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President Joe Biden interacts with members of the audience during a commercial break for a CNN town hall at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati, Wednesday, July 21, 2021. (AP)
Joe Biden exaggerates efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines
If Your Time is short
The CDC says that COVID-19 vaccines are effective. However, no vaccines are 100% effective at preventing illness. There will be a small percentage of fully vaccinated people who still get sick, are hospitalized, or die from COVID-19.
CDC data shows that as of July 12, more than 159 million people had been fully vaccinated, and there were 5,492 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among them.
President Joe Biden exaggerated when he spoke about the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine during a CNN town hall. "You're not going to get COVID if you have these vaccinations," Biden said.
It is rare for people who are fully vaccinated to contract COVID-19, but it does happen.
News reports the week of the town hall show that a White House official and a staff member for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi both tested positive for COVID-19, although both were fully vaccinated, as did a handful of Texas Democrats who recently traveled to Washington, D.C. to prevent passage of Texas Republicans’ election bill.
A White House spokesperson pointed to other comments Biden made during the July 21 town hall that less sweepingly characterized vaccinations as protecting people from serious illness or death.
"This is a simple, basic proposition: If you’re vaccinated, you’re not going to be hospitalized, you’re not going to be in an ICU unit, and you’re not going to die," Biden said.
That, too, is a slight exaggeration, although hospitalizations and deaths among vaccinated people are extremely rare.
Biden was more accurate when he said vaccinated people who catch COVID-19 are "not likely to get sick. You’re probably going to be symptomless. You’re not going to be in a position where your life is in danger."
Post-vaccination COVID-19 cases occur, but they are rare
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that COVID-19 vaccines are effective. But no vaccines are 100% effective at preventing illness. "There will be a small percentage of fully vaccinated people who still get sick, are hospitalized, or die from COVID-19," the CDC said.
Millions of people across the country have been vaccinated. As of July 12, more than 159 million people had been fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. With 48 states and territories reporting, there were 5,492 confirmed breakthrough cases of COVID-19 among them. Those cases included 5,189 hospitalizations and 1,063 deaths.
That data shows that among vaccinated people, approximately 0.0033% were hospitalized and 0.00067% died, said Cindy Prins, an epidemiologist at the University of Florida.
"So those are extremely rare events," Prins said.
