Doubting vaccine efficacy is like 'betting against the house,' emergency physician warns
While recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) studies show COVID-19 vaccines are less protective against the Delta variant, it’s still more important than ever to get the shot to protect against severe symptoms and hospitalization, according to Dr. Calvin Sun, an emergency medicine attending physician.
“If you want to question [the efficacy of vaccines], you’re betting against the house,” Sun, who is also the founder of travel site The Monsoon Diaries, told Yahoo Finance Live. “You can double down all you want, but you might lose everything.”
“It's like reading that somebody who was wearing a seatbelt died in a car accident, or somebody wearing a bulletproof vest got shot and had to go to the hospital and died. Does that mean I stop putting on a seat belt? That I start questioning the efficacy of bulletproof vests?” Sun said. “The vaccines are designed to lower the chance [of death] and severe symptoms, not infections. Seatbelts lower the chance of death when you get in a car accident. Bulletproof vests lower the chances [of] death.”
A study released this week from the CDC supports the urgent call to get more Americans vaccinated, showing unvaccinated individuals are at greater risk of being hospitalized or having severe symptoms related to the virus. Between May and July, unvaccinated residents in Los Angeles County accounted for nearly three-quarters of all COVID-19 infections and were about 29 times more likely to be hospitalized from COVID-19 than those who were vaccinated.
“We know 99% of people who have died in the last couple of months [from COVID-19] are unvaccinated,” Sun said. “It comes to the game of life... The overwhelming evidence shows that [vaccines are] actually doing their job — lowering your chances of death, severe symptoms and hospitalizations.”
While vaccination rates have been rising in recent weeks, it’s still below the level health professionals hoped to reach by the end of summer. About 171 million people, or 60% of the U.S. population 12 years and older are fully vaccinated, while 71% have received at least one dose.
And we have to remember not every American is eligible for a vaccine. At this time, children under the age of 12 can't get a shot, leaving millions of children at risk.
Just how long until COVID-19 is under control in the U.S. is uncertain. Sun says it depends on how many people get vaccinated and in turn reduce the chances of developing another dangerous variant.
“We need to get as many [people] vaccinated as quickly as possible,” Sun added. “It reduces the chance of another variant being created in an immunocompromised unvaccinated patient, so that we don't have to deal with this again or in the future. [The timing of getting COVID-19] under control really depends.”
Seana Smith anchors Yahoo Finance Live’s 3-5 p.m. ET program. Follow her on Twitter @SeanaNSmith
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