Ross Bagne was a 68-year-old small-business owner in Cheyenne, Wyoming. He could have gotten the COVID-19 vaccine in early February but decided not to. He became infected. He died on June 4 after spending more than three weeks in the hospital with coronavirus. “He never went out, so he didn’t think he would catch it,” said his sister, Karen McKnight. She thought: “Why take the risk of not getting vaccinated?” Nearly all COVID-19 deaths in the United States are among people who were not vaccinated. Experts say this shows how effective the vaccines are. Daily reported deaths are below 300 a day. But the latest numbers suggest that there could be almost no deaths if everyone eligible got vaccinated. The Associated Press studied data provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from May. The AP found that infections in fully vaccinated people made up less than 1.1 percent of 107,000 COVID-related hospitalizations. In addition to that, only 0.8 percent of the 18,000 people who died of COVID-19 were fully vaccinated. Dr. Rochelle Walensky is the head of the CDC. She said Tuesday that the vaccine is so effective that “nearly every death, especially among adults, due to COVID-19, is, at this point, entirely preventable.” Deaths in the U.S. have dropped from a high of more than 3,400 a day in the middle of January. That point was reached after vaccinations had been available for only one month. The CDC said about 63 percent of all Americans able to get the vaccine people 12 and older have received at least one dose. It is estimated that 53 percent are fully vaccinated. Unlike much of the world, the United States now has a large vaccine supply.