Not Fully Vaccinated? Infection 3 Times Lower In People With Complete Doses, Reveals Latest Study

Those who have got two complete doses were found to be half as likely to test positive for Covid-19, adjusting for other factors such as age, whether or not the people tested had symptoms

If you are not fully vaccinated, then it’s time to get vaccinated because the latest research suggests people with complete doses were found to have around 50 to 60 percent reduced risk of infection from the Delta coronavirus variant, including those who are asymptomatic.

What are the latest findings?

Those who have got two complete doses were found to be half as likely to test positive for Covid-19, adjusting for other factors such as age, whether or not the people tested had symptoms, according to the Imperial College London researchers.

In fact, effectiveness rose to around 59 percent among those who had Covid-19 symptoms, according to the study. The study took into account the time period when the Delta variant completely took hold over the previously dominant Alpha variant.

"We're looking at effectiveness against infection amongst a random sample of the general population, which includes asymptomatic individuals," said Imperial epidemiologist Paul Elliot, who has been leading the study. Elliot added that even those who had symptoms in the study might not have got a test otherwise.

Public Health England has indicated that Delta carries a higher risk of hospitalisation, though vaccines offer good protection against severe disease.

According to researchers, overall, the prevalence in unvaccinated people was 1.21 percent, three times higher than the 0.40 percent prevalence in fully vaccinated people, and that the viral load among people with Covid was also lower in vaccinated people.

Impact on young people

In their presentation about the latest findings of Imperial's REACT-1 prevalence survey, the researchers found a fourfold increase in infections in a month which reached 1 in 160 people in England. The latest survey, conducted between June 24 and July 12, covers the time ahead of a peak in daily reported infections on July 17 and found that the rise was fuelled by the spread in younger people.

Imperial professor Steven Riley noted that 5- to 24-year-olds attributed to 50 percent of all infections, even though they are only 25 percent of the population.

Since schools will remain closed for the summer holidays, cases have fallen from that peak even as coronavirus restrictions came to end on July 19.

"We've shown that prior to the recent dip, young people were driving the infections," said Riley, according to Reuters. "These data support the idea that there is uncertainty about what might happen in September when schools return and we have increased indoor mixing, because of the patterns of infection that we saw driving the growth."