To Your Health: COVID-19: mRNA vaccines reduce symptom-free cases by 80%!

27 Mar To Your Health: COVID-19: mRNA vaccines reduce symptom-free cases by 80%!

Part-time Telluride local, Dr. Alan Safdi, is a world-renowned internist and gastroenterologist with encyclopedic knowledge of mind-body wellness and preventative medicine. He posts regularly on Telluride Inside… and Out under the banner of “To Your Health.” Dr. Alan’s blogs feature the most current information in his fields: health, wellness and longevity.

Links to Dr. Alan’s podcasts and narratives on COVID-19 are here.

This week, Dr. Alan weighs in on COVID-19: mRNA vaccines, which he reports reduce symptom-free cases by 80% – but not 100%, so Dr. Alan advises us to continue to mask up.

People with SARS-CoV-2,  the virus that causes COVID-19, who show no symptoms may account for more than half of all transmission cases of the disease. Still, a new study helps to somewhat alleviate concerns that people who have been vaccinated may still be vulnerable to symptom-free or “asymptomatic” COVID-19 and will, therefore, spread the virus to others.

The study suggests that people who have had two doses of a messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine are 80% less likely to develop asymptomatic COVID-19 than people who have not been vaccinated.

Clinical trials of approved COVID-19 vaccines, including mRNA vaccines, suggest that they prevent 70–95% of symptomatic cases. However, there remains some uncertainty about whether or not the vaccines protect people against “asymptomatic,” or symptom-free, COVID-19, a crucial question because researchers estimate that more than half of all transmission cases of SARS-CoV-2 are from people who are not showing any symptoms.

A new study by researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, shows that the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines provide a high degree of protection against asymptomatic infection. Their analysis suggests that the risk of such an infection is 79% lower among those who received a first dose of either vaccine more than 10 days previously, compared with people who have not been vaccinated. Researchers estimate that protection from asymptomatic infection is slightly better after a second dose of either vaccine, at 80%, compared with people who have not been vaccinated.

However, we still need to mask up since 80 percent reduction is not 100 percent and more studies are to come. Asymptomatic spread by vaccinated people although probably much less is still a possibility.

Stay safe…

Dr. Alan, more:

Dr. Alan Safdi is board-certified in Internal Medicine and in Gastroenterology and is a Fellow of the American College of Gastroenterology. A proven leader in the healthcare arena, he has been featured on the national program, “Medical Crossfire” and authored or co-authored numerous medical articles and abstracts.

Safdi, a long-time Telluride local, has been involved in grant-based and clinical research for four decades. He is passionate about disease prevention and wellness, not just fixing what has gone wrong.

Dr. Alan is an international lecturer on the subjects of wellness, nutrition and gastroenterology.