stopping the spread, they were preventing serious illness and death? Between February 28 and May 6, the Maine CDC’s COVID hospitalization numbers showed a rise of 442 hospitalizations overall (rising from 2,947 to 3,389). Of those, 304 were breakthrough cases (rising from 875 to 1,179), for a breakthrough hospitalization rate of 68.77%.
Deaths with COVID-19 rose 213 overall during the period (rising from 1,303 to 1,516). Deaths among those with a “final” vaccine dose rose 157 (from 419 to 576), bringing the percentage of breakthrough deaths to 73.7% of all newly recorded deaths with COVID-19 during the period. In other words, 73.7% of all deaths with COVID-19 occurred among the 73.98% of the population who received a “final” vaccine dose, with the remaining 26.3% of the deaths with COVID-19 occurring in the 26.02% of the population that did not receive a “final” vaccine dose.
Does that rate of protection impress you?
Oh, remember when the official line was to insist that there’s absolutely no vaccine safety issue worth discussing, and when anyone suggesting otherwise was accused of spreading “misinformation?” Actually, you don’t have to be old enough to remember yesterday to remember that.
Stay tuned.
Note: The COVID-19 breakthrough information above comes from the Maine CDC’s COVID-19 information page, under the “Vaccine Breakthrough Cases in Maine” tab. Roughly once a week, the Maine CDC updates the information for COVID cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, and for breakthrough cases, hospitalizations and deaths. They don’t report the increases for each reporting period. Instead, they simply update the totals. To keep track of the increases, you need to take note of the reported numbers each week, which I have been doing and which I have reported above.
