New data presented to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) committee provided more evidence that the Covid-19 vaccines provided robust protection against severe disease through July, after the delta variant of the coronavirus had spread widely through the us .

Scientists also confirmed that the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna shots confer alittle risk of heart problems in younger men, but that the advantages still outweighed the risks.

At the committee’s meeting Monday, Dr Sara Oliver, a CDC scientist, presented unpublished data from Covid-Net, a hospital closed-circuit television . All three vaccines utilized in the us remained highly effective at preventing hospitalizations from April through July, when delta became dominant, the info suggested.

For adults under the age of 75, the shots were a minimum of 94 per cent effective at preventing hospitalizations, a rate that has remained steady for months, Oliver said. Protection against hospitalization did decline in July for adults 75 or older, but still remained above 80 per cent.

“Covid vaccines still maintain high protection against severe disease, hospitalization and death,” Oliver said.

Protection against infection or mild disease does appear to possess declined somewhat in recent months, however. “These reasons for lower effectiveness likely include both waning over time and therefore the delta variant,” she said.

The data comes within the midst of an ongoing debate about the need and timing of booster doses. On August 18, health officials recommended that adults who received either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine get a 3rd shot eight months after their second dose. If the Food and Drug Administration clears the booster shots, they’re going to be available beginning September 20, top federal health officials have said.

The recommendation was supported data suggesting that the vaccines may subsided effective at protecting against infection and mild disease over time. But the shots still work well against severe disease and death, and lots of scientists have criticized the plan for booster shots, saying that it’s not yet clear that they’re needed.

The CDC advisory committee will review additional data on the security , effectiveness and potential need for booster doses at a gathering in September.

However, getting shots to unvaccinated people should still be the highest priority, Oliver said: “Planning for delivery of booster doses to vaccinated individuals shouldn’t deter outreach for delivery of primary series to unvaccinated individuals.”

The committee unanimously voted to recommend the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which was approved by the FDA last week, for Americans 16 or older.

Scientists also presented to the committee new data on the risks of two heart conditions following vaccination: myocarditis, an inflammation of the guts muscle, and pericarditis, an inflammation of the membrane that surrounds the guts .

The side effects tend to be mild, temporary, and uncommon, the info confirmed. for each million doses of the second shot given to 12- to 39-year-olds, there have been 14 to twenty extra cases of heart problems, consistent with the new data presented Monday.

The data suggest an association of myocarditis with mRNA vaccination in adolescents and young adults,” Dr Grace Lee, a paediatrician at Stanford and chair of the committee, said at Monday’s meeting. “Further data are being compiled to know potential risk factors, optimal management strategies and long-term outcomes.”

But the advantages of the vaccines are substantial, even for those within the highest risk groups. consistent with an analysis presented Monday by a CDC scientist, every million doses of the Pfizer vaccine administered to 16- and 17-year-old boys would be expected to cause 73 cases of heart problems, while preventing quite 56,000 Covid-19 cases and 500 related hospitalizations.

A study published within the New England Journal of drugs last week reported that the danger of myocarditis was substantially higher after infection with the virus than after vaccination.