Inmates in California prisons who had been vaccinated or had a previous corona infection were less likely to spread the corona virus to their fellow inmates.
People who have been vaccinated against the coronavirus and also had a previous infection are 41% less likely to pass on the virus if they become infected again, compared to people who have not been vaccinated and have not been infected before. People who have only been vaccinated or who have only had a previous infection are also less likely to transmit the virus. This is evident from a Research in US prisons, monitoring the number of infections among cellmates during the omikron wave.
The study shows that a vaccination not only protects against a severe course of the disease, says the sociologist Simone Williams from Swansea University in the UK. “This is a very important discovery.”
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Delayed diffusion
Coronavirus vaccination reduces the risk of hospitalization due to an infection. It also reduces the risk of dying from Covid-19. But it is still unclear how a vaccine will affect the spread of the virus. This is an important question, because for some people not only a milder course of the disease but also a lower chance of spread is an important topic for getting vaccinated.
With previous variants of the coronavirus, it seemed like vaccines were really slowing down the spread. Especially in the people who Pfizer / BioNTech-vaccine received, there was a big difference: they were up to 90% less likely to pass on their disease. But with the outbreak of the omikron variant in November last year, vaccines were found to protect primarily from a severe course of the disease and less from a rapid spread of the virus.
US prisons
Infectiolog Nathan Law The University of California at San Francisco conducted research in 35 California prisons. Together with his colleagues, he tested the spread of the coronavirus in prison cells between December last year and last May.
If an inmate had symptoms or tested positive, he was not always immediately isolated. Nearly 1,300 infected inmates shared their cell at least overnight with another who had tested negative shortly before.
Inmates who tested negative spent an average of 2.3 days with one infected inmate. More than a quarter of them eventually became infected.
If the infected inmate had previously had Covid-19, the chance of spread was 21% lower than if he hadn’t had a previous infection and hadn’t been vaccinated. With at least one vaccination but no previous infection, the spread was 24% lower. If the inmate had previously been infected and had also received at least one vaccination, the chance of spreading the corona virus was 41% lower.
In addition, with each additional vaccination dose received by an inmate, the chance of spreading the virus decreased by 12%. The detainees had received a maximum of three injections. “This study underscores how essential booster vaccinations are if the spread of the virus is to be slowed,” said the researchers.
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