Who is most at risk for severe COVID-19?
Public health messaging has become so political that it no longer resonates with the general population. The message about COVID-19 and vaccination should be very simple. If you are older and have comorbidities, there is a significantly higher risk of severe disease and vaccination is likely to be protective.
All the stories about the unvaccinated clogging the hospitals need to be nuanced and highlight associated comorbidity risk. This has always been the point about the "comorbid pandemic".
There is a proportion of younger persons with no comorbidities who end up with severe disease, however it is unclear if vaccination of the whole population would be appropriate to mitigate that risk. In all medical interventions there is potential risk, and must always be taken into consideration.
The attention should have been to clarify the mechanisms especially in the younger group (eg Interferon autoantibodies) and not give the impression that severe COVID-19 is completely random.
Targeted vaccination and early intervention for treatment remain the best strategy to overcome the pandemic.
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