And that may be the best one can say about it.
Data being compiled by the National Center for Health Statistics, sent by state health departments and reported out by the CDC, updated as of this morning, indicates that there were 56,363 deaths *involving COVID in the U.S. last month (i.e., September 2021). By way of comparison, a year ago (i.e., September 2020) -- at which point, of course, no one had been vaccinated -- there were 19,138 deaths involving COVID. That works out to a 195% increase in September 2021, compared to September a year ago.
There are presumably explanations for this, but I'm left with the thought that, if the vaccines help to "prevent death," why are there so many more COVID deaths now than a year ago, before the vaccines had been rolled out?
In this particular regard, it bears noting that in the U.S. there were 10,966 deaths involving COVID in July 2021, compared to 31,115 in July 2020 -- i.e., a decrease of some 65%. Thus, as recently as this past summer, it might be said that the vaccines' "efficacy" in preventing death was holding up well. But the bottom appears to have dropped out this past August. There were 46,956 deaths involving COVID in August 2021, compared to 29,878 such deaths in August 2020, a 57% increase.
It's as if a switch was thrown or something: from a 65% decrease to a 57% increase from one month to the next. And the trend has only worsened into September (and, from preliminary data now coming in for the month of October, is continuing on this same adverse trajectory).
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*The CDC defines "deaths involving COVID" in these terms: "Deaths with confirmed or presumed COVID-19, coded to ICD–10 code U07.1."
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