Over 1,000 Fully Vaccinated UK People Died From Delta Variant

Currently, 79.4% of the population aged 16 and over in England are fully vaccinated. The figures show that while the jabs are effective at preventing hospitalisations and serious illness, they do not give 100% protection.

Over 1,000 fully vaccinated people in England have died from the Delta variant between 1 February and 29 August, according to the latest data from Public Health England.

In this time period, 37 people under the age of 50 who had been double jabbed and 1,054 over-50s have died after testing positive for the Delta variant – now the dominant strain of the virus in the UK.

This compares to a total of 536 COVID deaths of unvaccinated people from all age grounds during that time.

However, the higher number of fully vaccinated people dying does not mean that the vaccine is not working, but instead reflects the large majority of people in England who have now been jabbed.

PHE says current evidence shows vaccine estimates to protect against infection ranges from around 70% to 90% with the Pfizer vaccine after two doses.

While there is no data yet for how effective the AstraZeneca vaccine against infection is after two doses, current figures show that it is 60% to 70% effective after one. 

The vaccines also show high levels of protection against hospitalisation with the virus, with 81% efficacy after one dose of any vaccine and 97% efficacy after two.

Finally, the vaccines have also been shown to protect against the risk of death from COVID.

One dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine gives people up to 83% protection, while one dose of the Pfizer vaccine gives people up to 77%.Meanwhile, two doses of the AstraZeneca gives up to 94% protection against death, while two of the Pfizer gives up to 98%.

The charts below shows how the statistics of people dying after receiving two vaccines should not be alarming.

The proportion of cases where over-50s are hospitalised or die after getting fully vaccinated is much lower than the proportion of unvaccinated people.

The only reason the number of vaccinated people is higher is because more people have been vaccinated.For example in unvaccinated people over the age of 50, 6.5% of cases resulted in death compared to 2% of fully vaccinated over-50-year-olds.It comes as the vaccines minister has said the NHS is "ready to go" with rolling out a booster vaccine programme, as the government awaits scientific advice for the scheme to be signed off.

 In the Commons, Nadhim Zahawi said: "The booster programme is probably the most important piece of the jigsaw yet to fall into place so we can actually transition this pandemic, this virus, to endemic status.

He added: "We are ready to go as soon as – Cov-Boost, which is imminent to report – we will be able to operationalise a massive booster programme."

Conservative former health secretary Jeremy Hunt had said to the minister: "He will know that Israel shows that even a good vaccination programme does not stop the Delta variant from driving up hospitalisations, but a booster programme brings down those hospitalisations in as little as two weeks.

 But this programme runs counter to guidance from the World Health Organization, which called for a moratorium on booster shots in wealthy countries at a time when vaccination rates in many poor nations are so low.

“We cannot accept countries that have already used most of the global supply of vaccines using even more of it, while the world's most vulnerable people remain unprotected,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.