One piece of information drives out the other. While all eyes are now on Omicron, which is about to take over Delta, we would tend to forget that before this 5th wave of Covid-19, another ruined the summer of thousands of caregivers and citizens struck down by disease. But who were these people who spent the summer in the hospital? This is the question that Dr. Matteo Vassallo, head of the infectiology department at Cannes hospital, wanted to answer.
“15% of patients had a complete vaccination schedule”
For this, he went through all the data concerning patients hospitalized between July and September 2021. “The cases of contamination despite vaccination have been numerous with the Delta variant. Also, it seemed important to us to define the prevalence of hospitalizations for Covid despite complete vaccination, and to describe the clinical characteristics of these patients. Aged on average 64 years, the approximately 130 patients treated (in critical care and in medical services) during this period were for the very large majority not vaccinated or, for a minority, partially (a single dose). “Only 15% of patients had a complete vaccination schedule, i.e. two doses at that time (the Covid-19 vaccine recall campaign started on September 1, 2021, Editor’s note). They had received the 2nd injection about four months earlier.”
20 years between vaccinated and unvaccinated
What immediately struck the infectious disease specialist when analyzing the data was the age difference between the two groups of patients, vaccinated and unvaccinated. “The former were on average 20 years older than the latter: 80 versus 60.” Another striking fact: the existence of comorbidities. “They were much more important among the group of vaccinated patients: severe hypertension, diabetes…”
Despite this age difference and these major risk factors, the rate of resuscitation and death was identical in the two groups. “Even elderly and very comorbid, the vaccinated patients seemed to resist well: their lung damage was around 30%, compared to 50 to 75% usually for the most severe forms. It appears very clearly that the vaccine, it does not offer 100% protection against serious forms, in particular for the most fragile patients, but nevertheless reduces the risk of going into sheaves and of death.” The fact remains that three deaths were unfortunately recorded among these 21 vaccinated patients. “For one of them, suffering from leukemia, death was linked to a worsening of this disease. For the other two, it is attributable to Covid.”
No deaths with Pfizer or Moderna
If the number is too small to draw definitive conclusions, the doctor specifies “that no death was recorded among patients who received an mRNA vaccine (Pfizer or Moderna)”.
The doctor nevertheless wants to be reassuring with regard to people who have been vaccinated with AstraZeneca or Johnson and Johnson: “In France, boosters were systematically made with an RNA vaccine; however, it has been shown that a heterologous vaccination (combination of viral vector vaccines and mRNA vaccines, editor’s note) achieves an even higher sustained immune response.”