In new CDC Study, 57% Hospitalized with COVID Had Either 2 or 3 Vaccine Doses.
Posted by Edmund R. Folsom
February 13, 2022
A study published by the U.S. CDC on Friday, February 11, 2022, explored the effectiveness, over time, of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines against the need for emergency department/urgent care visits and hospitalizations. The study reviewed 241,204 emergency department/urgent care visits in 10 states, from late August of 2021 into January of 2022. We have already been told that vaccine effectiveness drops off markedly enough that the CDC recommends a third, booster shot 5 months after the second shot. This study also examined how long third dose boosters remain effective. The study determined that vaccine effectiveness against the Omicron variant of SarsCoV2 reached 69% within the first 2 months after the second shot but was down to 37% after more than 5 months. A third, booster shot raised vaccine effectiveness to 87% within the first 2 months, dropping to 66% during the next 3 months, and to only 31% five or more months after the 3rd dose. To illustrate, a person who received a second vaccine dose in March of 2021 would not have been considered fully vaccinated until another 14 days passed. By August of 2021, a mere 4 ½ months after the person was first considered fully vaccinated, vaccine effectiveness would have dropped enough to require a third dose to bring it back above 37%. A booster in August would have raised effectiveness to 87% some time before October, but during October effectiveness would have fallen to 66%. In January, as the Omicron surge peaked, effectiveness would have dropped to 31%. Raising vaccine effectiveness above 31% at that point would apparently require a 4th dose, roughly 9 1/2 months after the date the person was first considered fully vaccinated.
The study also examined 93,108 COVID-19 hospitalizations, of which 89% involved the Delta variant and 11% involved the Omicron variant of SarsCoV2. Of those, 43% of the hospitalized were considered unvaccinated. Another 45% had received 2 vaccine doses and another 12% had received 3 doses. In other words, 57% of the people hospitalized with COVID-19 in this study had received at least 2 doses of Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. As hospitalizations with COVID-19 go, that places “breakthrough” cases much more within the realm of the common than the rare.
The foundation of the political team-building exercise that relies on demonizing, ostracizing and punishing the unvaccinated continues to crumble. However, the neuroses that this political campaign has induced, along with related lockdown and masking* campaigns, will continue in some quarters for a long, long time.
*With any old piece of material, but definitely some piece of material, even if worn on the chin or dangling from one ear.
