Vaccines show declining effectiveness against infection overall but strong protection against hospitalization amid delta variant

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Thu, 2021-08-19 09:45 — mike kraft

Vaccines show declining effectiveness against infection overall but strong protection against hospitalization amid delta variant The results were pivotal to the Biden administration's decision to recommend booster shots. Ben Guarino, Laurie McGinley Washington Post

Three studies published Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that protection against the coronavirus given by vaccines declined in the midsummer months when the more contagious delta variant rose to dominance in the United States.

At the same time, protection against hospitalization was strong for weeks after vaccination, indicating the shots will generate immune fighters that stave off the worst effects of the virus and its current variations.

Data from these studies persuaded the Biden administration to develop a plan for additional doses to bolster the immune systems of people vaccinated months earlier. The Biden administration will begin offering coronavirus booster shots to fully vaccinated adults who received the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna shots the week of Sept. 20, top health officials announced Wednesday, after concluding that a third shot is needed to fight off waning immunity. ...

The trio of reports, published Wednesday in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the CDC’s scientific digest, also reinforce the idea that vaccines alone will be unable to lift the nation out of the pandemic.

Masks and other precautions should be part of “a layered approach centered on vaccination,” wrote researchers from the New York State Department of Health and the University at Albany School of Public Health in their study of vaccine effectiveness across New York state....

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