Since Aug. 30, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has received reports of 12,908 severe cases of Covid-19 progression in fully vaccinated individuals that caused hospitalization or death. For the more than 173 million people who were completely vaccinated on that date, this represents less than a 1 in 13,000 chance of suffering a severe advanced case of Covid-19.
Approximately 70% of advanced cases that were hospitalized were among adults 65 years of age or older and approximately 87% of advanced cases that caused death were among adults 65 years of age or older, according to CDC data.
These CDC data are based on voluntary state reports and may be incomplete, but several studies suggest similar trends.
Among adults vaccinated with advanced cases who were admitted to the hospital, the mean age was 73 years and approximately 71% had three or more underlying conditions, including diabetes, heart disease, autoimmune conditions, and others.
The study found that unvaccinated patients hospitalized with Covid-19 had a mean age of 59 years and approximately 56% had three or more underlying conditions.
From late June to late July, a period in which the Delta variant accounted for at least half of all Covid-19 cases, unvaccinated adults in the U.S. were about 10 times more likely to be hospitalized for Covid. -19 adults fully vaccinated, the CDC study found.
Both in general and since Delta has been the prevalent variant, the risk of hospitalization was higher for unvaccinated adults in all age groups, but the risk gap is especially large among adults under 50 years of age.
The CDC analyzed 4,700 adult hospitalizations between January 24 and July 24 through the COVID-19 Associated Hospitalization Surveillance Network (COVID-NET), which tracks Covid-19-associated hospitalizations. laboratory-confirmed in 99 counties in 14 states representing approximately 10% of the U.S. population. The study has not yet been peer-reviewed or published.
Another study also found that older people with underlying conditions accounted for the most severe cases of innovation.
Chun and colleagues studied about 1,000 patients hospitalized for various causes between the end of March and July this year, about 18% of whom had received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine and about 6% of those which were fully vaccinated.
His research, which took place before the Delta variant dominated cases in the United States, found that the average age of severe Covid-19 symptoms was 80, more than half were overweight. Most had cardiovascular disease, half had lung disease and half had diabetes.
Half of the people in the study who tested positive for coronavirus showed no symptoms of the infection and were in the hospital for something else.
“It is clear that vaccines are very effective and without them we would be facing a much more deadly pandemic,” Chun said. “As effective as vaccines are, with emerging variants and growing cases of advanced infections, we must continue to be vigilant in taking measures such as internal masking and social distancing.”
Demographics of those experiencing severe cases of advancing Covid-19 are similar to those at risk for a severe infection in general, Dr. Peter Hotez told CNN’s Kate Bolduan on Wednesday.
“I think what’s happening is that vaccinations may show a greater decline in immunity over time in those (high-risk) populations and that may be the reason. That’s why, for example, Israel, when it announced for the first time his reinforcement plan to give a third vaccination, focused more on the elderly, ”said Hotez, a vaccinologist and dean of the Baylor College of Medicine’s National School of Tropical Medicine.
But when it comes to reducing the epidemic, it should focus on reaching the unvaccinated population, he said.
“For this variant of the Delta, it’s so highly transmissible that we have to get vaccinated between 85 and 90% of the entire population. So we have to figure out a way to get to these places,” Hotez said. .
CNN’s Maggie Fox contributed to this report.