AP fact-checks Biden’s extreme assurances on vaccines

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• President Joe Biden may have overstated the protection that the vaccines give against COVID-19 during the recent CNN town hall.
• The Associated Press had to release a fact-check on his statements.
• While Biden claimed that the vaccines offer complete protection from infection, sickness, and death from the coronavirus, AP clarified that the vaccines only protect against severe symptoms.

President Joe Biden offered extreme assurances regarding the COVID-19 vaccines during Wednesday’s CNN town hall.

The president stated that fully vaccinated individuals are completely protected from infection, sickness, and death from the coronavirus, but that’s not entirely the case.

The vaccines are indeed extremely effective, but there are still a few cases of “breakthrough” infections that affect vaccinated people. The novel coronavirus, especially the delta variant, is also still not fully understood.

The Associated Press released a fact-check to go into detail regarding Biden’s statements.

Biden stated, “If you’re vaccinated, you’re not going to be hospitalized, you’re not going to be in the IC unit, and you’re not going to die.”

The COVID-19 vaccines indeed offer strong protection against the virus. This is particularly highlighted in the recent spike of cases among unvaccinated individuals. Still, there are some rare exceptions.

According to government data, the coronavirus still infected around 5,492 fully vaccinated Americans, causing some hospitalizations or even deaths as of July 12. That is out of more than 159 million fully vaccinated Americans.

Nevertheless, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director, said that “99.5% of all deaths from COVID-19 are in the unvaccinated.” 

Biden said, “You’re not going to get COVID if you have these vaccinations.”

There is no perfect vaccine that offers 100% protection, so there will be some breakthrough infections among vaccinated individuals. Still, these infections tend to be mild as the vaccines remain strongly protective against severe illness.

Experts are still looking into whether new coronavirus mutations could eventually outsmart the COVID-19 shots.

When asked about vaccinated people who still get infected, Biden replied, “It may be possible, I know of none where they’re hospitalized, in ICU and or have passed away so at a minimum I can say even if they did contract it, which I’m sorry they did, it’s such a tiny percentage and it’s not life threatening.”

As stated above, there have been at least 5,492 vaccinated Americans who still tested positive for coronavirus and were hospitalized or died. While it’s not “none,” he is correct in that it is a small percentage of the more than 159 million fully vaccinated Americans.

While the vaccines are not a total fool-proof blanket of protection, it still offers strong protection against COVID-19 and its delta variant, lowering the risk of severe illness.

Source: AOL