A problematic misconception is that people inappropriately assert that covid isn’t severe anymore (wrong) and it’s because of “immunity” – either because someone suggests natural immunity or indeed vaccine immunity. The truth is most people aren’t getting updated vaccines, way too many people haven’t gotten vaccinated for covid at all, and resistance effects from infection aren’t long-lived, so this isn’t so clearcut. There’s a lot of moving parts here that we shouldn’t miss with blanket statements anyway.
A big issue nobody likes to talk about because it’s unpleasant is survivorship bias. Frankly it seems ghoulish to not recognize those who have died any time we talk about this. The high risk vulnerable people who got severe covid in 2021 and died can’t die again in 2025. That’s just how reality works and it’s called survivorship bias. A LOT of people died in the first few years of the pandemic – A LOT, and yes, a LOT of them were over 50, and yes covid took out many of the most at risk in those early years of the pandemic. And those people are now gone from us ever since, so they won’t be needing hospital anymore. That’s hardly cause for celebration even if it seems like a relief to many.
Another issue of bias is that vaccine uptake, including updates to stay current, are disproportionately being sought out by people in higher risk groups like seniors. And a lot of people in high risk groups tend to mask more in risky settings. A lot of high risk people choose to live a life that involves avoiding covid to one degree or another, much to the chagrin of people who like to use psychological tactics to sell you stuff in person. So many of the people most likely to be hospitalized or die from covid just aren’t getting covid, or at least not getting covid without a recent vaccine update.
Even today, getting covid unvaccinated is risky though, including for “young healthy” people – the CDC has long considered “unvaccinated” to be a covid risk condition itself! Children still sometimes die from covid, and some get hospitalized. We should be glad that hospitals aren’t getting overwhelmed on the regular, but it’s doing a disservice to then dismiss it as nothing much just because there’s no freezer truck morgue on the news. That’s a really low bar!