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This fact brief was originally published as an experiment to test the concepts behind fact briefs.
Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of useful information in fact briefs like this one, not all of them reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.

Because the COVID-19 vaccine is free, does that mean it's not valuable in saving lives?

By Alexis Tereszcuk
NO

A social media post falsely tries to compare consumer cost to effectiveness, saying COVID-19 vaccinations are free but if they saved lives "they'd be priced so high that you literally could not afford them ... like insulin."

It's not a valid comparison. The U.S. government pays the three manufacturers of COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S. billions of dollars for the shots, which are administered to people at no charge to save lives and stem the spread of the coronavirus. Insulin prices, meanwhile, are determined by the pharmaceutical companies that market insulin.

Health officials say cases, hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 are increasing nationwide, with more than 97% of new hospitalizations being unvaccinated patients.

Over 607,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the United States as of July 20, 2021, according to the CDC. More than 336 million COVID-19 vaccinations have been administered in the U.S.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
US Department of Health and Human Services COVID-19 Care for Uninsured Individuals
Centers For Disease Control COVID Data Tracker Weekly Review
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR
Lead Stories is a fact checking and debunking website at the intersection of big data and journalism that launched in 2015. It scouts for trending stories, images, videos and posts that contain false information in order to fact check them as quickly as possible. It actively monitors the fake-news ecosystem and doesn’t wait for reader tips or reports before getting started on a story.
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