A healthcare worker administers a dose of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine at Nassau Community College in Garden City, New York on Saturday, January 30, 2021.
Johnny Milano | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines are 94% effective in preventing hospitalizations in fully vaccinated adults aged 65 and over, according to a real-world study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published Wednesday.
The two-dose mRNA vaccines were also found to be 64% effective in preventing hospitalization in elderly people who received only one shot in the study. The study examined 417 adults in 14 states in hospital from January through March. The US agency said the results are consistent with those found in clinical trials.
“This US multisite real-world assessment suggests that vaccination provides protection against COVID-19-associated hospitalization in adults ≥ 65 years of age,” the CDC wrote in the study. “Vaccination is an important tool in reducing severe COVID-19 in high-risk groups.”
The CDC study provides more evidence of the benefits of vaccinating against the virus, which has infected more than 32.1 million Americans and killed at least 573,420 people, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Health officials had previously said that Covid-19 hospitalizations in older Americans who are at increased risk of serious illness have fallen since the shots first became available in the United States late last year.
As of Tuesday, more than 81% of adults in the United States aged 65 and over had received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, according to the CDC. According to the CDC, more than 67% of adults in the US aged 65 and over are fully vaccinated.
In a statement on Wednesday, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the agency’s results are “encouraging and welcome news”.
“The results are promising for our communities and hospitals,” she said. “As our vaccination efforts continue to expand, COVID-19 patients will not overwhelm health systems. Hospital staff, beds and services will be available to people who need them for other illnesses.”
Earlier this week, White House chief medical officer Dr. Anthony Fauci that Americans should see a turning point in the pandemic “within a few weeks” as the US continues to vaccinate Americans at a rapid pace.
According to the CDC, the United States reported an average of 2.7 million Covid-19 vaccinations per day over the past week, which is roughly the same as a month ago.
If the US continues its pace of vaccination, “the momentum will literally change within a few weeks,” Fauci said Monday during a virtual event hosted by the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.
“Not due to no infection,” he said. “If you’re waiting for classic measles-like herd immunity, it will be a while before we get there. But that doesn’t mean we won’t significantly reduce the number of infections per day and a.” significant reduction in all parameters, namely hospital stays and deaths. “
