Posted on 11/30/2021 8:01:30 AM PST by Red Badger
Study in Science of more than 780,000 Veterans is the first to compare waning protection rates across all three vaccine types available to most Americans and to directly report death rates after breakthrough infection.
A new study in the leading journal Science reviewed COVID-19 breakthrough infections among 780,225 Veterans, finding that vaccine protection declined from 87.9% to 48.1% during the 2021 Delta surge in the U.S. The researchers from PHI, the Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the University of Texas Health Science Center found a dramatic decline in effectiveness for the Janssen (Johnson and Johnson) vaccine, from 86.4% in March to 13%.1 in September. They also found that vaccination of any type was protective against death among infected individuals.
As COVID-19 breakthrough infections continue to emerge in some vaccine recipients and health authorities are developing policies around booster vaccinations, national data on COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough infections is inadequate but urgently needed. Now a study from the Public Health Institute, the Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the University of Texas Health Science Center published today in the journal Science analyzed COVID infection by vaccination status among 780,225 Veterans.
Researchers found that protection against any COVID-19 infection declined for all vaccine types, with overall vaccine protection declining from 87.9% in February to 48.1% by October 2021.
*The decline was greatest for the Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) vaccine, with protection against infection declining from 86.4% in March to 13%.1 in September
*Declines for PfizerBioNTech were from 86.9% to 43.3%
*Declines for Moderna were 89.2% to 58%.
Credit: Public Health Institute
While most previous studies have focused on the PfizerBioNTech or Moderna vaccines, the Science study is the first to compare protection declines across the three main vaccine types, and the first to show the comparably dramatic decline in effectiveness for the Janssen vaccine. Declines were assessed over the period February 1, 2021 to October 1, 2021, reflecting the emergence and dominance of the Delta variant in the U.S. Patterns of breakthrough infection over time were consistent by age, despite rolling vaccine eligibility, implicating the Delta variant as the primary determinant of infection.
Importantly, vaccination of any type was protective against death among individuals who did become infected. The relative benefit of vaccination for protection against death was greater for persons under 65 but was also very strong for persons over 65.
The study showed that the risk of death from COVID infection was highest in unvaccinated Veterans, regardless of age and comorbidities. While some breakthrough infections resulted in death, vaccination remained protective against death in those who became infected during the Delta surge.
For those under 65 years old, vaccines overall were 81.7% effective against death.
*Protection against death was greatest for the Pfizer vaccine, at 84.3%.
*Moderna was the next most effective, at 81.5%.
*Jansen was 73% effective.
For those 65 and over, overall vaccine effectiveness against death was 71.6%.
*Moderna was 75.5% effective.
*Pfizer was 70.1% effective.
*Jansen was 52.2% effective.
“Our study gives researchers, policymakers, and others a strong basis for comparing the long-term effectiveness of COVID vaccines, and a lens for making informed decisions around primary vaccination, booster shots, and other multiple layers of protection, including masking mandates, social distancing, testing and other public health interventions to reduce chance of spread,” said Dr. Barbara Cohn of PHI, the lead author of the study. “For example, the CDC recommendation for boosters for all Janssen recipients over 18 is supported by our results. And, given the declines in vaccine protection and the dominance of the more infective Delta variant, we urge swift action to promote primary vaccination, boosters and to also encourage masking, social distancing and other layers of protection against infection. This is supported by our finding that breakthrough infections are not benign, but also by the strong evidence that vaccination still protects against death even for persons with breakthrough infections, compared to persons who become infected and are not vaccinated.”
The FDA authorized Pfizer boosters for some groups in September and Moderna and Janssen boosters in October, and the CDC has made similar recommendations, including supporting a “mix and match” approach that allows people to choose any of the three vaccine boosters regardless of which they were given initially.
Reference: “SARS-CoV-2 vaccine protection and deaths among US veterans during 2021” by Barbara A. Cohn, Piera M. Cirillo, Caitlin C. Murphy, Nickilou Y. Krigbaum and Arthur W. Wallace, 4 November 2021, Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.abm0620
PING!.....................
I saw this a month or so ago.
“For those 65 and over, overall vaccine effectiveness against death was 71.6%.”
How about preventing infection, which is what real vaccines do?
They call it a “decline in effectiveness” or “waning effectiveness” but it appears more likely that at best it missed the Delta variant, at worst it caused the Delta variant as well as problems with recipients’ immune systems that make them vulnerable to new infections.
Study should have included natural immunity numbers as well as a base line.
These curves describe precisely the clinical outcomes seen over the past several months.
July - mild breakthroughs
August - some more serious breakthroughs
September - hospitalizations ticking up
October - ICU/ventilator use rising
November - deaths beginning
So, the experiment of two doses of an mRNA vaccine 21 or 28 days apart, or one dose of J&J, as an adequate or completed primary series is over. It never should have been described as such.
The 15X-50X rise in antibodies after a third dose suggests, but does not prove, that a third dose will complete an adequate primary series. Lots of vaccines need three doses distributed over 6-12 months to induce long-lasting immunity.
When I advise unvaccinated adults who want vaccination now, I suggest 0, 2 and 6 months with an mRNA vaccine, I don’t recommend J&J at present.
Here’s why the vaxxes don’t work:
The mRNA essentially ‘teaches’ the body’s cell to make the spike proteins.
At first, if it doesn’t kill you from blood clots, they cause an immune response, sometimes severe with aches and pains and inflammation, like regular flu.
After a few weeks, the original mRNA ‘infected’ cells begins to die off, the immune system starts to ‘recognize’ the particles as ‘part of the body’ and begins to ignore them, thus the need for a ‘booster’. So the cycle starts all over.
By this time the virus has mutated to produce a different spike protein and the ‘vax’ is now useless................
Plus, The tests aren’t so much ‘flawed’ as they are mostly inadequate. They cannot really differentiate between a regular flu or cold virus and the CoVid-19 virus since they are all p art of the same ‘family’ of viruses. To test for actual CoVid-19 all by itself requires more expensive testing equipment and methods....................
I got the J and J in March and don’t wear a mask and am just living my life. I do wash my hands more often. I’m also outdoors a lot here in CA. I still have not been sick at all from anything since Feb 2020.
I imagine I may get covid eventually as I suppose we all will, but I also take melatonin every day and I just read that reduces the risk of getting covid by 58%.
Perhaps the effectiveness of melatonin offset my J and J’s ineffectiveness. If anything should be mandated, maybe melatonin! (Or a mandate to lose weight.)
Ons smallpox shot protects you for life. Same same other vaxes. Yet these covid concoctions are pathetically worthless.
Nuremberg City time.
Me too.
Washing hands probably helps stop colds, flu, Covid more than anything.
“...vaccine effectiveness against death was 71.6%.”
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If it does no provide 100% immunity from the disease then it is NOT a vaccine. End of discussion.
I think drinking a quart of Jack Danials every day would stop Covid in its tracks. The trick here is few would ever be sober enough to leave home so they would be avoiding everyone else.
What is the melatonin dosage that you take?
“The study showed that the risk of death from COVID infection was highest in unvaccinated Veterans, regardless of age and comorbidities.”
Veterans?!? Why would that make a difference pathologically?
Unless they are really talking about active-duty military, who probably are the least likely to be able to acquire the effective early treatment drugs that the government is purposefully withholding from the public.
False.
Speaking of real vaccines, I wonder what happened to the new traditionally made vaccines that were due to come out by the end of this year.?? I certainly would take one of those...
That's a different study, but one that I really wish more people would look at. They don't seem to WANT to know that critical question.
The samples were from the VA network. That’s why the “veterans” quote. The VA network tracks veterans under their care regardless of relocation. Civilian hospitals might not tracks someone who moves to a different state.
VA studies from day 1 of Covid have been superb.
Actually, it is unlikely that the smallpox vaccine protects for a lifetime. There has been concern over a smallpox bio-attack for that very reason.
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