More than one in five Americans has been completely 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 Tuesday, about 5,800 still tested positive for COVID-19, in what is known as a “revolutionary infection,” according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control. and Disease Prevention (CDC).
Some of these infections in vaccinated individuals were severe. About 400 of the 5,800 people with discovered infections, or 7%, needed hospitalization, and 74, or 1.3%, died of the disease, the CDC said in a statement.
The report is another reminder that, as Dr. Anthony Fauci and other public health experts have pointed out for months, vaccination is not an easy way to end the pandemic. Wearing masks and social distance remain extremely important until we have enough immunity to stop the virus from circulating.
“The vaccine is working as expected”
These detectable infections are expected and are in line with how other vaccines work, the CDC said.
“We expect thousands of cases of vaccine discovery to occur, even if the vaccine works as expected,” the statement said.
“Given the number of cases discovered, I think the most important thing is to look at the denominator of vaccinated people,” Fauci, the world’s leading infectious disease expert, told a White House news briefing last week. past.
Revolutionary infections occurred in about 0.008 percent of people who were shot with COVID-19 and allowed them to take effect for two whole weeks. Serious cases of discovery were very rare; The Minnesota Department of Health recorded zero deaths in the first 89 cases of infection discovered in the state.
“It’s important to know that even if someone is vaccinated and then becomes one of the few unhappy people who have developed a case of discovery, there may still be some level of protection offered by the vaccine,” said Kris Ehresmann, an infectious person in the department. director of the disease, said during a briefing in March.
The rate of infection detection in Minnesota at that time was about 0.01 percent.
New figures from the CDC also suggest that authorized COVID-19 vaccines are almost perfect for preventing death, as clinical studies have suggested: with 74 deaths in 75 million people fully vaccinated, the vaccines appeared to be effective at 99, 99%.
Some people who are vaccinated and subsequently become infected may not even know it, because about a third of the infections found (29 percent) were asymptomatic, finding out with just one test, the CDC said.
40% of the infections discovered were completely vaccinated in people over 60 years of age
The risk of a discovered infection may not be the same among all those who have been vaccinated. The CDC said about 40 percent of the infections found were found in people over the age of 60, a demographic in which vaccines are often less effective.
“Older people, especially if they are fragile and have underlying conditions, may not have responded as well to the vaccine,” Fauci said.
“When someone is already old and may or may not have a underlying condition, it’s unfortunate, but it’s not surprising that you could have a few deaths.”
The CDC said it has created a nationwide database on vaccine discovery for state health departments to help the federal government monitor cases.
“People who have been fully vaccinated should continue to take precautions in public places, such as wearing a mask, staying at least 1.83 meters away from others, avoiding crowds and poorly ventilated areas and wash your hands often, ”the CDC said.
This article was originally published by Business Insider.
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