(WSYM) — There’s good news for those who are vaccinated against COVID-19. The CDC released data that shows more than 99.99% of breakthrough cases did not lead to either hospitalization or death.
People are getting confused and worried about breakthrough cases. I know this because of all the questions I’m getting from patients. I’m happy to share encouraging news that comes directly from the CDC.
Here’s the breakdown of the data: As of July 26, there were 6,587 breakthrough cases reported to the CDC. Just over 6,200 of these people needed to be hospitalized. Unfortunately, there were slightly more than 1,200 deaths. Now, these numbers may sound high. I don’t want to minimize the deaths - it’s tragic when anyone dies from COVID.
When you do the math and factor in that over 163 million Americans at that time were fully vaccinated against COVID-19, you realize that it’s actually a very tiny number of fully vaccinated people that are severely affected.
Roughly 0.004% of people with breakthrough cases ended up in the hospital. And less than 0.001% of the people with breakthrough cases ended up dying.
The CDC reported that 74% of the breakthrough cases were in people aged 65 and up. About 48% of them were female. As for questions regarding breakthrough infections causing spread, that is based on a study the CDC recently published. This is where 469 Massachusetts residents became infected, mostly with the Delta variant. When the researchers analyzed the samples, they found viral loads were very similar for both the fully vaccinated and the unvaccinated.
While this does indicate that it is possible for a fully vaccinated person to spread the virus, generally speaking, being fully vaccinated means that you’re less likely to get infected in the first place. Therefore, less likely to spread the virus.
What we need to be worried about is those who are unvaccinated. I really want to be very clear about this, if you’re unvaccinated, you can very easily get infected and spread the virus. I know the Delta variant is causing mayhem and uncertainty for many folks.
Science tells us that the best way out of this pandemic is to get fully vaccinated. Our vaccines can prevent people from getting COVID, and they greatly reduce the chance of getting seriously sick or dying from the virus.
