re: CDC just admitted 75% of counted Covid deaths weren’t caused by covid

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That’s a point in time. That’s going to change over the next couple of weeks.

For breakthrough infections, the mortality is around 0.7%. Hopefully, Omicron is less deadly for the vaccinated than what we’ve seen to this point.

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It’s not just a point in time, but I agree the time frame is shorter than the length of the entire pandemic. The 0.7% case fatality rate for breakthrough infections was still almost a 50% reduction relative to overall cases, but it is true that the vaccines ability to reduce the likelihood of testing positive was the greater contributor to the overall mortality reduction for the vaccinated. If that advantage is taken away by Omicron then we might start to see deaths in the vaccinated increase, but, again, an almost 50% reduction is still substantial.

A couple of points to consider are the inherent severity of Omicron and the degree to which it is limited in its ability to evade T cells and other immune responses after infection. Evidence so far is that Omicron may be as much as 90% less likely to cause severe disease and that its immune invasion only extends to antibodies and not secondary immune responses. If those hold true, I don’t think we’ll see anything like a 0.7% CFR for infections in people who are vaccinated. That said, the CFR should also go down materially for people with natural immunity as well (and even those with no immunity if the inherent severity is lower).

The next few weeks should tell us the story, but I am leaning toward believing the usefulness of vaccines has run it course for all but those in the highest risk categories. If current immunities (both natural and vaccine induced) continue to neutralize Omicron to the degree we are seeing in early results, then the best course of action going forward is to live in that stalemate with the virus, much as we do with other coronaviruses. If we fight too hard to prevent infection altogether, we risk inducing more severe mutations, much as antibiotics have created superbugs.