COVID in context: Doctors say slight increase in vaccinated patients not cause for concern

SARASOTA, Fla. - Sarasota Memorial Hospital reported a recent uptick in vaccinated people needing to be hospitalized for severe illness due to COVID-19, but public health experts are adding context to the increase.

The vast majority of people SMH doctors are treating right now have not had the shot, but doctors said they understand concerns and questions people may have about how long protection lasts with a vaccine. 

Every Monday since August 16, SMH has shared a breakdown of who’s in the hospital with COVID-19 and vaccination status. 

A big change happened for people who got the shot from last week to this week where doctors went from treating 28 vaccinated people out of 274 total COVID patients to 47 vaccinated people out of 277 hospitalized COVID patients. 

Last week also had one vaccinated person out of 48 people in the ICU and one vaccinated person out of 36 people on a ventilator, and this week that number increased to seven vaccinated people out of 68 people in the ICU and five vaccinated people out of 50 total people on a ventilator.

Sarasota Memorial’s infectious diseases specialist Dr. Manuel Gordillo explained what those numbers meant in a Facebook post on Monday. 

He said, "just looking at the raw numbers without considering the underlying vaccination rates can give you false impressions."

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In part of his social media explained, Dr. Gordillo said six out of the seven vaccinated people in ICU are over 65 years old, three of them have health risks and another three people are immuno-compromised. 

He also said, "of the seven cases, there were two [where] COVID played a role as a contributor in their hospitalization but they both had other major problems that led to ICU admission."

USF Health epidemiologist Dr. Thomas Unnasch explained why that matters.

"So the most of the people who are really getting sick got vaccinated, but they never responded to the vaccine. So they were organ transplant patients, which are really sad, or patients with autoimmune diseases," said Unnasch. "You got to look for antibodies in their serum. They don't have any antibodies, so they're effectively unvaccinated. They just never responded."

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Public health experts said there are more chances for breakthrough infections now that more people are vaccinated; however, they say don’t think that’s a knock on the shots. Doctors stressed all three vaccines protect very well against severe illness and death compared to when you’re unvaccinated, and Dr. Gordillo shared online that the SMH graphics show you just strong your protection really is with vaccines.

"The chances that you're going to end up in the hospital once you're vaccinated are dramatically lower than they would be if you've got infected and you weren't vaccinated," said Unnasch.

Doctors said they do not want to see people end up in the hospital with COVID-19, so vaccines are important to prevent that. Doctors said eligible people who are immune-suppressed should get a third dose to help protect them.