According to Alma Tostmann, epidemiologist at Radboudumc, the increased percentage of vaccinated people in hospital is mainly because the virus has recently been spreading rapidly among the elderly. She speaks of a sum.
“In the summer, we mainly saw infections among younger people and now it is shifting to the elderly. They have a greater chance of ending up in hospital anyway, even after a vaccination. In addition, the vaccine works slightly less well in the elderly than in the elderly.” young people.” This is reflected in the figures: the vaccinated people who are admitted to hospital are much older (77 years) than the non-vaccinated (59 years).
The vaccine effectiveness – how well a vaccine works – over the period July-October was virtually unchanged, according to RIVM: the vaccine protected 94 percent against hospital admission and 97 percent against ICU admission. In the group aged 70 and over, the drug protected slightly less well: 89 percent against hospitalization and 95 percent against admission to the ICU.
Chance of admission nine times higher
Although the vaccine works less well in the elderly, the vast majority of elderly people who end up in hospital with corona have not had a shot. “The chance of admission was more than nine times higher in unvaccinated than in vaccinated people aged 70 and older,” RIVM writes.
Tostmann also sees the national trend at Radboudumc. “We still see mainly unvaccinated people in the hospital here, but also vaccinated people. They have an underlying immune problem that makes the vaccine not work, or they are older and therefore more vulnerable.”
Tostmann calls the shift that more and more people are vaccinated in hospitals, given the current infection rates. Despite the increase in the number of vaccinated people in hospitals, the current vaccination rate of 84 percent has a significant depressing effect. “For every vaccinated person who is now in hospital with Covid, twenty people would have been lying.”
–
