FiveThirtyEight1
Since before the vaccines were even available, experts have warned that they wouldn’t be 100 percent effective at preventing infection. Luckily, the vaccines that we ended up with were actually much more effective than what early predictions suggested — Moderna and Pfizer are both better than 90 percent, and Johnson & Johnson is around 72 percent effective against the original strain of COVID-19 in the U.S. — but since they aren’t 100 percent, that means some vaccinated people can still get COVID-19. Early studies show the vaccines are less effective against the delta variant, with both Pfizer and Moderna around 90 percent effective against infection, and J&J up to 71 percent effective against hospitalization. And we’re seeing more breakthrough infections as the delta variant spreads.
Nevertheless, study after study shows that your risk of getting COVID-19 is much lower if you’re vaccinated than if you’re unvaccinated. In a study published last week that followed over 98,000 people in England from late-June to mid-July, vaccinated individuals were three times less likely to contract COVID-19 than unvaccinated individuals, even as the delta variant dominated cases. In fact, even if you do get infected after vaccination, your risks of getting seriously ill, needing to go in the hospital, needing to go in the intensive care unit or dying are reduced even further. Vaccinated Americans have accounted for less than 0.06 percent of hospitalizations, according to a review from the Kaiser Family Foundation, which looked at states that report breakthrough cases. Of the more than 166 million Americans who have been vaccinated, 1,507 have died after contracting COVID-19 — a rate of 0.0009 percent.
- Rogers, Kaleigh. “Still Unsure about Getting the Covid-19 Vaccine? Start Here.” FiveThirtyEight. FiveThirtyEight, August 11, 2021. Accessed August 29, 2021. https://fivethirtyeight.com/.
