Fully vaccinated Americans have less than a 1 in 13,000 chance of a severe case of COVID-19

It’s incredibly rare for fully vaccinated Americans to contract a severe case of COVID-19 and die from the disease, new federal figures show.

Americans who received two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine or one injection of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine have less one in 13,000 chance of a severe case of breakthrough, according to a DailyMail.com analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

More than 99% of hospitalizations and deaths from Covid in the United States since January 2021 have occurred in unvaccinated people.

Patients who require hospital care because of a breakthrough case are likely to be older or have underlying medical conditions, CDC data suggests.

The data shows how well vaccines continue to work, even against the Delta variant, in preventing serious illness.

More than 177 million Americans have been fully immunized as of September 9.

That number includes about 63 percent of all eligible Americans (over 12), 65 percent of adults, and 82 percent of seniors.

The Pfizer, Moderna, and J&J vaccines have all been shown to be incredibly effective in protecting against severe Covid disease, both in clinical trials and in the real world.

As a result, the vast majority of Covid patients filling emergency rooms and intensive care units across the country are not vaccinated.

New data from the CDC bolsters the incredible ability of vaccines to protect against severe cases of Covid.

As of August 30, a total of 12,908 Americans have been hospitalized or died from Covid after being fully immunized.

About 173 million Americans had been fully immunized by that date, meaning the risk of a severe case of rupture is less than one in 13,000.

Of those with severe breakthrough cases, 10,471 had been hospitalized – although about 2,400 of those hospitalizations were asymptomatic or unrelated to Covid.

Likewise, 2,437 Americans have died after contracting a breakthrough infection – but about 500 of those deaths were asymptomatic or not directly caused by COVID-19.

In total, about 1.7 million Americans have been hospitalized with the virus since Jan. 1, 2021 and 281,000 have died, according to federal data.

This means that, for both hospitalizations and deaths, more than 99% of people affected by COVID-19 in 2021 have not been vaccinated.

A preprint study by CDC researchers, shared online Aug.31, suggests that these severe cases of breakthrough tend to occur in older people.

CDC researchers used data from COVID-NET, the agency’s hospitalization monitoring network.

This data set included Covid hospitalizations in 99 counties in 14 states, covering about ten percent of the U.S. population.

From January 1 to June 30, 2021, 87.6% of Covid patients hospitalized in this dataset were fully unvaccinated while 9.4% were partially vaccinated.

Only three percent of patients were fully immunized.

Among older patients (over 65), a greater proportion of hospitalized patients were fully vaccinated: 32%.

The median age of these breakthrough patients was 73 years, compared with a median age of 59 years for unvaccinated patients.

Patients in the breakthrough cases were also likely to have weakened immune systems – due to organ transplants or cancer.

These vaccinated patients were likely to have at least three underlying medical conditions, such as obesity, gastrointestinal illnesses and neurological conditions.

While vaccinated and unvaccinated patients had similar probabilities of requiring intensive care, vaccinated patients tended to have shorter hospital stays – reflecting the increased ability of their immune system to fight off the virus.

This CDC data demonstrates how vaccines protect against severe cases of Covid.

It’s important to note, however, that breakthrough cases became more common during the Delta variant wave.

Although the risk of a serious case has not increased noticeably, Americans are now more likely to get a mild or asymptomatic breakthrough infection.

But when the majority of people in a community are vaccinated, it is more difficult for the virus to spread – both reducing the number of cases and easing the burden that Covid patients place on local hospitals.

For states and counties with lower vaccination rates, the consequences for hospitals have been dire.

In Idaho, for example, the state’s public health agency instituted “crisis standards of care” for some struggling rural hospitals with limited staff and medical equipment.

“Crisis Care Standards” allow these hospitals to prioritize patients who are most likely to survive, while providing less care to others.

In addition, vaccination protects people who are not yet able to get vaccinated.

The majority of Covid cases in children currently occur in states with lower vaccination rates – where parents pass the infection on to their children.