The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new data that showed how well the COVID-19 vaccines protect people from the coronavirus, specifically the delta variant.
How many vaccinated people got COVID-19 recently?
The study reviewed how COVID-19 spread from April 4 to July 17, which was when the delta variant becomes prominent among 13 states in the U.S.
- Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Los Angeles County (California), Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York City (New York), North Carolina, Seattle/King County (Washington) and Utah.
Here’s a breakdown of the COVID-19 numbers for those states:
- Not fully vaccinated: 569,142 (92%) COVID-19 cases, 34,972 (92%) hospitalizations and 6,132 (91%) COVID-19–associated deaths.
- Vaccinated people: 46,312 (8%) cases, 2,976 (8%) hospitalizations and 616 (9%) deaths.
The study said that during the specific time frame of April 4–June 19, fully vaccinated people accounted for 5% of total COVID-19 cases, 7% of COVID-19 hospitalizations and 8% of deaths overall.
- These percentages were higher during June 20 to July 17 time frame, when fully vaccinated people accounted for 18% of cases, 14% of hospitalizations and 16% of deaths, per the CDC.
Does this mean the vaccine works?
This is about in line with expectations. According to the CDC, the 13 jurisdictions had a 37% vaccination rate. So the CDC expected fully vaccinated people to represent 6% of cases (which is close to the 5% observed) when vaccine efficacy is at 90%.
- However, from June 20 to July 17, the CDC expected fully vaccinated people to represent 10% of cases — not 18%. The 18% number would have been expected if vaccine efficacy was at 80%.
The CDC said that the new study suggests people not fully vaccinated had five times higher chance of infection, 10 times higher chance of hospitalization and more than 10 times higher chance of death from COVID-19.
Earlier this week, the CDC said there were 12,908 severe COVID-19 breakthrough cases among fully vaccinated people, which resulted in hospitalization or death, according to CNN. Of course, 173 million people in the U.S. have been fully vaccinated against the novel coronavirus.
- Per CNN, these numbers suggest you have about a 1 in 13,000 chance of having a severe breakthrough cases of COVID-19 when you’re fully vaccinated.