The Lancet has just released another study comparing the efficacy of COVID vaccines to the efficacy of protection provided by previous COVID infections.
Their conclusion: while vaccines lower the risk of infections with the delta variant within households, those who are fully vaccinated are still vulnerable to a 'breakthrough' infection if somebody they live with gets infected.
What's more, people who have been vaccinated against COVID can be equally as infectious as the unvaccinated, the study showed.
The new study, which was published Thursday in the Lancet, the British medical journal that published some of the earliest research on COVID, is one of few to use detailed infection data from actual examples of household transmission, and it showed that - as we noted above - the viral loads of both vaccinated and unvaccinated patients infected with COVID are "Broadly similar".
The study involved 621 people in the UK with mild COVID infections, identified via the UK's contact-tracing system.
Roughly 25% of vaccinated household members subsequently tested positive for the virus after close contact with a fellow household member with a confirmed case of COVID. That's compared with 38% of infection for people who haven't been vaccinated.
Following a summary of its findings, the Lancet wrote the "Interpretation" of the study: "Vaccination reduces the risk of delta variant infection and accelerates viral clearance. Nonetheless, fully vaccinated individuals with breakthrough infections have peak viral load similar to unvaccinated cases and can efficiently transmit infection in household settings, including to fully vaccinated contacts. Host-virus interactions early in infection may shape the entire viral trajectory."
Friday, October 29, 2021
Latest Lancet Study Exposes Limits Of Vaccines At Preventing COVID Infection
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