Unvaccinated 11 times more likely to die of COVID: report
Moderna shot most effective, another study says
WASHINGTON • Americans who were not fully vaccinated this spring and summer were more than 10 times more likely to be hospitalized, and 11 times more likely to die of COVID-19 than those who were fully vaccinated, according to one of three major studies published Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A second study showed the Moderna coronavirus vaccine was moderately more effective in preventing hospitalizations than its counterparts from Pfizer-BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson. That assessment was based on the largest U.S. study to date of the real-world effectiveness of all three vaccines, involving about 32,000 patients seen in hospitals, emergency departments and urgent care clinics across nine states from June through early August.
While the three vaccines were collectively 86 per cent effective in preventing hospitalization, protection was significantly higher among Moderna vaccine recipients (95 per cent) than among those who got Pfizer-BioNTech (80 per cent) or Johnson & Johnson (60 per cent). That finding echoes a smaller study by the Mayo Clinic Health System in August, not yet peer-reviewed, which also showed the Moderna vaccine with higher effectiveness.
“The bottom line is this: We have the scientific tools we need to turn the corner on this pandemic,” CDC director Rochelle Walensky said at a White House COVID-19 briefing Friday. “Vaccination works and will protect us from the severe complications of COVID-19.”
The trio of reports comes as President Joe Biden announced sweeping vaccine mandates Thursday to curb the surging Delta variant, which are expected to increase the pressure on the tens of millions of Americans who have resisted vaccinations.
The mandate requires most federal employees to get vaccinated and pushes large employers to have their workers inoculated or tested weekly. It would apply to about two-thirds of all U.S. employees.
Within hours of the new measures being announced on Thursday, some lawmakers, state governors and political party officials were threatening lawsuits or pledging to defy it.
“We've been patient,” Biden told the tens of millions of Americans who have declined to get coronavirus shots. “But our patience is wearing thin, and your refusal has cost all of us.”
The virus has killed more than 650,000 Americans with about 1,500 average daily deaths for the past eight days — a toll not seen since early March, according to data analyzed by The Washington Post.
The CDC studies offer some clarity in a confusing moment in the pandemic amid concerns about waning immunity and the vaccines' protection against a more contagious variant. The data are broadly consistent with findings from other studies: The vaccines continue to provide strong protection for most people against hospitalization and death, even during this Delta surge, but are less effective in protecting adults in the highest age brackets, especially those with underlying medical conditions.
The highly transmissible Delta variant now accounts for more than 99 per cent of new coronavirus infections, the CDC estimates. Fear of waning protection against severe disease is why the administration hopes to roll out boosters as soon as health authorities give the green light. Pfizer is in line to be the first brand approved as a booster by the Food and Drug Administration since the company has submitted data on the safety and effectiveness of boosting its own two-shot regimen with a third shot of the same vaccine. Approval of the other vaccines is expected to follow.
Researchers found diminishing effectiveness against hospitalizations among adults 75 and older, and suggested the decline could be from waning immunity and the impact of a more contagious variant. But the report noted that “this moderate decline should be interpreted with caution and might be related to changes in the virus that causes COVID-19, weakening vaccine-induced immunity as more time passes since vaccination, or a combination of factors.”
Nevertheless, the three vaccines showed continued robust protection for all adults — greater than 82 per cent — for hospitalization, emergency room and urgent care trips.
“The vaccines remain very protective against severe disease,” said William Moss, executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “I think we set our expectations too high for vaccines, thinking they were going to prevent people from getting infected and transmitting the virus.”
OUR PATIENCE IS WEARING
THIN, AND YOUR REFUSAL
HAS COST ALL OF US.