It is rare and expected, but some fully vaccinated people get COVID-19

“I: completely vaccinated. Me: positive tests “, she wrote on Twitter on Saturday. “This happened with the swine flu,” she added, referring to another virus she caught in high school despite inoculation. “My luck.”

Graham, who is already feeling better, is one of 6,000 unlucky people in the United States who have been completely vaccinated against coronavirus, but have been diagnosed with what epidemiologists call “discovery cases.” These infections are rare and completely expected; the three vaccines discarded for emergency use have provided robust protection in clinical trials, but are not perfect.

Pfizer and Moderna two-shot vaccines prevented 95% and 94.1% of symptomatic cases, respectively, in late-stage studies, while Johnson & Johnson one-shot vaccine prevented 72% of moderate and severe cases in the United States. United and 66 percent globally. The CDC considers that people are fully vaccinated two weeks after the second dose of Pfizer and Moderna, and two weeks after J&J’s shooting.

“I said from the beginning that these vaccines are incredibly effective, but they are not 100 percent, and when there is still such a high rate of COVID in the community, these revolutionary infections must happen,” said Dr. Megan. Ranney, emergency physician at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence. Ranney did not know how many cases occurred at her hospital, but said he treated only one patient completely inoculated with coronavirus.

As of April 13, more than 75 million people in the United States had been completely vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and approximately 5,800 cases of discovery were reported to the agency. About 29 percent of cases were asymptomatic, the CDC said. Only 7% went to hospital; 1 percent of patients – 74 people – died.

The CDC and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health are tracking detection cases and collecting viral samples for genomic sequencing to determine which viral strain was responsible. The CDC does not provide a state-by-state breakdown of cases, and the state health department was unable to provide a total on Tuesday.

However, data from two Massachusetts hospitals that began inoculating their own employees in December highlights how rare infections are after vaccinations.

Dr. Richard Ellison, an epidemiologist at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, said his hospital fully immunized more than 7,400 employees with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines by April 10. About 80% received the Pfizer vaccine, and the rest received Moderna. About two out of 1,000 employees subsequently tested positive for COVID-19, he said.

The number of discovery cases was proportional to the overall distribution of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, Ellison said. Both use the same RNA messenger technology to teach cells to create some of the coronavirus and stimulate the immune system to produce antibodies.

Boston Medical Center studied COVID-19 infection rates among health care workers who received at least one dose of Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, but not necessarily the two vaccines needed to be fully vaccinated. A total of 7,109 workers have received at least one blow since February 23, according to a study published last month which has not yet been evaluated by colleagues.

Post-vaccination cases of COVID-19 occurred in 1.3 percent of workers who received at least one dose and in 0.3 percent who received both doses but did not necessarily reach the two-week mark. after the second dose to be completely inoculated. The infection rate among 3,481 BMC health workers who had not yet been vaccinated was much higher, at 9.5 percent, according to the study.

All doctors at the teaching hospitals who said they had seen cases discovered said they were generally mild. Some patients had no symptoms, but were tested because they were exposed to someone with COVID-19, usually a member of them. household.

“Even though there were these cases of discovery, even fewer of them were severe enough to require hospitalization, and among those who were hospitalized, many had several other medical problems,” said Dr. Paul Sax. clinical director of the infectious division. diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “It wasn’t like it was just severe COVID-19.”

Vaccinated people who test positive for the virus they tend to have smaller amounts of viral particles in their bodies than infected people who have not been inoculated, Sax said. He did not know how many fully vaccinated patients were diagnosed with COVID-19 at Brigham and Women’s, but said some were hired. He was not aware of any death.

As expected, vaccinated individuals appeared more vulnerable to COVID-19 uptake if they took drugs to suppress their immune systems, Sax said. This includes people receiving immunotherapy for cancer or taking immunosuppressive drugs to prevent their bodies from rejecting transplanted organs.

Massachusetts General Hospital also recorded “a number of important cases among both patients and employees,” according to Dr. Erica S. Shenoy, associate head of the hospital’s infection control unit. It had no specific numbers.

Since Monday, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines accounted for more than 95% of the doses distributed in the United States, while the J&J vaccine accounted for less than 4%. Distribution of the J&J vaccine was discontinued on April 13, while drug regulators investigated the cases of six women who developed rare but severe blood clots after receiving a blow, including one that died.

Despite her pathetic tweet about the capture of COVID-19, Graham, the public relations executive, said she had no doubt that she would be much sicker if she had not received the Pfizer gunfire.

She felt exhausted, sleeping until 11 in the morning, instead of her usual 5 in the morning, but Graham’s fever never went above 100 degrees and she had no cough. She was starting to feel better on Tuesday and likened her symptoms to the mononucleosis she had during Melrose High School. It is nothing compared to the repeated attacks of pneumonia that drew her to the hospital as a result of the chronic lung disease, she said.

“I would give him two compared to the ten for pneumonia,” Graham said. “I know my symptoms would have been much worse without it [the vaccine]. I still feel very grateful. ”

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Jonathan Saltzman can be contacted at [email protected].