Medical Minute: What are the chances you’ll get COVID after being fully vaccinated?
The good news is COVID hospitalizations are down across our region. But so are vaccination rates. None of us want another uptick in cases, or for the variants to gain a foothold here. In this Beacon Medical Minute, Dr. Dale Patterson, Vice President of Medical Affairs at Memorial Hospital of South Bend, shares information about vaccine efficacy and the benefits of being fully vaccinated if you do get exposed to the virus.
What are the chances you could get COVID after being fully vaccinated?
We’ve known for quite some time that COVID vaccines are highly effective. We now know that they are 91 percent effective at preventing infection two weeks after completing the two-dose series. What this means is a lot of people won’t get COVID after having the vaccine even if they’re exposed.
There is a chance that you can still be infected after getting the vaccine, but if this happens you’re much less likely to have symptoms. And if you do develop symptoms, they’re usually milder and last for a shorter amount of time.
We’ve known for quite some time that the vaccines are really effective at preventing hospitalization and death from COVID. Very rarely do we see patients in the hospital or dying from COVID who have been fully vaccinated.
If you haven’t been vaccinated yet now is a great time to do that anyone 12 and older is eligible for the vaccine and you should sign up as soon as possible to protect yourself and to decrease the spread to others.
