Below are graphs of data reported to the FDA for the COVID-19 vaccines. About 15,000 people got the vaccine and about 15,000 people got saline (salt water). Neither the person giving or getting the shot knew which was which until after all the data was collected. This is called a "double blind" trial. It means that people's expectations don't affect the results. The curves are number of COVID-19 cases (vertical) versus time (horizontal). The upper curve is the number of cases for the control unvaccinated people who got saline. Over time this climbs quite regularly. The lower curve is the number of cases for the vaccinated people. Interestingly it goes up until about 11 days and then goes almost flat. The delay is how long the person's body takes to figure out and make antibodies against SARS-CoV-2. These data clearly show that the vaccines work to prevent COVID-19. |
Conclusions COVID-19 vaccination reduced the risk of post-COVID-19 cardiac and thromboembolic outcomes. These effects were more pronounced for acute COVID-19 outcomes, consistent with known reductions in disease severity following breakthrough versus unvaccinated SARS-CoV-2 infection.