A new report released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found that unvaccinated people are 29 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 compared to those who are fully vaccinated, according to BioSpace.
The report also found that unvaccinated people are five times more likely to get COVID-19 than those who are fully vaccinated.
The CDC wrote in the report, “Efforts to enhance COVID-19 vaccination coverage, in coordination with other prevention strategies, are critical to preventing COVID-19–related hospitalizations and deaths.”
The findings heavily lean in favor of vaccination being the safest way to curb the pandemic, but the CDC warned that the vaccines do not guarantee 100% protection.
The agency noted, “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 CDC’s COVID Data Tracker shows that over 51% of the American population is fully vaccinated and more than 60% of people have received at least one dose as of August 24.
On Monday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced full approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Experts believe this move will lead to more organizations implementing vaccine mandates, increasing the overall vaccination rate.
A recent survey also suggested that more and more people are ready to get vaccinated after a COVID-19 vaccine has been fully approved. The survey, conducted by Kaiser Family Foundation, has shown that 31% of unvaccinated people are now willing to receive the vaccine after the FDA’s full approval.
Meanwhile, the highly contagious Delta variant continues to affect the whole world. In the United States, 43 states have seen a rise in COVID deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Delta, which was first identified in India, is a highly transmissible variant of the virus that spread quickly through the United Kingdom before reaching the United States. The article was published in BioSpace.
