USA: only a very small number of vaccinated people still infected with Covid-19 (study) - France 24

Washington (AFP)

About 0.01% of people fully vaccinated against Covid-19 between January and April were subsequently infected with the virus, according to a US government study published on Tuesday, confirming the very high effectiveness of the vaccines.

"Even if the authorized vaccines are highly effective", rare cases of contamination were "expected, in particular before the immunity of the population reached a level sufficient to further reduce transmission", explains the report of the American Centers of disease control and prevention (CDC).

The study looks at the 101 million people who were fully vaccinated in the United States between January 1 and April 30.

A total of 10,262 contaminations were reported two weeks or more after the injection of the second or single dose of vaccines authorized by the United States Medicines Agency (FDA), i.e. Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.

Among these infections, 6,446 or 63% of the cases concerned women, and the median age of the patients was 58 years.

2,725 of the infected people were asymptomatic, 706 had to be hospitalized and 132 died for reasons related to Covid-19.

Overall, 0.01% of fully vaccinated people were nonetheless infected with the virus, 0.0007% of them were hospitalized, and 0.0001% died.

According to the CDC, the number of infections after vaccination is certainly higher, with asymptomatic cases more often going undiagnosed.

In 5% of the cases of infections, the genome of the virus could be sequenced, showing that the main variant causing the infections was the one first identified in the United Kingdom, B.1.1.7.

The study was conducted when the United States was facing an outbreak of contaminations, with nearly 355,000 cases detected in the last week of April, according to the CDC.

"The number of cases of Covid-19, hospitalizations and deaths that will be avoided in vaccinated people greatly exceeds" the number of these rare cases of infections, note the authors of the study.

The CDC changed its surveillance for this type of infection in the vaccinated population on May 1, now only listing cases of severe illness and deaths.

A decision criticized by some scientists who deplore the loss of essential data.

Almost 164 million people, or 50% of the US population, have received at least one dose of the vaccine, while 39% are fully vaccinated.

© 2021 AFP