Don’t Believe the Numbers

As with most official government numbers, the number of vaccinated people is an estimate of a supposedly representative sample:

Pennsylvania on Wednesday said 68.8% of adult residents are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 — far less than the 73.7% cited on Tuesday and numbers highlighted in news releases for weeks.

A news release gave little explanation beyond saying the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday “began to rectify their data to match Pennsylvania COVID-19 vaccine data and we anticipate the CDC to go through a similar process with other states across the country.”

In human terms, it equals 1,076,911 adult Pennsylvanians who were believed to be fully vaccinated on Tuesday and who, as it turns out, are not, according to data from health department spokeswoman Maggi Barton.

The number pertains to people 18 or older.

I’m not saying that the future reductions will compare to the 97 percent reduction in fatal Covid cases that was seen once Italy began to report more honest statistics, but it’s quite safe to assume that most governments are exaggerating the number of vaccinated people out there.