October 18, 2021 – The FDA and CDC have been busy lately, evaluating the effectiveness of vaccines for young children and of boosters for people having received each of the three vaccines used in the United States. By the end of this month, we may see vaccines approved for 5-to-11-year-olds and boosters approved for the Pfizer, Moderna, and Janssen (Johnson and Johnson) vaccines.
The CDC also recently began reporting Covid case, hospitalization, and death information by vaccination status. These data confirm the effectiveness of each of the three vaccines in limiting the risk of infection. Most importantly, the vaccines render the risk of a severe infection – that is, one requiring hospitalization or resulting in death – almost negligible for anyone under 65 years old. Persons 65 and older remain at (slight) risk of a severe infection but, far lower if they are vaccinated.
The CDC data also suggests that the Moderna vaccine is proving most effective of the three in reducing the risk of infection and death. The single-dose Janssen vaccine is the least effective of the three yet, still powerful.
Here are a few of the things we learned from the most-recent week’s data (results seem to be consistent week-to-week):
- The risk of a breakthrough case (infection of a vaccinated person) is 5-to-6 times lower among 18-to-64-year-olds than the risk of an infection of an unvaccinated person of that same age. Among 12-to-17-year-olds, the risk is 9.4 times lower
- Among unvaccinated individuals, 12-to-17-year-olds have the highest risk of infection, followed by 30-to-49-year-olds. Conversely, vaccinated 12-to-17-year-olds have the lowest risk of infection for any age group
The risk of a severe infection (resulting in hospitalization or death) for vaccinated persons 64-years-old or younger is not zero, but it’s close:
The Moderna vaccine demonstrates the most substantial success in preventing infections and deaths, with Pfizer next and Janssen third. Each of the three is proving effective:
Contributing writer:
Mark A. Van Sumeren, strategic advisor, Medical Devices & Integrated Delivery Networks
Health Industry Advisor LLC, provides a regular report on COVID-19 numbers for the health care industry.
For more information, or to sign up for the report, contact Mark at Mark.VanSumeren@HealthIndustryAdvisor.com; or visit www.HealthIndustryAdvisor.com.