None of the vaccinated doctors who contracted COVID-19 were hospitalized or died.
According to a new study, infections among health workers completely vaccinated against COVID-19 are extremely rare.
The researchers examined data from the health records of employees of more than 36,600 health workers in California and found that less than 1% tested positive for COVID-19 after being fully vaccinated, that is, both doses and two weeks for immunity to build up. Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.
Although anecdotal reports have recently been treated from physicians who have received COVID-19 after receiving one or both doses of the vaccine, the study provides a more complete view of how often these post-vaccine infections occur in people completely vaccinated.
“This study confirms that vaccines are very effective in preventing COVID-19,” the study’s authors, Dr. Shira Abeles and Dr. Francesca Torriani, told ABC News.
“It also serves to remind us that vaccines are not 100% effective and there are‘ advanced ’cases,” the doctors added, noting that public health measures need to be maintained to protect against lost cases.
They also pointed to a cause for optimism. “Vaccines showed strong effectiveness during an increase in cases in Southern California, which is great news for all of us,” said Abeles and Torriani, who work at UC San Diego Health.
The study period lasted from December 16, 2020, when the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) began their vaccination programs, until February 9. of 2021.
After complete vaccination, the risk of testing positive for the virus was 1.19% among UCSD employees and 0.97% among UCLA employees.
Research also showed that the more advanced the vaccination process of health care workers, the better the vaccine worked.
Of the 36,659 vaccinated workers, 379 tested positive after the first dose of vaccine, and most of them tested positive two weeks after the first vaccine. After receiving both doses of the two-shot vaccine, 37 people tested positive, most tested positive less than a week after their second dose. Only seven health professionals tested positive 15 days or more after the second vaccination.
According to the researchers, no vaccinated health workers who contracted COVID-19 were hospitalized or died, and those who became ill appeared to have milder symptoms than those who were not vaccinated.
“We hope this will help increase confidence in the vaccine,” Abeles and Torriani said.
There were limitations in the research. Healthcare workers who tested positive after a dose may have been exposed to the virus before getting vaccinated. It is also not known which virus variants were circulating during the study period. The research was published Tuesday in a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine.