Infectious Disease Specialist Questions Infectious Disease Specialist

Covid question?

I am fully vaxxed. My greatest concern regarding Covid is that it can cause harm to internal organs including the brain. Although I'm vaxxed I can still be infected. I read that milder infection symptoms mean less of an attack on organs.

What is the current state of knowledge regarding the safety of my internal organs as a fully vaxxed person of 62 years of age. Ditto for my son who is almost 19.

Secondly, my son is going to college on-campus in August. The school requires pre-arrival proof from all students that they are fully vaxxed. But students could be vaxxed, infected, non-symptomatic and spreading, right? I've emailed the college but they don't seem to want to answer me about this.

Male | 62 years old

3 Answers

People who are vaccinated versus non-vaccinated people when infected have a 25 times less chance of becoming severely symptomatic and 25 times less chance of going to the hospital, and 25 times less chance of icu and death. Also 100 times less chance of spreading the virus when asymptomatic.
Being fully vaccinated is the best protection you have! Wise choice. Vaccinated people can still pick up the delta variant, but are very unlikely to get terribly sick or have any of those long-term consequences.
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Thanks for the question.

This one is tough, especially because studies do not show lower viral levels in vaccinated, but delta infected people than in unvaccinated people. Consider that vaccinated patients with delta rarely require hospitalization. That has to be because lung invasion is much less if the patient is vaccinated. One might infer that other organs are also less invaded, but there is no study or proof yet. As to your child, yes, vaccinated students with delta, but not the original virus, can acquire and spread infection. Again, no studies yet, but we know that if your student acquires delta, since he is vaccinated, he will almost certainly not get sick enough for hospitalization. But masks and distancing will help prevent spread of infection!