This Fully Vaccinated Group Is More Likely To Be Hospitalized For COVID-19

Even among the fully vaccinated population, there are still certain people more likely to become hospitalized compared to the rest of the group amid the pandemic.

There was a sixfold difference between the rates of hospitalization for people older than 65 who were fully vaccinated and those who received a booster shot following their initial series of jabs, infectious disease specialist Dr. Greg Schrank said in a report by Washington, D.C.-based station WTOP Radio.

The difference was the result of mutations within the coronavirus developing an "immune evasion" and antibodies waning over time following the initial jabs of the COVID-19 vaccines, according to Schrank, who is associated with the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

"And with the combination of those two, plus a more vulnerable person, whether it be age or comorbidity, that’s really where we’re seeing these severe outcomes play out," the doctor explained.

Fully vaccinated individuals who received their booster shots "had lower case rates compared with those without an additional or booster dose," the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.

People aged 65 and above, specifically, saw a "larger overall benefit from receiving an additional or booster dose" compared with those between the ages of 50 and 64 years old, according to the agency.

However, the agency noted that both fully vaccinated people and those who received a booster “had [a] much lower risk of testing positive for COVID-19 and a lower risk of dying from COVID-19 compared with people who were unvaccinated."

Schrank, for his part, also said that "regardless of your age, gender, underlying comorbidity, it really is vaccination status that's the greatest predictor of your outcome."

Around 94,640 unvaccinated people died in the United States between April 4 and Dec. 25 last year compared to the 22,567 virus-related deaths among fully vaccinated people in the same period, according to a CDC report published last week.

"[The] COVID-19 vaccines reduced risks for SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19–associated death during periods of delta variant predominance and infection risk during omicron variant emergence," the report concluded.

Overall, the U.S. has reported a total of 75,012,446 coronavirus cases and 884,853 deaths, data provided by the CDC showed.