Unvaccinated up to 4 times more likely to be infected with COVID-19

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-12-23 03:00

International

New real-world research finds unvaccinated people may be up to four times more likely to be infected with symptomatic infection than those vaccinated. Carried out in May to August 2021 when Delta became dominant, this US study looked at the COVID-19 tests of over 1.2 million people from the database of a nationwide pharmacy chain. Vaccine protection decreased over time but mRNA vaccines stayed about 74 per cent (Moderna) and 66 per cent (Pfizer) effective against symptomatic infection six months or longer after both doses. However, the authors say drawbacks to this study include self-reported vaccine status.

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Journal/
conference: Jama Network Open

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: CVS Health, US

Funder: No external funding. CVS Health administered SARS-CoV-2 tests across 4094 test sites in the US during the study period and is the owner of the data used for the analysis. The analyses were conducted as authors’ routine work. Conflict of Interest Disclosures: All authors reported being full-time employees of CVS Health during the conduct of the study. Drs Brennan, Chaguturu, and Tabak reported owning company stocks as part of work-related compensations during the conduct of the study. No other disclosures were reported.

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