During the week of October 25-31, there were more people vaccinated among hospitalized Covid-19 patients than among the unvaccinated. Logical direction in light of the vaccination campaign.
It is this direction that, at first glance, can serve as an argument for opponents of vaccination. In the hospital, according to DREES, between October 25 and October 31, more vaccinated people were admitted than unvaccinated people. But in fact, these data do not show the ineffectiveness of vaccination, which is quite logical.
First, because it must be remembered that vaccination coverage is becoming increasingly important in France. Nine out of ten adults in the country today have a full vaccination schedule. Logically, this trend should continue: the more people vaccinated in the population, the more likely it is that the proportion of vaccinated patients will increase among those in the hospital.
9 times more admissions to critical care for unvaccinated people
If we look at the numbers of the Directorate of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics (DREES) during a specific period, between 25 and 31 October, the daily admission numbers actually show that more people are vaccinated than unvaccinated.
Vaccination accounts for 48% of admissions to conventional hospitals, against 44% unvaccinated. Same observation in intensive care, on October 31 (latest date of available data) 26 vaccinated people were admitted to the intensive care unit, versus 23 unvaccinated. But to understand the effectiveness of vaccination, we must read these numbers with comparable population sizes. as He does dress elsewhere.
For people over the age of 20, during October 25-31, the number of people admitted to critical care was 29 per million unvaccinated people, and 3 per million vaccinated. For a similar population size, there are approximately 9 times more people entering critical care on the unvaccinated side than on the vaccinated side. Still, according to DRESS, there are also 9 times more deaths in unvaccinated people than in fully vaccinated people, for a similar population size, between October 4 and 31.
Not complete protection
To see more clearly, we must also remember that the vaccine continues to protect against serious forms of the disease, but it is not ideal protection, between 90 and 95% efficacy depending on the vaccine, during the first months after the injection. If we take a purely theoretical position where 100% of the population is vaccinated, there will always be people who will get sick and be hospitalized.
In addition, immunity to the vaccine decreases over time. It may also explain that fully vaccinated people re-infect themselves, and have an increased risk of hospitalization. that is the reason Summon campaign launched by the government for over 65 years.
Last August, epidemiologist Mahmoud Zureik had already stated in columns Parisian That “within a few weeks, as – fortunately – vaccination coverage improves, the proportion of vaccinated patients should increase among those admitted to hospital.” So these predictions seem certain, and the epidemiologist explains that this “never means that vaccines are less effective.”