What are COVID-19 infection fatality rates by vaccination status and age group since 2020?
Executive summary
Reported COVID-19 fatality risk rises steeply with age: provisional CDC data showed death rates per 100,000 rising from under 1 in young children to over 1,395 in people 85+ in 2021 [1]. Multiple sources in the provided set show that vaccines reduced hospitalizations and deaths especially in older adults (65+) [2], but comprehensive, consistently stratified infection fatality rates (IFRs) by both age and vaccination status across 2020–2025 are not centrally compiled in the supplied results — available sources do not mention a single, global table of IFRs by age and vaccination status across the whole pandemic period.
1. What the headline numbers say about age and risk
Age is the dominant determinant of COVID-19 death risk. U.S. provisional mortality data summarized in public reporting show COVID-19 death rates per 100,000 climbed from under 1 for young children to more than 1,395 for people 85 and older in 2021 [1]. Country-level reporting and dashboards such as the WHO dashboard collect deaths but do not, in the provided set, supply the granular IFRs by vaccination status and age that your question asks for [3] [1].
2. Vaccination cut severe outcomes, especially in older adults
Public-health analyses and advisory meeting summaries report that vaccination lowered the risk of hospitalization and critical illness, with the clearest and most durable effects in adults 65 and older according to ACIP data presented and summarized by FactCheck.org [2]. This is the main source in the set that links vaccination to reduced severe outcomes in older age groups; it does not, however, publish a full set of IFRs by age and vaccine status across years.
3. What peer-reviewed population studies have done (and not done)
Some national studies have estimated case fatality ratios (CFRs) and IFRs over limited periods and stratified by immunization status. For example, an Austria nationwide retrospective study covering Feb 2020–May 2023 stratified CFRs by immunization (previous vaccination and/or infection), age, sex and long‑term care residency, and noted that full pandemic-spanning IFR/CFR compilations remain incomplete [4]. That study demonstrates the methodological path — national registries linked to vaccination and infection records — but the provided result indicates comprehensive cross-country IFRs by age and vaccine status are still lacking in the cited set [4].
4. Where official surveillance tracks deaths but not unified IFRs by vaccination
Global dashboards (WHO) and national vital statistics compile deaths and excess mortality [3] [5]. They allow calculation of age‑specific mortality when combined with infection-estimate denominators, but the sources supplied do not present ready-made infection fatality rates split by both age groups and vaccination status for 2020–2025. Therefore, available sources do not mention a single authoritative dataset that answers your exact request end-to-end [3] [5] [1].
5. Sources raising concerns about post-vaccine mortality and methodology differences
The set includes reports and commentary that raise concerns about deaths temporally associated with vaccination and about non-COVID excess mortality. A RealClear piece (which cites assorted studies) discusses purported excess non‑COVID mortality and possible links to cardiac events post‑vaccination, and references analyses of deaths in trial follow-up as well as myocarditis reports [6]. Historical VAERS-based analyses and specific safety reports (e.g., Norwegian reports of frail elderly deaths) are cited in older surveillance papers [7]. These items highlight contested findings and different interpretations: some sources emphasize vaccine safety and benefit [2], others contend there are unexplained mortality signals that require scrutiny [6] [7]. The materials provided do not resolve these disagreements into a single IFR-by-vaccination-status estimate.
6. Practical next steps to get the precise IFR breakdown you want
To produce IFRs by age and vaccination status since 2020 requires linked datasets: infections (including serology or modeled infection estimates), deaths, and vaccination records, aggregated by year/variant period and age group. National studies like the Austrian paper show the method [4]. Official sources you could request or compute from include WHO dashboards for deaths [3], national vital statistics [5], and national vaccination registries; none of the provided sources supply the full computed series you asked for.
Limitations and caveats: the supplied sources document strong age gradients and vaccine benefit in older adults [1] [2], national-level analytical efforts [4], and contested accounts about post‑vaccine mortality signals [6] [7]. They do not contain a comprehensive, pandemic‑wide table of IFRs stratified simultaneously by vaccination status and standard age bands for 2020–2025 — available sources do not mention that exact dataset [3] [4].