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tzaeru t1_j8ent0k wrote

Reply to comment by gravitywind1012 in A study in the US has found, compared to unvaccinated people, protection from the risk of dying from COVID during the six-month omicron wave for folks who had two doses of an mRNA vaccine was 42% for 40- to 59-year-olds; 27% for 60- to 79-year-olds; and 46% for people 80 and older. by Wagamaga

Hints that the unvaccinated were more likely to already in a poorer health. Sentence before the one you quoted: "We found substantially lower non-COVID natural mortality risk for vaccinated than for unvaccinated persons."

Which, if interpreted optimistically, might mean that people who skipped vaccinations had immunity system problems or were already too critically ill.

But it probably just means that the lifestyle choices of the unvaccinated people were generally much less healthy than the vaccinated people.

In the sentence after the one you quoted, they say they controlled for this effect: "After controlling for these selection effects [..]"

For reference:

> We used a novel outcome measure, CEMP, to study how vaccination affects COVID-19 mortality risk. This measure uses mortality from other natural causes to control for selection effects in who gets vaccinated. We found substantially lower non-COVID natural mortality risk for vaccinated than for unvaccinated persons. Thus, the vaccinated would likely face lower COVID-19 risk even if not vaccinated. After controlling for these selection effects, we found substantial vaccine protection against death [..]

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