CDC research exhibits that unvaccinated persons are 29 occasions extra more likely to be hospitalized

Doctors remove a patient on a stretcher from an ambulance outside the emergency at Coral Gables Hospital, where coronavirus patients were diagnosed on Jan.

Chandan Khanna | AFP | Getty Images

Unvaccinated people are about 29 times more likely to be hospitalized with Covid-19 than those who are fully vaccinated, according to a study published Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The new study, published in the CDC’s weekly Morbidity and Mortality Report, also found that unvaccinated people were almost five times more likely to be infected with Covid than people who received the injections. The results are based on data from Los Angeles County between May 1 and July 25, the agency said.

“These data on infection and hospitalization rates show that approved vaccines protected against SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe COVID-19 at a time when transmission of the Delta variant was increasing,” the agency wrote in the study .

The data is in line with comments from federal and state health officials who have been saying for weeks that millions of unvaccinated Americans are at serious risk for the Delta variant, the most contagious strain of coronavirus to date.

CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Tuesday the data showed that “if you haven’t been vaccinated, you’re among the most at risk.”

“Do not underestimate the risk and serious consequences of this virus,” she said during a briefing at the White House about the pandemic. “Vaccines are the best tool we have to deal with this pandemic.”

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Covid-19 Associated Hospitalization in Unvaccinated and Fully Vaccinated Individuals.

The White House

According to the CDC, as of Monday, more than 201 million Americans, or 60.8% of the total US population, had received at least one Covid vaccination. More than 171 million Americans, or 51.5% of the total US population, are fully vaccinated, according to the agency.

President Joe Biden said Monday that “virtually all” Covid hospital admissions and deaths in the US continue to be among the unvaccinated.

“Let me be clear: there are cases where people who have been vaccinated get Covid-19, but they are far less common than people who are not vaccinated. And most importantly, their conditions are far less severe, ”he said during a speech.

U.S. officials hope that the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid vaccine will convince some unvaccinated Americans to finally get the syringes.

White House senior medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Monday if the U.S. gets through the winter and the majority of people who haven’t received the vaccinations are vaccinated, the nation could have some control over the virus by spring.

“When we get into spring we could go back to some degree of normalcy, which is to resume the things we hoped we could do, restaurants, theaters and the like,” Fauci said during an interview on CNNs “Anderson Cooper 360.”

The study, published Tuesday, was based on 43,127 infections among residents of Los Angeles County, California. Covid hospital admissions were defined as hospital admissions within 14 days of infection, the agency said.

Among all residents of the district, hospitalization rates for unvaccinated, fully vaccinated and partially vaccinated people rose “exponentially,” with the highest rates for unvaccinated people at the end of June, the agency said.

The study had limitations, the agency said.

For example, vaccination dates were not available for people who lived in the county at the time of their confirmed infection but were vaccinated outside of California, resulting in an incorrect classification of their vaccination status, the agency said.