DOUBLE-JABBED Scots are now more likely to be admitted to hospital with Covid than the unvaccinated amid an increase in elderly people falling ill due to waning immunity.
It comes amid “weird” data showing that case rates have been lower in unvaccinated individuals than the single, double, or even triple-jabbed since Omicron became the dominant variant in Scotland.
The counterintuitive data from Public Health Scotland (PHS) contradicts previous pandemic trends which have consistently shown infection, hospitalisation and death rates to be highest among the unvaccinated.
However, one expert stressed that the patterns probably reflect factors such as Omicron initially transmitting in more affluent communities.
“It does appear weird until you start breaking things down,” said Professor Rowland Kao, chair of veterinary epidemiology and data science at Edinburgh University.
Infection rates have been lowest since December 18 among the unvaccinated group, in a reverse of patterns seen previously in the pandemic
According to the latest PHS report, the Covid death rate has been consistently higher since December 4 in the double-jabbed compared to the unvaccinated – but much lower in the triple-jabbed.
The report defines a Covid death as “an individual who has tested positive by PCR for SARS-CoV-2 [the coronavirus which causes Covid] at any time point and has Covid-19 listed as an underlying or contributory cause of death on the death certificate”.
In the final week of December, the death rate was 7.06 per 100,000 among the double-jabbed compared to 4.79 per 100,000 in the unvaccinated, and 0.21 per 100,000 in the triple-vaccinated.
In the week ending January 7, the hospitalisation rate was also twice as high in the double-jabbed compared to the unvaccinated – 130 admissions per 100,000 versus 59 per 100,000 – but fell to just 15 per 100,000 in the triple-jabbed.
The admissions data does not differentiate between patients in hospital ‘because of’ Covid and those who tested positive while being treated for other ailments, but PHS said the high hospitalisation rate for double-vaccinated individuals is being driven by increasing admissions among over-70s who are not yet boosted and whose immunity is waning.
It added: “In other age groups the rates remain lower for those with two doses compared to those with one dose or unvaccinated.
“This group of individuals aged 70-plus who have had two doses of vaccine but have not yet had a booster may include some very vulnerable individuals.”