US welcomes early signs of vaccine success even as cases stagnate

The U.S. health authorities on Wednesday welcomed the drop in emergency hospitalization rates among the elderly and the decline in infected health workers as the first signs of the success of the COVID vaccination campaign.

“We now see a significant decrease in emergency department visits among people 65 and older as that age group has been vaccinated,” said Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ).

According to the latest figures, 502 people over the age of 65 were hospitalized with Covid in the week ending March 13, compared with 3,384 in the week ending January 9, a decrease of about 85 percent.

More than 38 million people in this age group, or 70 percent, have received at least one dose of the Covid vaccine, while 43 percent are fully vaccinated.

The United States currently administers about 2.5 million injections per day.

Meanwhile, Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s senior adviser on the pandemic, presented real-world research on the impact of vaccines that was published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine.

One study focused on 23,234 employees at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center who were eligible to receive the vaccine from December 15, 2020, through January 28, 2021.

The data showed that 234 of the 8,969 employees who were not vaccinated became infected, or 2.61 percent.

Among those partially vaccinated, the figure was 112 out of 6,144, 1.82 percent. And among those fully vaccinated, four of 8,121 were infected, or 0.05 percent.

“These findings should be a jolt of hope for all of us and serve as a catalyst for everyone to roll up their sleeves when the vaccine becomes available,” Walensky said.

When asked if the country was finally turning a corner in its pandemic, Fauci remained cautious.

“My answer is really more like we’re in the corner, it remains to be seen whether or not we’re going to turn that corner,” he said.

The positive news was partially offset by the plateau in the infection rate nationwide, which remains high at about 55,000 new cases per day.

Most of these involve younger people who are not yet vaccinated, as states continue to loosen coronavirus restrictions and as variants of the virus become established, including the UK variant and a newer one that has emerged in the northeast.

“When you’re at that level, I don’t think you can declare victory and say you’ve turned the corner,” Fauci concluded.