Unvaccinated 11 times more likely to die of COVID-19

New U.S. studies released Friday show the COVID-19 vaccines remain highly effective against hospitalizations and death even as the extra-contagious delta variant swept the country.

One study tracked over 600,000 COVID-19 cases in 13 states from April through mid-July. As delta surged in early summer, those who were unvaccinated were 4.5 times more likely than the fully vaccinated to get infected, over 10 times more likely to be hospitalized and 11 times more likely to die, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Vaccination works,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, CDC’s director, told a White House briefing Friday. “The bottom line is this: We have the scientific tools we need to turn the corner on this pandemic.”

But as earlier data has shown, protection against coronavirus infection is slipping some: It was 91 percent in the spring but 78 percent in June and July, the study found.

So-called “breakthrough” cases in the fully vaccinated accounted for 14 percent of hospitalizations and 16 percent of deaths in June and July, about twice the percentage as earlier in the year.