QCOSTARICA -People completely vaccinated against covid-19 are five times less likely to become ill with covid-19, 10 times less risk of being hospitalized and 11 times less risk of dying compared to those who have not been vaccinated.
These are the conclusions of a report from the United States Center for Disease Control (CDC) released this Friday afternoon.
“Vaccines continue to provide strong protection against most people against hospitalization and death, even with the emergence and spread of the delta variant,” CDC director Rochelle Walensky told a news conference.
“In short: we have the tools to lower the burden of this pandemic,” she added.
This analysis took the three vaccines used in the United States: Pfizer’s, Moderna’s, and Johnson & Johnson’s.
In Costa Rica, Pfizer is the vaccine most used to inoculate the population.
To reach these conclusions, the CDC analyzed the records of 615,454 people from 13 states who had fallen ill between April and July 2021, dates on which the delta variant was present. By the end of the analysis period, delta already accounted for 90% of infections.
During this period, 37,948 infected patients were hospitalized (6.17% of the cases) and 6,748 died (1.1%).
When the CDC separated the cases between the fully vaccinated and those not vaccinated or with the incomplete scheme (one of dose of the two-dose vaccines) they found that in those who had not completed their scheme, there were 569,142 (92.48% of the total patients included in the study) people infected, 34,972 hospitalized (92.17% of cases) and 6,132 (90.87%) died, those infected
In those who did complete it, there were 46,312 infections (7.52% of the total), 2,976 hospitalizations (7.83%) and 616 deaths (9.13%).
When they looked at the odds of getting sick, hospitalized and dying between people with full immunization and those who did not, the risk of getting sick was 4.6 times lower in those who had their full vaccination.
In addition, the probabilities of hospitalization were 10.4 times lower in those vaccinated, and those of dying were 11.3 times lower.
The delta variant
The delta variant could have an influence so that the vaccine increased cases. In April, the protection for those who had a complete vaccination was 11.1 times higher than for those who were not vaccinated or with an incomplete schedule. In July the protection was already 4.6 times higher.
However, this decrease in effectiveness was not seen for hospitalizations or deaths.
“As of July 20, with a greater predominance of the delta variant, the cases, hospitalizations and deaths of people who were not fully vaccinated rose weekly. Among people with a complete scheme, the cases did increase, but the proportions of hospitalizations and deaths remained without major changes,” the report cites.
During this time, the protection against hospitalization and death did decrease, but not dramatically. According to the specialists, the protection against hospitalization went from 13.3 times lower risk compared to the unvaccinated to 10.4 and 16, 6 higher protection against death to 10.4.
