After days of discussion, there is now an official AGES report on the high effectiveness of vaccinations against the corona virus.
Together with the Ministry of Health, the Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES) has published new data on Corona vaccination and its effectiveness. The report, published yesterday (Thursday), also addresses the issue of vaccination breakthroughs.
“COVID-19 vaccination protects vaccinated individuals, those around them, and generally results in a milder course of disease in the event of illness,” it says at the outset. Severe courses, hospitalizations, stays in intensive care units and illnesses with a fatal outcome could be “largely avoided” with vaccination.
Since the beginning of February, laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection with clinical symptoms has been detected in 2,871 fully vaccinated individuals in Austria, for a total of 227,178 laboratory-confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 among people aged 12 years and older, according to AGES.
SARS-CoV-2 infection following COVID-19 vaccination, without clinical symptoms, is not currently classified as a vaccine breakthrough, he said, because the currently licensed COVID-19 vaccines were designed to prevent disease from SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Moreover, by comparing the proportion of fully vaccinated individuals in symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection cases with the proportion of fully vaccinated individuals in the population, the effectiveness of vaccination could be roughly estimated: Vaccine effectiveness was calculated on a week-by-week basis, and the median was calculated from the weekly individual values.
For the period February 1 to August 17, vaccine effectiveness for the 40-59 age group was 90.56 percent (IQR: 85.65 percent – 92.14 percent) and for those ≥60 years of age was 90.79 percent (IQR: 87.19 percent – 92.10 percent). Vaccine effectiveness for the <40 years age group is not currently reported due to the unreliability of the estimate, attributed to the still too low proportion of fully vaccinated in this age group.
A vaccine effectiveness of 91 percent means that of 100 fully vaccinated persons, 91 were protected from symptomatic SARS-CoV2 infection. Data from other countries and studies also show that these illnesses are largely mild in fully vaccinated individuals, and hospitalizations and deaths could be avoided 5
Such vaccine breakthroughs occur particularly in persons with pre-existing conditions or compromised immune systems, in whom vaccination was unable to provide immune protection.
The figures would clearly show the high effectiveness of vaccination: According to calculations by Gesundheit Österreich GmbH (GÖG), 5,790 hospitalizations, 2,278 stays in intensive care units and 2,177 deaths were avoided throughout Austria in the months February to July 2021.
- source: APA/picture: pixabay.com
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