A new report from NBC News paints a reassuring picture for vaccinated Americas: breakthrough COVID-19 infections have been both rare and non-fatal. In the first half of 2021, only 1 in every 17,000 vaccinated people had to be hospitalized because of COVID-19 and the chances of death were microscopic: 1 in 83,000. Vaccinated Americans were more likely to die from hornet, wasp or bee stings.
The report draws on data from 24 states and the District of Columbia and shows that the unvaccinated are taking a significant risk. From the report:
- In California, infected unvaccinated people were 142 times as likely to need hospitalization as infected vaccinated people.
- In New Jersey, unvaccinated people were 1,058 times as likely to need hospitalization.
- In Washington state, the sickest patients were 62 times as likely to die if they were unvaccinated.
The highly transmissible delta variant has changed the math on COVID-19 – breakthrough infections are on the rise. But the vaccines still prevent the worst outcomes.
“The most important outcomes are not preventing all infections, but preventing serious infections and deaths,” Dr. Paul Biddinger, of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told NBC.
Dr. Brad Spellberg, chief medical officer at the Los Angeles County-University of Southern California Medical Center, concurred, telling the outlet, “We do occasionally see breakthrough infections. Ninety-five percent of those are mild and do not require hospitalization. They come into urgent care, they may come into the ER with a cough and sniffles. But they’re not requiring oxygen and they go home. A very, very, very small percentage required oxygen in the inpatient side.”