Nearly 40% Of All Illinois COVID Deaths In The Last Month Are Breakthroughs. What Gives?

By Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner of WirePoints

Square this one up for us, Gov. Pritzker. On January 3rd, you said that only 5 percent of COVID patients in Illinois’ ICUs were vaxxed.* The implication was that Illinois is suffering from a “pandemic of the unvaccinated.”

But since your comment, nearly 40 percent of all COVID deaths have been breakthroughs.  Illinois has experienced 1,007 breakthrough deaths over the last four weeks.

That’s a massive disconnect. How can the vaxxed make up so few of the ICU patients – those most at risk of dying – and yet end up comprising so many of the total COVID deaths? 

Wirepoints can think of a couple scenarios that explain that disconnect, but we’re simply not armed with the data that would allow us to confirm them. IDPH doesn’t provide the hospitalization data we need, let alone more detailed data on breakthrough demographics and comorbidities.  

Which brings us to the actual point of this piece: The governor shouldn’t make comments that can’t be confirmed by publicly released data from the Illinois Department of Public Health.

This is far from the first time this has happened. Gov. Pritzker and Dr. Ezike have made statements throughout the pandemic that couldn’t be independently verified.

And that erodes trust, if there’s any left.