A variant of the coronavirus has spread to a nursing home in Kentucky, USA, even though the majority of residents and caregivers have already been vaccinated. One CDC report According to a non-vaccinated member of the staff introduced variant R.1. Around a quarter of the fully vaccinated residents became infected with the virus.
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What sounds alarming at first is actually good news. Because most of the home residents who tested positive did not develop any symptoms. According to the study, the vaccination prevented a severe course in around 87 percent of those infected.
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And that is exactly what the corona vaccines are supposed to do: prevent serious illnesses and deaths. But of course they should also help to stop the further spread of the pandemic, to do this they would also have to prevent the virus from being transmitted.
The manufacturer Biontech / Pfizer, for example, states that its vaccine stops virus transmission by 89.4 percent. Conversely, this means that a good ten percent of those vaccinated can still get infected and pass the virus on – presumably as unsuspecting asymptomatic carriers. The AstraZeneca vaccine is said to reduce the risk of transmission by around 67 percent.
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However, variants of the coronavirus are now spreading, which could undermine the protection of the vaccinations. Sufficiently reliable data are not yet available on which vaccines protect how well against the previously known corona variants. A study from Israel found, for example, that the Biontech / Pfizer vaccine protects less well against the variant B.1.351 that has emerged in South Africa.
The variant R.1 that has now appeared in the nursing home is still largely unknown in Europe. And the CDC has not yet listed it as one of the worrying variants. According to the authorities, R.1 has several mutations in the spike protein, including E484K, such as the variant B.1.1.7 currently circulating in many countries. This mutation could also make R.1 more contagious than the wild type. The infections in the nursing home could therefore be an indication that the corona vaccination is less effective against the mutation.
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More and more cases from practice
So far, the vaccines have mainly been tested in clinical trials with tens of thousands of participants. In the meantime, however, there are countries, institutions or population groups of which very large proportions have already been vaccinated (for example in Scotland). These case studies from practice help, among other things, to gain further knowledge regarding the effectiveness and safety of vaccines.
Like the outbreak at the Kentucky nursing home. In January and February, 83 residents and 116 employees were vaccinated with the drug from Biontech / Pfizer, writes the CDC. 75 residents and 61 nurses had already received a second dose more than two weeks before the outbreak at the beginning of March and thus had full vaccination protection. That corresponds to around 90 percent of all home residents and around 50 percent of employees.
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Corona tests have been carried out twice a week in the home since November. On March 1, the antigen test result of a symptomatic, unvaccinated employee was positive. A rapid test was then immediately carried out on all residents and employees and a sample was taken for a PCR test.
The tests were positive in 26 residents and 20 employees, including a total of 22 people who had already received full vaccination protection. Three residents died of or with the virus, two of whom were not vaccinated. On this basis, the CDC calculated the risk of the unvaccinated to seriously contract Covid-19 or to die: It is three to four times higher than that of the vaccinated.
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