Stigmatizing the Unvaccinated is Dead Wrong

According to the November 20, 2021 article, “COVID-19: Stigmatising the unvaccinated is not justified,” in the medically respected THE LANCET, by Günter Kampf, government, health and media industries are wrong to stigmatze the unvaccinated in discussions and news reports.

Especially in the US and Germany, “high-level officials have used the term pandemic of the unvaccinated, suggesting that people who have been vaccinated are not relevant in the epidemiology of COVID-19.”

“Officials’ use of this phrase might have encouraged one scientist to claim that ‘the unvaccinated threaten the vaccinated for COVID-19,’ Kampf clarifies. “But this view is far too simple.”

It’s flat out wrong.

Increasing evidence supports the fact “that vaccinated individuals continue to have a relevant role in transmission.”

🔹In Massachusetts, USA, out of 469 new COVID-19 cases detected during various events in July, 2021, 346 (74%) were in people who were fully or partly vaccinated. 274 (79%) were symptomatic.

🔹”Cycle threshold values were similarly low between people who were fully vaccinated (median 22·8) and people who were unvaccinated, not fully vaccinated, or whose vaccination status was unknown (median 21·5).

🔹As far back as July, evidence indicated a high viral load were coming from people who were fully vaccinated.

🔹Even further back, the US reported that a total of 10,262 COVID-19 cases were in vaccinated people.

🔹As of April 30, 2021, 2725 (26·6%) of these vaccinated individuals were asymptomatic, 995 (9·7%) were hospitalized, and 160 (1·6%) died.

🔹”In Germany, 55·4% of symptomatic COVID-19 cases in patients aged 60 years or older were in fully vaccinated individuals, and this proportion is increasing each week.”

🔹”In Münster, Germany, new cases of COVID-19 occurred in at least 85 (22%) of 380 people who were fully vaccinated or who had recovered from COVID-19 and who attended a nightclub.”

“People who are vaccinated have a lower risk of severe disease but are still a relevant part of the pandemic,” Kampf stresses. “It is therefore wrong and dangerous to speak of a pandemic of the unvaccinated.”

The United States and Germany have historically “engendered negative experiences by stigmatising parts of the population for their skin colour or religion,” he continued. “I call on high-level officials and scientists to stop the inappropriate stigmatisation of unvaccinated people, who include our patients, colleagues, and other fellow citizens, and to put extra effort into bringing society together.”