As the SARS-CoV2 virus continues to mutate, clinicians and scientists are able to collect real-time data on the effectiveness of the various vaccines against the different strains in relationship to death caused by the virus.
One of the latest strains to be of concern is the delta strain (B.1.617.2) of the virus.
Scientists conducted a cohort study in Scotland to estimate the vaccine effectiveness against death caused by the delta strain of the SARS-CoV2 virus.
The cohort study looked at data collected between April 1 and August 16 of 2021. This four and half month period, is also the period when both the Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca vaccines became available for all adults over the age of 18.
Since not everyone would have gotten the vaccine, the scientists divided people into either the ‘vaccinated’ group or the ‘unvaccinated’ group.
For the ‘vaccinated’ group, they were further divided into groups for the different vaccines, and then the number of doses received (one, both [but contracted the virus within two weeks of second shot], or both [contracted virus after two weeks of second shot]).
They looked at the data collected on 1,563,818 individuals, and of those—114,706 tested positive for the virus between April 1 and August 16, and 201 deaths occurred within those 114,706 individuals.
Dividing those individuals into various categories, they showed that within the younger age group (18 to 39), among those who were fully vaccinated against the virus—there were no deaths. In the next age bracket, there was a slight increased risk of death due to the virus even in those who were fully vaccinated.
According to the study, both vaccines (Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca) offered substantial protection against death caused by the delta variant of the SARS-CoV2 virus, regardless of how old a person was.
Reference: Sheikh A, Robertson C, Taylor B. BNT162b2 and ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 Vaccine Effectiveness against Death from the Delta Variant. N Engl J Med. 2021 Oct 20:NEJMc2113864. doi: 10.1056/NEJMc2113864. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34670038; PMCID: PMC8552534.
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