Corona: That's why so many vaccinated people are in the intensive care unit - "That surprised us"

Created: 12/16/2021, 10:23 PM

From: Josef Ametsbichler

A specialist doctor and an intensive care nurse intubate a Covid 19 patient in an intensive care unit.

© dpa

Of eight Covid-19 patients who currently have to be ventilated in the intensive care unit of the Ebersberg district clinic, six are fully vaccinated against the virus.

So isn't the vaccine helping?

Yes, says Dr.

Peter Lemberger, pandemic officer and head of the intensive care unit.

Ebersberg

- Peter Lemberger, pandemic officer and head of the intensive care unit, observes that a lot depends on how long ago the corona vaccination was - and other factors also play a role.

Corona: That's why so many vaccinated people are in the intensive care unit - "That surprised us"

"The vaccine effect diminishes enormously over time," says Lemberger on the phone.

He speaks of a drop to around 20 percent protection after six months.

This applies not only to the already flagging one-time vaccination with Johnson & Johnson and the hardly used drug from Astrazeneca, but also to the mRNA vaccines from Biontech and Moderna.

“That surprised us and the manufacturers were probably not so aware of that,” says the intensive care doctor.

Pandemic specialist: Peter Lemberger, head of the intensive care unit at the Ebersberg district clinic.

© Clinic

However, so far no triple vaccine has landed with him in the intensive care unit.

"Boost it in any case," he advises.

“People have to protect themselves now.” With the new Omikron variant, the data situation is still thin.

A fourth vaccination may be due.

At the moment, however, Delta is the problem, and the vaccine, on the other hand, is showing a good effect.

Corona doctor: Without the vaccine, it would be much more difficult

Despite the current clinic occupancy - including the normal ward, 20 of the 30 Covid 19 patients in Ebersberg are vaccinated - severe courses are significantly less common.

"Without the vaccine it would be a lot more," says the chief physician, referring to the number of infections.

According to the pandemic officer Lemberger, the fact that more and more vaccinated people are in the clinic has two other reasons in addition to the deterioration in the effect over time. On the one hand, more than 80 percent of the over-60-year-olds are vaccinated - this high proportion of the total population inevitably means that more vaccinated people present at the clinic. "Nobody said that the vaccination protects 100 percent," says Lemberger.

On the other hand, it is particularly evident in the intensive care unit that the vaccination is less protective in patients with a previously damaged immune system.

Lemberger names the case of a man who had to take an immunosuppressive drug because of severe rheumatism and a woman who was undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer.

Despite two doses of vaccine, both were so seriously ill that they had to be ventilated.

Read more news from the Ebersberg region here.

By the way: Everything from the region is also available in our regular Ebersberg newsletter.