Fully vaccinated people 11 times less likely to die of COVID: CDC data

The United States health authorities on Friday said that people who are fully vaccinated were 11 times less likely to die of COVID. Authorities also added that they are also 10 times less likely to be hospitalized compared to the unvaccinated. This announcement comes as the highly contagious Delta variant is wreaking havoc.

This data was unearthed in one of the three new papers published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The papers also underlined how effective is the COVID vaccines are against the virus.

According to the data, a certain section of the study suggested that Moderna‘s vaccine has offered a slightly higher level of protection in the Delta period.

This comes a day after US President Joe Biden announced a new immunisation plan. Under the new plan, companies that employ more than 100 people are required to vaccinate their workers or test them weekly.

“As we have shown in study after study, vaccination works,” said CDC director Rochelle Walenksy during a press briefing on Friday.

The first study was done on hundreds of thousands of cases in 13 US jurisdictions from April 4 – June 19, the period before Delta was dominant, and compared them to June 20 – July 17.

During these periods, the risk of COVID infection in a vaccinated person rose slightly: from being 11 times less likely to be infected compared to an unvaccinated person, to five times less likely.

Meanwhile, the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are studying the need for booster shots. It is understood that the elderly will be receiving the booster shots first after the Biden administration starts to roll them out later this month.

One of the studies compartmentalised efficacy by brand. Efficacy against hospitalisation was highest for Moderna at 95%; then Pfizer at 80%; and finally Johnson & Johnson at 60%.

Overall efficacy against hospitalization was 86% for all age groups.