CLAIM: Massachusetts reports that 45% of COVID-19 deaths in the state “last week” were among fully vaccinated people.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The online post included data from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health for the week ending Oct. 9 that shows 45 newly reported deaths among vaccinated people in the state — not that 45% of all COVID-19 deaths were among vaccinated people. Data on overall COVID-19 deaths for that period was not included.
THE FACTS: A Twitter post circulating widely online misinterpreted data from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health reporting COVID-19 deaths.
“Massachusetts reporting 45% of its Covid deaths last week were fully vaccinated,” a Twitter user erroneously claimed, posting a chart from the state’s health department. But the chart doesn’t include that statistic.
Rather, it shows that as of Oct. 9, the total number of recorded COVID-19 deaths among fully vaccinated people rose to 345 from 300 the week before.
The chart also shows that 4,660,716 people were fully vaccinated in the state at that time, and that the 345 recorded deaths account for .007% of the vaccinated population.
“There were 45 newly reported deaths last week among vaccinated people, but those deaths did not just occur in the last week but rather could have happened at any time in the last 6+ months and were only just reported,” a spokesperson for the Department of Public Health told The Associated Press in an email.
The state posts weekly reports on breakthrough COVID-19 cases among vaccinated people.
According to the most recent health department data, in the week ending Oct. 16, there were 26 newly reported deaths among vaccinated people in Massachusetts. The newest figures show out of 4,686,467 fully vaccinated people in the state, about 0.008% have died of COVID-19.
The vast majority of COVID-19 deaths have been among the unvaccinated, the AP reported.
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