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SARASOTA, Florida – The Sarasota Memorial Hospital reported a recent increase in the number of vaccinated people requiring hospitalization with serious illness due to COVID-19, but public health experts add context to the increase.
The vast majority of people SMH doctors currently treat have not received the vaccine, but doctors said they understand the concerns and questions people may have about how long a vaccine is protected.
Every Monday since August 16, SMH has shared a breakdown of who is in the hospital with COVID-19 and vaccination status.
A big change has occurred for people who were vaccinated from last week to this week, where doctors went from 28 people vaccinated out of 274 COVID patients in total to 47 people vaccinated out of 277 hospitalized COVID patients.
Last week there was also one in 48 people vaccinated in intensive care and one in 36 people vaccinated on a ventilator, and this week that number has increased to seven out of 68 people in intensive care and five vaccinated on 50 people total on a fan.
Sarasota Memorial infectious disease specialist Dr Manuel Gordillo explained what the numbers mean in a Facebook post on Monday.
He said: “Just looking at the raw numbers without considering the underlying vaccination rates can give you the wrong impression. “
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In part of his social media explained, Dr Gordillo said six of the seven people vaccinated in intensive care were over 65, three of them were at health risk and three others were immunocompromised.
He also said: “of the seven cases, there were two [where] COVID played a role as a contributor to their hospitalization, but they both had other major issues that led to the intensive care admission. “
USF Health epidemiologist Dr Thomas Unnasch explained why this matters.
“So most of the people who get really sick were vaccinated, but they never responded to the vaccine. So they were organ transplant patients, who are really sad, or patients with self-disease. immune, ”Unnasch said. “You have to look for antibodies in their serum. They don’t have antibodies, so they’re not vaccinated. They just never responded.”
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Public health experts have said there is a greater risk of major infections now that more people are vaccinated; however, they say they don’t think it’s a hit on the spot. Doctors have pointed out that all three vaccines protect very well against serious illness and death compared to when you are not vaccinated, and Dr Gordillo shared online that the SMH charts show you that your protection is really strong. with vaccines.
“The chances of you ending up in the hospital once vaccinated are considerably lower than they would be if you had been infected and weren’t vaccinated,” Unnasch said.
Doctors have said they don’t want people ending up in hospital with COVID-19, so vaccines are important in preventing this. Doctors said eligible people who are immunocompromised should receive a third dose to protect them.
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