One year later, unvaccinated still waiting for ‘winter of illness and death’

On December 16, 2021, Joe Biden stood in the Roosevelt Room and confidently promised the country that anyone who refused the shots was going to be hospitalized or die. 

“For unvaccinated, we are looking at a winter of severe illness and death — if you’re unvaccinated — for themselves, their families, and the hospitals they’ll soon overwhelm,” Biden said. “But there’s good news: If you’re vaccinated and you had your booster shot, you’re protected from severe illness and death — period.” 

Exactly one year later, the “unvaccinated” are still waiting for their doom season. Just after Biden’s proclamation, COVID-19 deaths among the unvaccinated began to decrease in the winter, and vaccinated deaths jumped to nearly half of all deaths in January and February 2022, according to CDC data. 

“A pandemic of — and by — the unvaccinated is not correct,” said University of California at Irvine public health professor Andrew Noymer in April. “People still need to take care in terms of prevention and action if they became symptomatic.” 

On the contrary, the coming winter is looking bleak for those who received the injections. They account for most COVID-19 deaths according to CDC data. 

Even the mainstream media have been forced to admit that the pandemic is now among the vaccinated though there is no blame being directed for overwhelming hospitals. 

In an article by the Washington Post last month titled, “Covid is no longer mainly a pandemic of the unvaccinated. Here’s why,” the news outlet cited an analysis conducted by Kaiser Family Foundation Vice-President Cynthia Cox showing that 58% of all COVID-19 deaths in August were among those who were vaccinated or boosted.   

"It’s a continuation of a troubling trend that has emerged over the past year,” continues the article. “As vaccination rates have increased and new variants appeared, the share of deaths of people who were vaccinated has been steadily rising. In September 2021, vaccinated people made up just 23 percent of coronavirus fatalities. In January and February this year, it was up to 42 percent, per our colleagues Fenit Nirappil and Dan Keating.  

“’We can no longer say this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated,’ Cox told The Health 202.” 

WaPo’s conclusion, expectedly, was that this only stresses the importance of getting the injections. 

Others, however, might conclude the vaccinated are looking at a winter of severe illness and death.