To explain this measurement in real numbers, we will take the data from Ontario’s COVID-19 data website on January 15, 2022. These numbers will change as time goes by, but you will know how to calculate the relative effectiveness rating. Use this link to access the current data.
https://covid-19.ontario.ca/data
Our example will use the “rate of COVID-19 positive cases per 100,000” so that we can compare equal numbers of people in each group. The chart shows that the are 739 unvaccinated and 2050 vaccinated people in Ontario hospitals, but the vaccinated are a much larger group then the unvaccinated. This would not be fair comparison so we equalize the groups by counting rates per 100,000 people. To determine this, we would have to know the vaccine status of the population in general. The partially vaccinated and unknown status groups are also stated on the website. Unfortunately, this website does not provide the COVID-19 rates per capita for hospitalizations and ICU admissions, but it does for total reported COVID-19 cases.
The Ontario government report for January 15, 2022 is as follows from the table tab of “COVID-19 cases by vaccination status”
Unvaccinated (Control group) – Total cases were 1539 or 54.77 cases per 100,000 population
Vaccinated (Experimental group) – Total cases were 8223 or 69.74 cases per 100,000 population
The ‘Relative Effectiveness Rating’ calculation is explained in our FAQ on “Pfizer’s report of 90.7% efficacy in Children”. In this example, like Pfizer’s, the unvaccinated group are the control group and the vaccinated are the experimental group.
Subtract the experimental group from the control group (54.7 – 69.7 = ‘minus 15’). This is divided by the total number infected in the control group and multiplied by 100 to express it as a percent. (minus 15) divided by 54.7 and multiplied by 100 equals (minus 27.4%) relative effectiveness rating.
In simple language, this means that one is 25.4% worse off being vaccinated than unvaccinated to get COVID-19. Omicron is emerging as a pandemic of the vaccinated. How do governments and public health officials justify vaccine mandates and segregation of the unvaccinated while knowing that they are causing harm by these actions? There appear to be no reasonable science-based or health-related justifiable answer to that question.
