CDC: Unvaccinated People are 29 Times More Likely to Be Hospitalized for COVID-19

 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a new report showing that unvaccinated people are 29 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than those who are fully vaccinated against the disease.

The report also highlighted that an unvaccinated individual is five times more likely to get COVID-19 than someone who is fully vaccinated.

“Efforts to enhance COVID-19 vaccination coverage, in coordination with other prevention strategies, are critical to preventing COVID-19–related hospitalizations and deaths,” the CDC noted in the report.

According to the report, among the 43,127 reported SARS-CoV-2 infections in Los Angeles County residents 16 years of age or older from May 1 to July 25, 25% were fully vaccinated people, while 3.3% were partially vaccinated and 71.4% were unvaccinated.

While the data heavily leans in favor of vaccination being the safest way to navigate the pandemic, the CDC does remind readers that the vaccine doesn’t guarantee they won’t get the disease.

“COVID-19 vaccines fully approved or currently authorized for use through Emergency Use Authorization from the Food and Drug Administration are critical tools for controlling the COVID-19 pandemic; however, even with highly effective vaccines, a proportion of fully vaccinated persons will become infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19,” the agency noted.

According to the CDC’s COVID Data Tracker, just over 51% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated as of August 24, and 60.9% of people in the U.S. have received at least one dose.

On Monday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted full approval to Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine, which many expect will lead to more organizations implementing vaccine mandates. Some large companies that have already announced mandates for some or all of their employees include CVS Health, Delta Air Lines, Google, NBCUniversal and Tyson Foods.

Data also suggests now that a COVID-19 vaccine has been fully approved, more people are likely willing to get the vaccine that haven’t already done so. A Kaiser Family Foundation poll conducted in June shows that 31% of unvaccinated people claimed they would be more likely to receive the vaccine if it was fully approved by the FDA.

Amid the COVID-19 vaccine approval, the delta variant continues to wreak havoc around the globe. In the U.S., 43 states are seeing a rise in deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Delta is a highly contagious SARS-CoV-2 virus strain that spread quickly through India and Great Britain before reaching the United States.