By February 2022, at least 58% of the US population had been infected with SARS-CoV-2 since the outbreak, according to a study by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the leading public health agency in the United States. yesterday Tuesday and is based on antibody tests.
That’s about 190 million people in the United States, more than double the 80 million officially reported infections; that means millions of people were asymptomatic, undiagnosed or unregistered by health authorities.
About 75% of the population under the age of 18 became infected with the virus, according to the study, with a colossal increase in cases – especially among children – during the wave attributed to the Omicron variant last winter.
The study was conducted nationwide and was based on tests to detect antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 virus nucleocapsid protein, which the immune system generates by responding to infection.
Today’s vaccines stimulate the immune system to make antibodies against the so-called spike protein.
Each month, from September 2021 to January 2022, the study tested nearly 75,000 blood samples nationwide; in February, 45,000 were tested.
The researchers then performed calculations using statistical methods for reductions by age, gender and geographical distribution.
“We have not looked at whether the world has a level of antibodies due to a past infection (from SARS-CoV-2) that is sufficient to provide protection against re-infection or the onset of a severe form of infection (COVID-19),” said Christy Clark, of of the leaders of the team that prepared the study, during a teleconference with journalists.
“Past infection has been found to provide some protection against the most serious forms of the disease and hospital admissions – and vaccination, either before or after infection, offers additional protection,” he added.
It is still absolutely necessary to make sure you are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, said Christy Clark.
The US currently offers a fourth dose of vaccine to its citizens over the age of fifty and a third and third dose to younger people.
In addition, the Pfizer-BioNTech consortium announced on Tuesday that it had applied for approval by the US National Drug Administration (FDA) for the third dose of its COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5-11.
Children five years of age and younger are the only ones who have not yet joined the national immunization campaign.
“The best way to protect them is to ensure that they are surrounded by people taking preventative measures,” in other words, they have been fully vaccinated and given a booster dose or booster dose, Clark said.
Nationwide, the number of SARS-CoV-2 cases is rising again due to two Omicron sub-variants, BA.2 and BA.2.12.1.
Despite the growing number of infections and hospital admissions, the number of deaths due to complications of COVID-19 continues to decline: the current interval is around 300 per day. At this rate, the US will break the barrier of one million officially recorded deaths from the disease in the coming weeks.
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