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Covid Vaccines May Not Be as Strong Against Delta, but Shots Are Preventing Hospitalization and Death

A new CDC study conducted by public health officials in Los Angeles finds that while a quarter of coronavirus cases among Los Angeles County residents from May 1 through July 25 were among fully vaccinated people, our safe and effective covid vaccines still drastically reduced the chances of infection and hospitalization:

Among 43,127 reported SARS-CoV-2 infections in Los Angeles County residents aged ≥16 years, 10,895 (25.3%) were in fully vaccinated persons, 1,431 (3.3%) were in partially vaccinated persons, and 30,801 (71.4%) were in unvaccinated persons. Much lower percentages of fully vaccinated persons infected with SARS-CoV-2 were hospitalized (3.2%), were admitted to an intensive care unit (0.5%), and required mechanical ventilation (0.2%) compared with partially vaccinated persons (6.2%, 1.0%, and 0.3%, respectively) and unvaccinated persons (7.6%, 1.5%, and 0.5%, respectively) (p<0.001 for all comparisons). On July 25, the SARS-CoV-2 infection rate among unvaccinated persons was 4.9 times and the hospitalization rate was 29.2 times the rates among fully vaccinated persons.

During May 1–July 25, the percentages of B.1.617.2 (Delta) variant infections estimated from 6,752 samples with lineage data increased among fully vaccinated persons (from 8.6% to 91.2%), partially vaccinated persons (from 0% to 88.1%), and unvaccinated persons (from 8.2% to 87.1%). In May, there were differences in median Ct values by vaccination status; however, by July, no differences were detected among specimens from fully vaccinated, partially vaccinated, and unvaccinated persons by gene targets. These infection and hospitalization rate data indicate that authorized vaccines were protective against SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe COVID-19 during a period when transmission of the Delta variant was increasing. Efforts to increase COVID-19 vaccination, in coordination with other prevention strategies, are critical to preventing COVID-19–related hospitalizations and deaths [Jennifer B. Griffin, Meredith Haddix, et al., “SARS-CoV-2 Infections and Hospitalizations Among Persons Aged ≥16 Years, by Vaccination Status — Los Angeles County, California, May 1–July 25, 2021,” CDC: MMWR and Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 2021.08.24].

Another CDC study published yesterday finds the delta variant of covid may be eroding vaccine effectiveness (and remember: you don’t get to sneer that the vaccines aren’t working if you’re one of the millions who didn’t take the vaccine, didn’t give it a chance to work, and thus gave covid the chance to mutate into the now dominant delta variant). But even at lower effectiveness, the shots are still worth getting:

During December 14, 2020–August 14, 2021, full vaccination with COVID-19 vaccines was 80% effective in preventing RT-PCR–confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection among frontline workers, further affirming the highly protective benefit of full vaccination up to and through the most recent summer U.S. COVID-19 pandemic waves. The VE point estimates declined from 91% before predominance of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant to 66% since the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant became predominant at the HEROES-RECOVER cohort study sites; however, this trend should be interpreted with caution because VE might also be declining as time since vaccination increases and because of poor precision in estimates due to limited number of weeks of observation and few infections among participants. As with all observational VE studies, unmeasured and residual confounding might be present. Active surveillance through the cohort is ongoing and VE estimates will be monitored continuously. Although these interim findings suggest a moderate reduction in the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines in preventing infection, the sustained two thirds reduction in infection risk underscores the continued importance and benefits of COVID-19 vaccination [Ashley Fowlkes, Manjusha Gaglani, et al., “Effectiveness of COVID-19 Vaccines in Preventing SARS-CoV-2 Infection Among Frontline Workers Before and During B.1.617.2 (Delta) Variant Predominance — Eight U.S. Locations, December 2020–August 2021,” CDC: MMWR and Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 2021.08.24].

The coronavirus remains a real threat to our health. The vaccines continue to provide real benefits in fighting coronavirus. Even if preventing coronavirus requires booster shots (like most vaccines do), we need to keep doing our part. Get your shots!

17 Comments

  1. jerry 2021-08-25 11:00

    A different Delta offers this great idea, pay up or vax up. “Delta Air Lines employees who have not been vaccinated will soon have to pay a $200 monthly surcharge and take a weekly COVID-19 test.

    The new monthly charge will begin on Nov. 1 for all employees enrolled in Delta’s health care plan, Chief Executive Officer Ed Bastian announced Wednesday.

    While 75% of Delta workers are already vaccinated, Bastian said that the cost of treating the deadly virus puts the company at “financial risk.”

    “The average hospital stay for COVID-19 has cost Delta $50,000 per person”

    Freedom ain’t free baby’s. $2,400.00 bucks a year to be stupid plus paying for the test. Mine cost $200.00 bucks for the rapid PCR. So lets see. add this and carry that…hmmmm almost 5 grand. Gotta give Delta kudo’s for starting the trend.

  2. John Dale 2021-08-25 11:37

    I read that it doesn’t work.

    That t doesn’t have efficacy.

    And therefore mandating it since it causes harm and death is committing any number of possible crimes including:

    1 – felony assault
    2 – negligent homicide
    3 – murder

  3. Dicta 2021-08-25 11:46

    Where did you read it. Provide sources or go away.

  4. Dicta 2021-08-25 12:08

    (Lets see if he actually tries to debate, which he was recently whinging about.)

  5. kurtz 2021-08-25 12:16

    Every hospital in Montana is at capacity. Campbell County Hospital in Gillette, Wyoming is turning away patients where the unvaccinated and young have swamped the ICU. Monument Health in Rapid City and its other facilities are losing staff to exhaustion.

    The herd is being culled.

  6. Eve Fisher 2021-08-25 12:37

    “But the vaccine doesn’t even guarantee you won’t get sick, it really only stops you from dying.”
    Yeah, and body armor in a war doesn’t even guarantee you won’t get injured, it really only stops you from dying.
    Your choice. I like not dying. I especially like not lying in a hospital bed with a ventilator down my throat like the Alien in Alien.

  7. kurtz 2021-08-25 13:53

    The christianic governor of Montana is in Kristi Noem’s extreme white wing of the Republican Party and has pressed the panic button on immunizations. Why? The pandemic’s strain on that state’s medical industry is costing the State of Montana $millions in copays.

    Why somebody would rather pay $30,000 for a hospital bed when the inoculation is free remains a mystery.

  8. sx123 2021-08-25 14:08

    South Dakota sending National Guard to fight something at US southern border. Georgia sending National Guard to fight covid in Georgia.

    Weird.

  9. Dicta 2021-08-25 15:08

    Looks like a wicked case of freedom. Darwin is sorting things out

  10. grudznick 2021-08-25 16:05

    You know what they say, Lar.

  11. Bonnie B Fairbank 2021-08-25 18:17

    I’m ready for my booster, Dr. Fauci. Months ahead of time, according to the latest recommendations and guesses. My gums drizzled blood for 18 hours (registered VAERS report) after my first Moderna jab and my arm was so useless I could not hang laundry for two days, but I don’t care; if I could lie in this small community I would start over again. I thought I was immune on July first, but I returned to masking and social distancing on July sixth because I can anticipate train wrecks. I’m not entitled, but I’m not abnormally stupid.

  12. DaveFN 2021-08-25 21:34

    Thank you, Cory, for providing reliable and strong information from reputable sources.

    More to fight the stupidity of “natural” immunity as superior to vaccine-induced COVID, as though “natural” somehow involved a different biochemistry textbook than did vaccine -induced biochemistry. It doesn’t.

    “In today’s (6 Aug 2021) CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), a study of COVID-19 infections in Kentucky among people who were previously infected with SAR-CoV-2 shows that unvaccinated individuals are more than twice as likely to be reinfected with COVID-19 than those who were fully vaccinated after initially contracting the virus. These data further indicate that COVID-19 vaccines offer better protection than natural immunity alone and that vaccines, even after prior infection, help prevent reinfections.”

    https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7032e1.htm?s_cid=mm7032e1_w

    Plenty more studies we could cite, although they would surely be lost on those lacking the formal education to appreciate let alone understand them, those I term the make-it-up-yourselfers who use the minimal reasoning tools they glean from the sensational, popular media with which they indoctrinate themselves.

  13. DaveFN 2021-08-25 22:51

    To paraphrase kurtz:

    Why somebody would pay $30,000 for a hospital bed when COVID inoculation is free needs be seriously questioned.

  14. DaveFN 2021-08-25 23:09

    Put the power back into the hands of what is a largely ignorant populace, is effectively the Noem proclamation.

  15. Lottie 2021-08-25 23:36

    Get your vaccine – but also wear your protective mask and do your hand hygiene etc. Etc. Use common sense measures.

  16. DaveFN 2021-08-26 06:47

    “What they’re saying: “We know some of you will disagree with this decision to require the vaccine for all United employees,” United CEO Scott Kirby and President Brett Hart said in a letter to employees.

    “But, we have no greater responsibility to you and your colleagues than to ensure your safety when you’re at work, and the facts are crystal clear: everyone is safer when everyone is vaccinated,” they continued.”Over the last 16 months, Scott has sent dozens of condolences letters to the family members of United employees who have died from COVID-19. We’re determined to do everything we can to try to keep another United family from receiving that letter.” ”

    https://www.axios.com/united-airlines-vaccine-mandates-8e04e66a-ea55-4ca1-846d-680f49f5d2a4.html

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