SHOT OF HOPE
Stark lung X-rays reveal the difference Covid vaccines really make
THESE stark X-rays reveal the difference Covid vaccines make - with unprotected lungs ravaged by the virus.
A doctor shared images of the lungs of a fully vaccinated person with Covid, and someone with the virus who hadn't been jabbed.
The X-ray of the person without the vaccine shows almost completely white organs - which means they are filled with the virus.
They also have intense scarring and appear to have a lack of air going into the lungs.
In contrast, the lungs of the person who has been jabbed has air flowing through and look largely clear of the virus.
Dr Ghassan Kamel, director of the Medical ICU at SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital in Missouri, has been treating thousands of people with the virus.
He told KDSK the patients he is seeing are younger than they were during the winter surge of 2020-21 and mostly unvaccinated.
After one dose the Pfizer vaccine is 36 per cent effective against symptomatic illness from the Delta variant, and the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is about 30 per cent effective against getting ill.
But two weeks after the second jab, Pfizer gives 88 per cent protection against catching the Covid strain and AZ gives 67 per cent protection.
And after two doses, the Pfizer vaccine is 96 per cent effective against hospitalisation and the AstraZeneca jab slashes the risk by 92 per cent.
STARK DIFFERENCE
Many Covid-19 patients develop a form of respiratory failure called acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), which requires patients to receive oxygen via a ventilator.
suggest ARDS can significantly diminish people’s quality of life, even after they’ve recovered, as it leaves irreversible scarring in the lungs.
Doctors say coronavirus patients are likely to have persistent shortness of breath, even after they've recovered.
They say most of those who had severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) had shortness of breath for one month after infection - and this is likely to be the same for Covid-19 patients.
We told how a healthy woman in her 20s needed a new set of lungs after coronavirus left them "looking like rotten burgers".
The patient, who has not been named, was on a ventilator and heart-lung machine for almost two months before her operation last year.
Surgeons at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago said Covid-19 had left her lungs full of holes and almost fused to the chest wall.
It's now known the deadly disease can have a long-term impact to a patients' health, causing lasting damage to their whole body.
And it's not just their lungs that are affected by the lethal disease, it's also other vital organs and bodily systems.
It comes after daily Covid cases dropped to the lowest figure recorded in five weeks yesterday - with another 21,952 positive tests in 24 hours.
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It's hoped the UK may now be past the peak of the third wave after new infections dropped by 12 per cent in a week.
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Britain's successful jabs roll-out has been heralded for breaking the link between infections and severe illness - and this weekend, it was reported that 32million of us will be offered a booster jab this autumn.
Those who were given the Pfizer vaccination will be offered a third dose if they're over 50 or their immune system is suppressed.
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