STORY AT-A-GLANCE
- Research shows increases in COVID-19 cases are completely unrelated to levels of vaccination in 68 countries worldwide and 2,947 counties in the U.S.
- The data from U.S. counties showed similar trends, with new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people being “largely similar” regardless of the vaccination rate
- Of the five U.S. counties with the highest vaccination rates — ranging from 84.3% to 99.9% fully vaccinated — four are on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “high transmission” list, while 26.3% of the 57 counties with “low transmission” had vaccination rates under 20%
- Iceland and Portugal, both of which have more than 75% of their populations fully vaccinated, have more COVID-19 cases per 1 million people than Vietnam and South Africa, where only 10% or so of their populations are fully vaccinated
- CDC data show rates of hospitalization for severe illness among the fully vaccinated went from 0.01% in January 2021 to 9% in May 2021, and deaths went from 0% to 15.1%. If the shots actually worked, these rates should have remained near zero