No vaccinated physician who contracted COVID-19 was hospitalized or died.
Infections among health care workers who are fully vaccinated for COVID-19 are extremely rare, according to a new study.
The researchers looked at data from employees’ medical records of more than 36,600 California workers and found that less than 1% tested positive for COVID-19 after full vaccination – both doses plus two weeks for building immunity. – with Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.
While anecdotal reports of individual physicians receiving COVID-19 after receiving one or both doses of the vaccine have recently been treated in the news, the study provides a more comprehensive look at the frequency of these post-vaccination infections in fully vaccinated individuals.
“This study confirms that vaccines are extremely effective in preventing COVID-19,” the study’s authors, Dr. Shira Abeles and Dr. Francesca Torriani, told ABC News.
“It also serves as a reminder that vaccines are not 100% effective and there are cases of ‘discovery,'” the doctors added, noting that public health measures must remain in place to protect against stray cases.
They also showed reason for optimism. “The vaccines have shown strong effectiveness during a wave of cases in Southern California, which is great news for all of us,” said Abeles and Torriani, both of whom work at UC San Diego Health.
The study period lasted from December 16, 2020, when the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) began their vaccination programs, until February 9, 2021.
After complete vaccination, the risk of testing positive for the virus was 1.19% among UCSD employees and 0.97% among UCLA employees.
The research also showed that the more health workers were in the vaccination process, the better the vaccine worked.
Of the 36,659 vaccinated workers, 379 tested positive after the first dose of vaccine, with most testing positive within two weeks of the first shot. After receiving both doses of the two-shot vaccine, 37 people tested positive, most testing positive less than a week after the second dose. Only seven health workers tested positive 15 days or more after the second vaccination.
No vaccinated worker who contracted COVID-19 was hospitalized or died, and those who became ill did not appear to have any milder symptoms than those who were not vaccinated, according to the researchers.
“We hope this will help increase confidence in the vaccine,” Abeles and Torriani said.
Research has been limited. Healthcare workers who tested positive after a single dose may have been exposed to the virus before vaccination. It is also not known what variants of the virus were circulating during the study period. The research was published in a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine on Tuesday.