A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts:
Posts mislead on delta variant data
CLAIM: Data from the U.K.’s public health agency confirms that those who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 are anywhere from two times to six times more likely to die from the delta variant than the unvaccinated.
THE FACTS: Public Health England’s report did not show evidence that those who are vaccinated are more susceptible to dying from the coronavirus delta variant. Rather, the data, which was published June 18, shows the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines are highly effective against hospitalization from the variant. An Instagram post falsely claimed the health agency’s data showed vaccinated people were twice as likely to die from the delta variant than unvaccinated people. Another falsely claimed vaccinated people were “six times more likely to die from a circulating ‘variant’ like ‘Delta’ than are unvaccinated people.” One post used a table from the report to share the false claim, but the post misrepresented the table’s data. While the table does address delta variant deaths, it shows that among 60,624 confirmed cases of the variant between Feb. 1 and June 14, recorded deaths included 37 vaccinated people and 34 unvaccinated. Furthermore, the table does not state the age group of those who died and whether they suffered from any additional illnesses. Experts say that means conclusions cannot be drawn about the role of vaccines in those deaths. “Unless you account for these differences in age and population, you really can’t make the argument that vaccination confers a higher risk of death,” said Dr. Nasia Safdar, an infectious disease physician at the University of Wisconsin’s School of Medicine and Public Health. The report notes that follow up is needed when examining the data on delta variant deaths because “it is too early to provide a formal assessment of the case fatality of delta, stratified by age, compared to other variants.” The public health agency issued another report on June 25 that showed that no deaths had been recorded of patients under 50 who were infected with the delta variant and had received both doses of vaccine. The data from the agency shows that two doses of the vaccines made by Pfizer or AstraZeneca are highly effective against hospitalization from the delta variant.
— Associated Press writer Beatrice Dupuy in New York contributed this report.
Viruses can evolve to be more deadly
CLAIM: No virus has ever mutated to become more lethal. As viruses mutate, they become less lethal.