covid-19 vaccines more effective than 'natural immunity' in protecting against death, hospitalization, er visits: study
while those who previously had covid-19 were slightly less likely to contract covid-19 again, the vaccinated were far less likely to be hospitalized or die, according to data from indiana.
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the f.inding that vaccination protects against severe covid-19 illnesses is in line with other large-scale studies.
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people who received at least one dose of a sars-cov-19 vaccine were less likely to visit the emergency department, be hospitalized or die after contracting covid than those who had “natural immunity” from a previous covid-19 infection, according to a new study.
while patients who had been vaccinated against covid-19 had a higher rate of contracting covid-19 (6.7 per cent in the vaccinated group, versus 2.9 per cent in the previously infected group), once ill, those who were vaccinated were less likely to develop severe illness or die from complications. all-cause mortality rates were 37 per cent lower in the vaccinated group, rates of emergency room visits were lower by 24 per cent and rates of hospital stays were lower by 37 per cent.
“as vaccinated individuals were more likely to actually get covid than those with natural immunity, the lower death rate of vaccine recipients who develop covid appears to be due to vaccination and not to a tendency for risk-averse behaviours, such as mask-wearing, hand sanitizing and social distancing,” dr. shaun grannis, corresponding author and vice president for data and analytics at the regenstrief institute, said in a news release.
researchers compared medical records of 267,847 people from indiana who had been immunized (with at least one dose of a sars-cov-2 vaccine) with the same number of people who were not vaccinated but had previously been infected with covid-19. records were compared based on age, gender, zip code, ethnicity, and other clinical diagnoses, to control for contributing factors to the overall health of patients.
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“this study has important public health implications as previous studies investigated covid-specific ed visits, hospitalizations and mortality but didn’t capture the non-covid related ones,” wanzhu tu, a primary author and scientist at the regenstrief institute research, said. “our work confirms that mrna vaccines have kept people out of the [emergency department] and the hospital as well as lowered the likelihood of death from any cause. and we saw this pattern in every age group.”
finding that vaccination protects against severe covid-19 illnesses is in line with other large-scale studies. a paper published august 2022, looking at illness severity in covid patients in ontario, quebec, british columbia, and manitoba, also concluded two doses of the mrna vaccine “provide excellent protection against severe outcomes of hospitalization and death.”
even during the omicron wave, when “breakthrough” infections were on the rise, being fully vaccinated still protected against severe illness, according to data from the cdc. from dec. 26, 2021 to mar 15, 2022, three vaccine doses had 79 per cent effectiveness against covid-19-associated hospitalization in non-immunocompromised patients.
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emma jones is a multimedia editor with healthing. you can reach her at emjones@postmedia.com or on instagram and twitter @jonesyjourn.
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