An elderly person is vaccinated in Texas on March 26. – Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times / Shutterstock / SIPA
It was a dreaded scenario. Covid-19 cases exploded in March at a nursing home in the United States whose residents were more than 90% vaccinated, following the introduction of a variant by an unvaccinated member of staff, revealed a study by the main US public health agency released Wednesday.
The virus then spread in this establishment in Kentucky, infecting 44 people, including 24 residents and 20 nursing staff, including 18 and 4, respectively, had yet received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine, according to this study of the Centers for Prevention and disease control (CDC).
The limits of the vaccine strategy alone
This work therefore shows the limits of vaccination as the only strategy to fight Covid-19, in particular against its variants. Although “essential”, it must be accompanied by “continuous attention to infection prevention and control practices”, stress its authors, who cite hand washing, continuous screening to identify cases, ‘isolation of infected people and quarantine of contact cases, “regardless of vaccination”. The study also offers an edifying comparison of the vulnerability of infected people, depending on whether or not they are vaccinated.
Among infected residents, for example, only a third of those vaccinated suffered symptoms, compared to 83% of the unvaccinated. And only 11% of the vaccinated had to be hospitalized when this was the case for two thirds of the unvaccinated. Finally, only one in 18 vaccinated residents succumbed to the virus. Among the unvaccinated, 6 in number, two lost their lives.
“To protect residents of nursing homes, it is imperative that nursing staff, as well as residents, be vaccinated”, therefore emphasize the authors of the study.