(CNN) — Last month, 130 people died from covid-19 in Maryland, United States. None of them were vaccinated, according to Maryland Governor Larry Hogan.
Additionally, unvaccinated people accounted for 95% of new COVID-19 cases in the state and 93% of new COVID-19 hospitalizations, Hogan said at a news conference Wednesday.
The connection between vaccination status and COVID-19 is not unique to Maryland and is not limited to last month, medical experts said.
Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor School of Medicine, said the Maryland data is a trend that will be seen in states across the country.
“There is no doubt that almost all deaths and hospitalizations will be in unvaccinated people and therefore we should expect that the majority of serious illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths will occur predominantly in areas of low vaccination and high Delta presence. “As is the south and west of the mountain, he said.
“So far it is confirming what we saw with Phase 3 clinical trials – that all vaccines licensed for emergency use provide additional protection against hospitalizations and deaths, this has now been confirmed in very practical settings over the past year,” Hotez added . “It’s a reminder that you have every reason to get vaccinated.”
Maryland National Guard Sgt. Jason Grant administers the Modern coronavirus vaccine at the CASA Welcome Center on May 21, 2021 in Wheaton, Maryland.
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Dr. Paul Sax, an infectious disease physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, similarly highlighted the Maryland data as evidence of the continued effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines.
“We are finding that 99% of people with serious illnesses are not vaccinated, so vaccines are preventing serious illnesses, even in [la variante] delta, “he told CNN on Wednesday.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), offered similar figures during a briefing at the White House last week. .
In fact, more than 99% of COVID-19 deaths in the US in June were among unvaccinated people. Additionally, early data suggests that over the past six months, nearly all COVID-19 deaths in various states have occurred in unvaccinated people, Walensky said last week during a briefing at the White House.
“Preliminary data from a collection of states over the past six months suggests that 99.5% of COVID-19 deaths in these states have occurred in unvaccinated people,” Walensky said. It did not specify in which states.
In California, between January 1 and June 30, only 8,699 out of 20 million fully vaccinated people have been infected with COVID-19, according to state data. At least 652 of them were hospitalized and at least 71 died – a tiny percentage compared to the 37,180 Californians who died in the same time frame, according to data from Johns Hopkins.
The data is further proof of the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, which have been shown to be remarkably effective in preventing new COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths, according to studies conducted with tens of thousands of people around the world. .
The CDC has tracked down so-called vaccinated infection cases, in which a vaccinated person is hospitalized or dies from COVID-19. The CDC has tallied 879 deaths among vaccinated people, a small fraction of the more than 600,000 Americans who have died from the new coronavirus.
Unvaccinated people are at risk
Overall, new infections, hospitalizations, and deaths have dropped dramatically for all in recent months, as more than two-thirds of Americans have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
However, unvaccinated people remain susceptible to infection, especially in areas of the country where vaccination rates are low.
“It is really sad and tragic that most of these [casos] are preventable and preventable, “Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday.
Fauci noted that no vaccine provides perfect protection for everyone, but the data shows its clear positive impact.
“Obviously, there will be some people, because of the variability between people and their response to the vaccine, that you will see that they get vaccinated and still have problems and are hospitalized and die,” he said. “But the overwhelming proportion of people who have problems are not vaccinated.”
In fact, states with below-average vaccination rates have nearly triple the rate of new COVID-19 cases compared to states with above-average vaccination rates, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. . Also, people who have been vaccinated against the coronavirus, if infected, have milder illness than unvaccinated people, a CDC study found.
In a press conference Tuesday, President Joe Biden emphasized that the vaccines are highly effective and safe.
“Study after study has shown that since the beginning of May, virtually all COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths in the United States have occurred among the unvaccinated. So if you are vaccinated, you are protected, but if you are not vaccinated, you’re not, “he said. “So please get vaccinated now. It works. It’s free. It has never been more important.”
Infectious disease experts have also explained that unvaccinated people present an opportunity for the virus to mutate.
“The more people who are not vaccinated, the more opportunities the virus has to multiply,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “When it does, it mutates and could cause a variant mutation that is even more serious in the future.
“So unvaccinated people are possible variant factories,” he added.
CNN’s Jason Hoffman, Virginia Langmaid, Lauren Mascarenhas and Naomi Thomas contributed to this report.
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