Many studies show that COVID-19 vaccination reduces the risk of severe disease, hospitalization, and death. There is less evidence about whether COVID-19 shots make people less contagious.
New research, however, has found that COVID-19 patients who were vaccinated against the virus were much less likely to infect household members than unvaccinated patients, according to a
study published today in JAMA Network Open.
Researchers studied 362 patients who saw a healthcare professional outside the hospital because of COVID-19 symptoms and who also tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The study authors also followed up with about 760 of patients’ household contacts.
Overall, 62% of household contacts of patients with the virus soon tested positive for COVID-19.
But the household contacts of patients vaccinated in the past six months were 43% less likely to test positive than household contacts of unvaccinated sick people, the study shows.
Although the vaccinated patients in the study still developed COVID-19, it’s likely that the vaccine helped them by reducing the amount of virus in their bodies, said Amesh Adalja, MD, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, who was not involved with the new study. People with lower viral levels cough shed fewer viruses when they cough or sneeze, making them less likely to infect those around them.