claim: center for disease control and prevention director rochelle walensky said in a “good morning united states” interview that “more than 75% of ‘covid deaths’ have occurred in people with at least four comorbidities”.
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ap: missing context. Walensky was discussing a CDC study that looked specifically at people who are vaccinated against Covid-19, a detail that has been removed in some versions circulating online. she was citing the study’s finding that 78% of people who were vaccinated against covid-19 but died from the disease had four other risk factors.
The Facts: Widespread social media posts share part of January Walensky’s message. 7 interview with abc’s “good morning america” to suggest that she said that most people who die from covid-19 have at least four other comorbidities.
“cdc director says more than 75% of covid deaths were people with ‘at least four comorbidities’ and ‘were not well to begin with,’” a tweet that received nearly 20,000 me reads like.
but the question that led to the answer and a part of walensky’s answer were removed from the quoted clip, altering the meaning of what was said. a longer version of the exchange shows that she was talking specifically about a study’s finding of the rare vaccinated people who contracted covid-19 and died.
during the interview, cecilia vega of abc news questioned walensky: “i want to ask you about those encouraging headlines we’re talking about this morning, this new study that shows how well vaccines are working to prevent serious disease. Given that, is it time to start rethinking how we are living with this virus, which is potentially here to stay?”
Some clips circulating online without the question made it appear that Walensky was talking about deaths in general, not those detailed in the study, by showing only part of his answer: “the overwhelming number of deaths, more than 75% , it happened in people who had at least four comorbidities, so really these are people who weren’t well to begin with.”
on monday, “good morning america” updated its online interview to feature an “extended version”, which showed that walensky’s full response began with his clear description of the new cdc study. the show added a note saying that “a shorter, time-edited version aired on Friday, January 7.”
“you know, a really important study if I can summarize it: a study of 1.2 million people who were vaccinated between December and October and showed that severe disease occurred in about 0.015% of people who received their series primary and death in 0.003% of those people,” Walensky said.
“The overwhelming number of deaths, more than 75%, occurred in people who had at least four comorbidities, so these are really people who weren’t feeling well to begin with,” he added. “and yes, really encouraging news in the context of omicron, this means not only getting their main series but also their booster series and yes we are very encouraged by these results.”
The study was published on January 1. 7 and found that “serious outcomes of covid-19 after primary vaccination are rare.” Of the 1.2 million people vaccinated in the study, 189 had a serious outcome, 36 of whom died.
“Risk factors for serious outcomes included age ≥65 years, immunosuppression, and six other underlying conditions,” the report said. “everyone with severe outcomes had at least one risk factor; 78% of people who died had at least four.”
Unvaccinated people with certain underlying conditions are also at higher risk of serious outcomes from COVID-19, the CDC has long said.
apart from the new study that walensky discussed in abc, cdc data shows that most death certificates citing covid-19 list various comorbidities or other conditions contributing to death. However, those conditions can include complications of COVID-19, not just existing medical conditions, said Bob Anderson, chief of the mortality statistics branch at the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.
This is part of the AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including working with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content circulating online. learn more about fact checking in ap.