Unvaccinated people are 11 times more likely to die of COVID-19 than vaccinated ones: Study

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has presented data showing that non-vaccinated people are more than four and a half times more likely to get COVID-19 and 11 times more prone to die from it than those who are fully vaccinated.

At a White House COVID-19 briefing on Friday, CDC Director Dr Rochelle Walensky said the data showed "vaccination works and protects us from the severe complexities of COVID-19".

The studies involved more than 600,000 COVID-19 cases, hospitalisations and deaths in 13 states and major cities of the US from April to mid-July.

"If you look at cases in the last two months, when the Delta variant was the dominant variant scattering in this country, those who were not vaccinated were about four and a half times more likely to get COVID-19, more than 10 times more prone to be hospitalisations, and 11 times more likely to lose their life from the illness, ”Walensky said.

While strength and protection persisted in being strong against Delta, the study also established an increase in mild COVID-19 infections among fully vaccinated people, which the medical professionals said showed "potential disappearance of vaccine-induced population immunity."

Two other US studies have also found that COVID-19 vaccines offer great protection upon hospitalisation and death, even in the light of the highly contagious Delta variant, but vaccination protection seems to be disappearing among the elderly, especially those 75 and older.

US data on hospitalisation from nine states during the time when the Delta variant was dominant also say that the Moderna vaccine dose was more effective in preventing hospitalisations among individuals of all ages than vaccinations by Pfizer or Johnson & Johnson.

In this study of more than 32,000 visits to emergency care centres, emergency rooms, and hospitals and Moderna vaccination were 95 per cent effective in preventing hospitalisation compared with 80 per cent for Pfizer and 60 per cent for J&J.