WASHINGTON — For months, health officials and the president have called what we're seeing a "pandemic of the unvaccinated."
"While cases are coming down, as Dr. Walensky pointed out, there’s still a high level of hospitalization, largely driven, as the data shows, by the unvaccinated," White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Jeffrey Zients said Wednesday.
VERIFY viewer Don from Rockville, Maryland, wanted to know whether it's true that the majority of COVID-19 hospitalizations are among the unvaccinated.
THE QUESTION:
Do unvaccinated people make up the majority of COVID-19 hospitalizations?
THE SOURCES:
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - "COVID Data Tracker"
- Julian Walker - Vice President of Communications for Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association
- Maryland Department of Health - state COVID website
THE ANSWER:
WHAT WE FOUND:
Our Verify researchers started by looking at CDC COVID-NET data, a compilation of data from more than 250 hospitals in the United States.
The rates of COVID hospitalization are dramatically different depending on if you are vaccinated or not.
For the month of December, the rate of a vaccinated person 18 or older (age-adjusted) being hospitalized with COVID, was about 4 per 100,000 people. The rate for those who were unvaccinated was about 85 per 100,000 people.
It's a pattern playing out across the country and in the Mid-Atlantic.
“I would say that the message is pretty consistent," said Julian Walker, vice president of communications at Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association.
VHHA represents about 110 Virginia area hospitals. Walker shared these stats regarding patients' vaccination status, as of this date of publication:
- Mary Washington Healthcare - about 54% of patients are unvaccinated, 69% of their ICU patients are unvaccinated, nearly 74% of those on ventilators are unvaccinated
- Riverside Health System - 54% unvaccinated
- Ballard Health - 87% unvaccinated, 94% of their ICU patients are unvaccinated, about 97% of those on ventilators are unvaccinated
- Valley Health - 86% unvaccinated
“Those patients with the most serious health challenges associated with COVID-19 who are currently hospitalized are unvaccinated," Walker said.
In another example, Maryland’s health department says that over the last year about 74% of COVID hospitalizations in the entire state were among those who were not fully vaccinated.
New York State also has been tracking hospitalizations by vaccination status. In January, the average daily rate for an adult being hospitalized with COVID was about 4.45 per 100,000 people. For those unvaccinated, it was about 60.42 per 100,000.
So we can VERIFY, yes, according to the latest data, the majority of patients treated in hospitals for COVID have not gotten the shot.