I agree that deaths are really all that matter. Per the data reported out by the National Center for Health Statistics, last month (September 2021) in the U.S., the total number of deaths involving COVID was some 160% higher than in September 2020 -- i.e., 49,765 in September 2021 compared to 19,138 in September 2020. A month to month comparison, so no confounding from the "seasonality" phenomenon.
Of course, the country was less "locked down" this past month than it had been been in September 2020. So there's that. But, at the same time, while millions of Americans had been vaccinated as of last month, no one had been vaccinated in September 2020. And yet deaths have gone up. Way up. Curious.
I see what you did there- logic!! I couldn’t agree more. Every day I pull statistics from my state’s database and see same thing. More people vaccinated + more people have been infected and recovered and the numbers seen of hospitalizations and deaths are in no way what would be expected if THIS was ‘WORKING’. Clearly it isn’t. But statistics and evidence and numbers and anecdotal evidence and logic ONLY counts when in THEIR opinions favor!! Critical thinking skills like yours are thing of past. Clearly not about saving lives or early treatment would be provided and people would not be sent home until they are in last throes.
It depends on where you are in the wave or season. Just as flu season peaks at different times in different years covid waves also seem to peak at different times of the year and in different parts of the country. a better method would be to compare one peak to another