TASS, September 2. British doctors found that vaccinated patients are about twice as likely to carry an asymptomatic coronavirus infection and 66% less likely to need hospitalization than sick people who have not received the vaccine. The findings of the scientists were published in an article in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases.
“Our observations show that the likelihood of developing asymptomatic forms of COVID-19 increased by 63% after the first dose of the vaccine and by 94% after the second vaccination. got vaccinated, “the researchers write.
For a year and a half of the global pandemic, a large number of small mutations have appeared in the coronavirus genome. Some of these “typos” in the structure of RNA significantly increased the infectiousness of SARS-CoV-2, which allowed their carriers to spread very quickly throughout the planet.
Their appearance gave rise to fears that in the near future new variations of the virus may appear that are resistant to the action of vaccines and antibodies of people who have recovered. Guided by similar considerations, British doctors under the leadership of Claire Steves, a senior researcher at King's College London, received the first data on how mass vaccination of the population affected the course of the coronavirus infection.
Pros of vaccination
More than 1.2 million Britons took part in this study, who agreed to install a special application on their phone, with the help of which they informed scientists whether they received a vaccine against COVID-19 and whether they subsequently contracted coronavirus. Between December of last year and the beginning of July of this year, about 970,000 study participants received a full course of vaccinations.
This allowed Steves and her colleagues to evaluate how three vaccines in use in Britain, including those from Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca, affected the frequency of infections, as well as the likelihood of visible symptoms of infection and hospitalization of patients after entering the country. delta variant of the coronavirus.
As it turned out, a fairly small number of British residents became infected with coronavirus after vaccination – their share was 0.5% for people who received one dose of the vaccine, and 0.2% among those who received a full course of vaccinations. In addition to this, scientists have recorded a sharp decrease in the incidence of overt forms of COVID-19 and in the likelihood of long-term symptoms of infection.
Both of these rates, the researchers write, were about 1.5-2 times lower among vaccinated Britons than among people who had not yet received the vaccine. Likewise, patients were about 70% less likely to be hospitalized with two doses of the vaccine. These trends were especially pronounced among people of age and carriers of various chronic diseases.
All this, according to scientists, speaks in favor of the fact that vaccination not only reduces the likelihood of contracting COVID-19, but also significantly facilitates the course of the disease, including among vulnerable groups of the population. This significantly reduces the burden on health authorities, Steves and her colleagues concluded.
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