Vaccines Stop COVID-19 Infection, But Here ’s Why You Still Need to Wear a Mask

In a report published today in the MMWR, scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) report more good news from real-world studies of people who have been vaccinated against COVID-19. In the study involving 3,950 health care workers, first responders and other essential workers who were vaccinated between December 2020 and March 2021, the researchers found that the two-dose vaccines are 90% effective in protecting people from getting infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind COVID-19. A single dose of the shot provided 80% protection from infection. The people in the study were vaccinated with one of the first two authorized shots, from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, which both require two doses and rely on mRNA technology. In the studies that both companies provided to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to earn emergency use authorization, the shots were 94% to 95% efficacious in protecting people from getting sick with COVID-19. What the studies didn’t show was whether vaccinated people were also protected from getting infected with the virus in the first place. These new, real-world findings show that the vaccines also protect against infection itself, a critical extra layer of protection, since anyone who is infected can spread the disease to others, even if they don’t experience any symptoms themselves. In the MMWR study, CDC scientists found that two weeks after getting both doses, people in the trial were nearly fully protected against getti...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 Source Type: news