Maine Leads Nation in Recent COVID Death Rate
78% of New Reported Deaths were FULLY VACCINATED
According to the New York Times, Maine is currently leading all states and territories in recent deaths associated with COVID-19. NYT defines “Recent Death Rate” as deaths per 100,000 residents over the past 7 days. Maine’s rate comes in a .40 deaths per 100,000 residents, nearly 4 times higher than the national average and nearly 25% higher than Nevada, who holds the #2 spot.
With 81% of the state now fully vaccinated against COVID-19 (5th overall), one would assume it’s the unvaccinated crowd primarily succumbing to the virus.
Not even close.
Updated data from Maine CDC shows breakthrough and total cases, hospitalizations and deaths. From 7/4 to 7/11, 65% of reported cases (1151 of 1765), 62% of new hospitalizations (42 of 68) and 78% of new deaths (21 of 27) were fully vaccinated. (Tweet below includes screenshots from ME CDC Data).
Hospitalizations “Fluctuate” in recent weeks
Portland Press Herald reported that hospitalizations had “fluctuated” over the last 3 weeks between 110 and 130 on any given day. The staff reporter doesn’t give any reasons fro this “fluctuation,” so let’s look into the data and see what factors are at play.
To get a full picture, let’s go back 4 full weeks. From 6/13 - 7/11 the fully vaccinated made up 68% (109 of 160) new hospitalizations and 74% (34 of 46) new reported deaths (link to ME CDC Data Screenshots).
During this time frame, of those hospitalized with COVID-19 the fully vaccinated were more likely to die than the not fully vaccinated. Assuming each death had a correlating hospitalization during the 4 week timeframe, 31.2% of the fully vaccinated hospitalizations resulted in death. By comparison, 23.5% of those not fully vaccinated hospitalizations resulted in death.
Not only did the fully vaccinated out-number the not fully vaccinated by more than 2 to 1 (109 to 51), once hospitalized they also died at a higher rate (31% to 23.5%).
This would indeed cause “fluctuation” in the total number of hospitalizations.
The PPH staff reporter did take a little bit of time to provide some analysis and compared hospitalizations from the last 3 summers.
The omicron variant is stated to be less dangerous than the previous versions of the virus. And yet hospitalizations are “far higher” than in previous summers.
What is so different this summer? What factors could have created such an increase?
This time last year, only 48% of Mainers were considered “fully vaccinated.” Today, more than 80% of Mainers have taken at least 2 jabs, of which 80% have received at least 1 booster. Yet our hospitalizations are significantly higher than July of 2021 and 2020, and hospitalized Mainers that are fully vaccinated outnumber the not fully vaccinated more than 2 to 1 and make up the vast majority of deaths - at a nation leading rate.
This publicly available data goes unreported by local media. While Dr. Shah pushes booster and shots for toddlers.
Friends, the world is upside down these days. Be bold. Love one another. Engage in tough conversations. Ask good questions with kindness. Speak truth with boldness. Resist.
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