New Data Highlights Benefits of Vaccine in Reducing Infection and Hospitalization

CLEVELAND – New data from Cleveland Clinic shows how effective the COVID-19 vaccine is in reducing hospitalizations.

In August, researchers discovered 90% of those who were admitted were not vaccinated.

“This really indicates to us that the vaccine is extremely effective. There is no vaccine that is 100% effective. They were quoting about 90% at first, and the majority of patients are doing quite well with COVID-19 if they’re vaccinated, so we continue to recommend vaccination,” said Rachel Scheraga, MD, who specializes in critical care medicine for Cleveland Clinic.

Dr. Scheraga said they also found in September that 85% of infections were in unvaccinated individuals, whereas only 15% of those who were vaccinated had a breakthrough infection.

In addition, those who were admitted that were fully vaccinated generally were older than 65 years old and had significant underlying medical conditions.

Dr. Scheraga hopes this data will help encourage those who are still hesitant to get vaccinated. She said it’s important to be protected from the virus, especially with the highly contagious Delta variant circulating.

“Over the last year and a half, we have seen COVID and its variants, including the Delta variant, be a very severe illness – more severe than the flu or any other virus we’ve seen before. So this is serious and it causes hospitalizations and a lot of deaths,” said Dr. Scheraga.

She said the vaccine can also help stop the virus from mutating, which is how the Delta variant came to be in the first place.