NEW YORK (AP) – Health officials on Friday offered more evidence that vaccinations offer better protection against COVID-19 than immunity from previous infection.
Unvaccinated people who were infected months ago were 5 times more likely to get COVID-19 than fully vaccinated people who had no previous infection, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded. new study.
“These data suggest quite strongly that vaccines are more protective against symptomatic COVID,” said Dr. Mike Saag, an infectious disease expert at the University of Alabama at Birmingham who was not included in the study.
The study examined data from nearly 190 hospitals in nine countries. The researchers counted about 7,000 adult patients who were hospitalized this year with respiratory disease or symptoms similar to those of COVID-19.
About 6,000 of them were fully vaccinated with Moderna or Pfizer for three to six months before arriving at the hospital. The other 1,000 were unvaccinated but had been infected with COVID-19 three to six months earlier.
Approximately 5% of vaccinated patients were positive for coronavirus compared to approximately 9% of unvaccinated patients. The researchers took into account other data, including the age and amount of the virus circulating in different areas, to calculate that the unvaccinated group was at even greater risk.
The study echoes some previous research, including studies that found higher levels of antibodies to fight infections in vaccinated patients.
Saag described the research as well done and convincing. He also said that information is important for parents at a time when the government is preparing to expand the vaccination campaign to more children.
‘A lot of people were advocating,’ Well, let’s let the kids get infected. ‘ I think these data support the idea that vaccines generally work better and probably work better for 5- to 11-year-olds, ”Saag said.
There was not enough data to be able to draw conclusions about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the authors said.
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