Trust the Vaccines: Latest Update

Based on data from United Kingdom, the COVID-19 vaccines are effective.

Dr Saiful Safuan Md Sani https://saifulsafuan.com (Clinical Research Centre & Department of Medicine Hospital Kuala Lumpur)https://aaims.co
2021-08-10

Table of Contents


Do the vaccines work? UK’s population received the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines. Have they shown any significant effectiveness before reaching the herd immunity level of 80%? NB This update followed changes in UK’s data.

At Least One Dose

On June 9, 2021, UK surpassed 60% of its population vaccinated with at least one dose of a vaccine.

Figure 1: Click on the chart to engage its interactive mode. Hover cursor along the scatterplot below to search for the date.

Full vaccination

Also, on June 4, 2021, 40% of the UK’s population have been fully vaccinated.

Figure 2: Click on the chart to engage its interactive mode. Hover cursor along the scatterplot below to search for the date.

New cases

First lockdown was July 4 - August 3, 2020, second lockdown was December 2-15, 2020, and third lockdown was January 6 - March 8, 2021. As the third lockdown restrictions have been eased over 4 stages, new cases rise again despite the vaccinated proportions achieved.

Figure 3: Click on the chart to engage its interactive mode. Hover cursor along the scatterplot below to search for the date.

Case Hospitalisation Rate

However, since June 6, 2021, hospitalisations have gone down towards very low levels, circa 2.55% of cases.

Figure 4: Click on the chart to engage its interactive mode. Hover cursor along the scatterplot below to search for the date.

Case Fatality Rate

Also, on June 9, 2021, the case fatality rate has gone down to 0.08%.

Figure 5: Click on the chart to engage its interactive mode. Hover cursor along the scatterplot below to search for the date.

The Delta

Cases of the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 in the UK rose by 54,268 on the previous week to a total of 216,249, new data showed.

Conclusion

The vaccines have effectively reduced two crucial clinical parameters: deaths and hospitalisations due to COVID-19, even amidst the high and rising proportion of the circulating Delta variant. This effectiveness occurs early at 60% of the population having received at least one dose and 40% fully vaccinated.


Source of data:
Hannah Ritchie, Esteban Ortiz-Ospina, Diana Beltekian, Edouard Mathieu, Joe Hasell, Bobbie Macdonald, Charlie Giattino, Cameron Appel, Lucas Rodés-Guirao and Max Roser (2020) - “Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19)”. Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: ‘https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus’ [Online Resource]
References
Definition of waves of COVID-19 by the Office of National Statistics