As states try lures from liquor to lotto tickets to revive flagging COVID-19 inoculation rates, evidence for the effectiveness of mRNA vaccines continues to mount.
A new CDC study of 4,000 health care workers, first responders, frontline workers and other essential workers at eight locations nationwide finds people fully vaccinated with the Pfizer or Moderna mRNA vaccines are 91% less likely to be infected and more likely to have milder, shorter illnesses if they are.
The findings will appear in next month's New England Journal of Medicine.
Those who tested positive during the 17-week study had 40% lower levels of detectable virus in nasal swabs and experienced six fewer days of shedding the virus.
That suggests vaccinated people could be less likely to infect others.
Participants who developed COVID-19 averaged six fewer sick days and two fewer days sick in bed. They also had about a 60% lower risk of developing symptoms.
