More than one in five Americans is fully vaccinated against COVID-19. But vaccinated people can still get the coronavirus, although infections are extremely rare and usually quite mild.
Of the 75 million people in the U.S. who were fully vaccinated as of Tuesday, about 5,800 still tested positive for COVID-19, known as a ‘breakthrough infection’, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Some of the infections in vaccinated were serious. About 400 of the 5,800 people with breakthrough infections, or 7 percent, needed hospitalization, and 74, or 1.3 percent, died from the disease, the CDC said in a statement.
The report is another reminder that, as dr. Anthony Fauci and other public health experts have been emphasizing for months that vaccination is not a one-time way to end the pandemic. Wearing masks and social removal remains critical until we have enough immunity to stop the circulation of the virus.
‘The vaccine works as expected’
These breakthrough infections are to be expected and are consistent with how other vaccines work, the CDC said.
“We expect thousands of breakthrough cases to occur, even if the vaccine works as expected,” the statement said.
“With the number of breakthrough cases, I think, the most important thing to look at is what the denominator of vaccines is,” Fauci, the leading US expert in infectious diseases, said during a White House press briefing last week.
Breakthrough infections occurred in about 0.008 percent of the people who had their COVID-19 uptake (s) and allowed them two full weeks to take effect. Fatal breakthrough cases were very rare; the Minnesota Department of Health did not count any deaths in the first 89 breakthrough infection cases in the state.
“It is important to know that even if someone is vaccinated and then is one of the few unfortunate people who can develop a breakthrough case, there can still be some protection through the vaccine,” said Kris Ehresmann, the infectious department of the department. disease director, said during a briefing in March.
The breakthrough of infections in Minnesota at that time was about 0.01 percent.
The new figures from the CDC also indicate that the authorized COVID-19 vaccines are almost perfect for preventing death, as clinical trials have suggested: With 74 deaths in 75 million people fully vaccinated, the vaccines appear to be 99.99 percent to be effective.
Some people who are vaccinated and then become infected may not even know it, as about a third of the breakthrough infections (29 percent) were asymptomatic, and were only detectable with a test, the CDC said.
40 percent of the breakthrough infections were in people older than 60
The risk of a breakthrough infection may not be the same for everyone who is vaccinated. The CDC said about 40 percent of the breakthrough infections reported were discovered in people older than 60, a demographic in which vaccines are often less effective.
“It is likely that elderly people, especially if they have poor and underlying conditions, may not have responded so well to the vaccine,” Fauci said.
“If someone is already elderly and possibly has an underlying condition, it’s unfortunate, but not surprising that you could have some deaths.”
The CDC said it had created a nationwide ‘vaccine breakthrough database’ for state health departments to help the federal government monitor cases.
“People who have been fully vaccinated should take precautions in public places, such as wearing a mask, staying at least 1.83 meters apart, avoiding crowds and poorly ventilated areas and washing their hands regularly,” he said. the CDC said.
This article was originally published by Business Insider.
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