The Claim:
On The Adam Corolla Show, RFK Jr. said that America gave COVID vaccines to too many people and that we should focus more on healthy food, exercise, and chronic disease, rather than relying so much on vaccines.
The Facts:
Before the COVID vaccine became available in December 2020, COVID had already caused more than 480,000 hospital stays and 350,000 deaths.
People with health problems had a higher risk of dying from COVID. But even people who were otherwise healthy still faced risk. About 3 out of every 100 healthy people who got COVID died. Many of those people may have survived if a vaccine had been available sooner.
Healthy food, exercise, and other good habits are important. But they probably would not have protected people quickly enough once the pandemic had already started. For people with health problems, changing habits also would not likely have happened fast enough to make a major difference during the early spread of COVID.
RFK Jr. has raised questions about vaccines and health. We believe it is also important to look at the number of lives that may have been saved by vaccination. Deaths went down a lot in every age group after the vaccine became available.
Disclaimer
Science is always evolving and our understanding of these topics may have evolved too since this was originally posted. Be sure to check out our most recent posts and browse the latest Just the Facts Topics for the latest.
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