Due to these eight factors, you can still become seriously ill or die from Covid-19 despite vaccination | Coronavirus what you need to know

First and foremost: that serious illness and death from Covid-19 after full vaccination are rare. Of the 1,228,664 subjects who were fully vaccinated with Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson between December 2020 and October 2021, only 189 (0.015 percent) developed a severe form of Covid-19. And an even smaller group of 36 people (0.0033 percent) died after a corona infection.

There were eight risk factors: age over 65 years, impaired immunity (due to illness or medication, for example) and six underlying conditions: diabetes and chronic lung disease, liver disease, kidney disease, heart disease and neurological disorders. Anyone who became seriously ill and had to be hospitalized with acute respiratory problems had at least one of these risk factors. More than three quarters (78 percent) of the people who died had at least four.

“Those are the known risk factors,” agrees virologist Steven Van Gucht at HLN. “The biggest risk factor is not being vaccinated.”

Van Gucht: “In our Belgian studies from October, we noticed that the risk of death for people over 65 is eight times greater in non-vaccinated people. Nevertheless, it happens that vaccinated people also die and then you see that factors such as old age and serious underlying conditions play a role. Vaccination is a good protection and it lasts for a long time. We see very few deaths among vaccinees under the age of 65. Deaths are very exceptional there.”

Van Gucht: “I think the vaccine still protects well against omikron in terms of deaths and serious illness. The booster provides an extra layer of protection. You also see this in Israel and the United Kingdom. After the booster, the number of deaths was even lower.”

According to the virologist, there is a double phenomenon with omikron. “On the one hand, omikron can somewhat break through our immunity, but that is mainly the immunity in the nose. This makes it easier for the variant to cause infections. But he can’t break through the deep protection so quickly. The second line of defense with the T cells, which protects our lungs. Our immunity to omikron is still very good there. Omikron itself is also about 25 percent less pathogenic than delta. So I think the conclusions of the American investigation stand.”

Van Gucht: “I think the risk factors are quite general. Indeed, it usually has to do with old age, impaired immunity, blood cancer, poor function of the heart, lungs and kidneys – for example due to excessive fat in the abdomen and chest – and blood clotting disorders. I would be surprised if it varied greatly from variant to variant.”

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