Individuals who are fully vaccinated are 16 times less likely to end up in intensive care or die from Covid-19 than those who aren't, reported an Australian government study.
According to data compiled by health authorities in New South Wales, Australia's most populous state, nearly 16 out of 100,000 people who had not yet received a Covid vaccine ended
up in intensive care or died after contracting the virus, compared to fewer than one out of every 100,000 who were fully vaccinated.
The country has developed a highly potent mRNA vaccine in collaboration with Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE. A similar vaccine has been developed from Moderna Inc. along with another viral
vector shot from the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca Plc.
Meanwhile, data from Texas revealed that unvaccinated people were 20 times more likely to die from the virus than those who were fully protected. The data came from a four-week in-state
study. According to the study, the risk of death was 48 times higher for unvaccinated people in their 30s and 63 times higher for those in their 40s.
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Data from New South Wales also revealed that vaccination reduced the risk of infection by more than tenfold when compared to those who were unvaccinated in the two weeks leading up to
September 7. Shots appeared to be more effective in teenagers than in older people.
Such study results will certainly strengthen the case for countries to treat Covid as endemic, causing mostly mild illness among the vaccinated. Mass vaccination reduces the strain Covid places on local healthcare systems, preventing overcrowding in hospitals and rising demand for intensive care and ventilation, all of which were hallmarks of the crisis in many countries during the early stages of the pandemic.