Three Michigan people who died after vaccination had COVID earlier

According to the spokesman for the state health department, it appears that the three probable cases of ‘prolonged viral shedding’ due to earlier infections, and that their death may not have even been related to the coronavirus.

The deaths were initially included among 246 people who, according to the Department of Health and Human Services in Michigan, tested positive for COVID earlier this month, more than two weeks after the vaccinations were completed.

MDHHS spokeswoman Lynn Sutfin told Bridge Michigan this week that the deaths have since undergone a more “detailed review,” and that all three have been infected earlier. In addition, no COVID-19 or ‘other acute respiratory infection’ was identified on the trio’s death certificates.

“It is likely that these three cases were examples of prolonged poisoning of SARS-CoV-2 virus rather than reinfections with COVID-19,” Sutfin said in an email on Wednesday.

Sutfin said the three who died may still meet the technical definition of a breakthrough infection because their positive test results were earlier than 45 days before the onset of symptoms, although she noted that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Treatment prevention can be achieved. another conclusion.

Post-vaccine infections are first detected when the state compares data from the vaccination database, the Michigan Care Improvement Registry, and the Michigan Disease Surveillance System, which track positive COVID cases.

The cases are reviewed by state epidemiologists and submitted to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC compiles the data nationally, including the demographics of the people infected and the type of COVID vaccine they received.

About 5,800 breakthrough infections have been reported to the CDC so far, according to a CNN report Thursday. This may seem like a lot, but is actually extremely rare, as more than 77 million people in the US have completed vaccinations.

A fourth death in Michigan is currently being reviewed by a local health department, Sutfin said.

MDHHS now reports that as of April 6, Michigan has recorded 334 suspected cases of breakthrough infections. 188 of them remain 188 actively investigated by local health departments, Sutfin said.

At least 16 people out of the 346 confirmed cases were admitted to hospital.

Among the 136 cases where information about the symptoms existed, nearly half – 46 percent – were asymptomatic, Sutfin said.

Some people with breakthrough infections may not even know they are infected unless, for example, they are tested for some unrelated medical procedure, Dr. Matthew Denenberg, vice president of medical affairs at Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids, told Bridge Michigan last week.

Spectrum and other health systems are also stopping breakthrough cases among their patients and staff.

The state did not release many other details – for example, age or gender – about the breakthrough cases.

A breakthrough infection is defined as one in which a person tests positive for 14 or more days after being fully vaccinated. This is considered to be the amount of time the body takes to maximize immunity to the virus. Some cases considered breakthrough infections are removed later, Sutfin noted, such as when a positive test is later linked to an earlier infection.

Michigan’s 334 breakthrough infections represent far less than 1 percent of the 1.8 million Michiganders who were completely vaccinated at that time using the two-dose Moderna or Pfizer vaccine, or the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which has since been suspended. is.

“No vaccine is 100 percent effective against infection,” said Veronica McNally, founder of the West Bloomfield-based Franny Strong Foundation and the I Vaccinate Campaign, and a consumer representative on the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

The committee went through this week information on rare blood clot issues in at least six women, as well as a possible seventh case, which had just had the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The purpose is to determine if these events are related to the vaccine or are incidental in timing. More than 6.8 million people in the US alone have received a J&J vaccine against COVID.

McNally said reports of possible adverse events or breakthrough cases are not automatically a problem with the vaccine.

“We want to know (that) when someone says, ‘This vaccine is safe and effective,’ we know that this vaccine is safe and effective based on data.”

In clinical trials, both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines showed an efficacy rate of 95 percent, and the J&J vaccine showed an efficacy rate of 65 percent or more.

San Diego researchers found breakthrough infections in less than 1 percent of vaccinated health workers – an “encouraging” sign of the “rarity” of a positive test 14 days after a vaccination, according to a March 23 letter in New England Journal of Medicine. .

In other words, the vaccines are “incredibly, incredibly effective,” says Dr. Matt Sims, who oversees infectious disease research at Beaumont Health.