Unvaccinated in Wisconsin hospitalized at 10x higher rate, died at 14x higher rate in December

MADISON, Wis. (WBAY) – The delta variant was more contagious and deadlier than the original COVID-19 virus that appeared over two years ago. The omicron variant surpassed delta by being far more contagious, but omicron didn’t create the same deadly viral load as the delta variant. In either case, health experts said vaccinations, especially with boosters, not only improved a person’s chance of not developing COVID-19 but making the disease less severe, less deadly, if they were infected.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services released its side-by-side comparison of Wisconsin’s vaccinated and unvaccinated COVID-19 cases in December 2021 on Saturday. Even though fully vaccinated people were the majority of the population by mid-December (57.4%), they only accounted for one-fourth of the confirmed COVID-19 cases.

The DHS says if a person was infected with the coronavirus, they were 10 times more likely to fill a hospital bed and 14 times more likely to die if they never received a vaccine or were not fully vaccinated compared to a fully vaccinated person.

For every 100,000 fully vaccinated people in Wisconsin there were:

• 1,573.2 confirmed infections
• 18.5 hospitalizations
• 3.6 deaths

For every 100,000 unvaccinated, or not-fully vaccinated, people there were:

• 4,746.4 confirmed infections
• 176.4 hospitalizations
• 50.8 deaths

Breaking the numbers down further, among those who were infected:

• 1.18% of fully vaccinated people who were infected were hospitalized, and 0.23% died
• 3.72% of unvaccinated, or not fully vaccinated, people who were infected were hospitalized, and 1.07% died

The DHS says unvaccinated 25- to 44-year-olds were infected at the highest rates in December, with more than 6% of their age groups testing positive last month.

People ages 16 to 34 had the highest infection rates among the fully vaccinated population, with about 2.5% of their age groups testing positive.

Among 5- to 11-year-olds, who just became eligible for COVID-19 vaccines in November, the case rates were 3.0% among the unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated, and 0.8% in the fully vaccinated population.

For these comparisons, “fully vaccinated” means at least two weeks passed since they completed their vaccine series -- either two doses of Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or one dose of Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

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