The vaccine response is directly proportional to immune system function. It is not as strong[1] in older people, who are also most at risk from the disease.
This isn't mutually exclusive with the vaccine being effective. However, we're heading towards less than 70% effectiveness (95% with fresh booster) against severe cases in the older age groups[2]. These cases add up.
These are age cohort averages. If you die of COVID despite being vaccinated, clearly the vaccine was 0% effective and early treatment could possibly have helped.
Either way, 70% is not incredible in my book. The 95% from the booster will not last.
The picture is similar: Efficacy of around 70% (two doses) and 95% (fresh booster) against death. This is far from "one in a million". If you age-stratified this data further, you would likely get better efficacy though.
Assume for the purpose every single one of the ~600 is old. Same outcome. Indeed leaving them in, according to your own source makes vaccines look worse than they are! Given how the large sample size etc is I am more than comfortable taking the UK unstratified data and clncluding the vaccines are effective.
> Because of age confounding, it is crucial to stratify by age groups, and further to remove children from the <60yr group; otherwise Simpson's paradox makes vaccines look like they are not effective in protecting against COVID-19 deaths at all.
No matter how you twist and turn it, the vaccines are significantly less effective in the people who need it the most, to the point where a significant amount of deaths, in both absolue and relative terms, occur in the fully vaccinated. That means better options for treatment are still needed. That is the point I am making, nothing else.
> You are litterally making shit up by saying a significant amount of deaths, in both absolue and relative terms, occur in the fully vaccinated
Let's go back to current UK data: During the delta wave, 1,613 deaths have been fully vaccinated. That's 70% of deaths, despite high vaccine efficacy. If that's not significant, then the other 722 unvaccinated deaths aren't significant either.