CDC says roughly 4,100 people have been hospitalized or died with Covid breakthrough infections afte

[Bernardo de La Paz]

90. Getting the apples and oranges right can be tricky at times

There are the population rates, and the rates among the tested, and the rates among outcomes.

The 0.8% figure I've seen is a rate among outcomes: the percentage of those who died who were vaccinated.

The 1.8%, give or take a few tenths, is usually a rate among the tested: the percentage of those people with positive tests. Of all the people vaccinated AND tested positive, about 1.8%, give or take, died. Like of all the people not vaxed AND tested positive about 1.8% died.

It makes sense because to test positive though vaccinated indicates an effectively total failure of that dose, either a slipup in manufacturing that vial or box of vials, or in the injecting or who knows what.

Further making the statistics murky is the vaccination status. One shot or two rarely makes it into the newsreader's precious seconds reporting the story.

Rates among tested and among outcomes are apples and oranges.