No doubt you are aware that there has been a surge in COVID cases in recent weeks. They are mostly attributed to the Delta variant. This happened just as many people were beginning to let down their guard because they were fully vaccinated. The question that has been lurking since July, when Delta began spreading like wildfire, is can people who are fully vaccinated catch COVID? The answer this week from multiple sources is yes! But there’s good news and bad news about these cases.
Vaccinated Hospital Workers Did Catch COVID!
The New England Journal of Medicine (September 1, 2021) published a research letter from the University of California, San Diego. This large hospital system tests its nearly 20,000 health care workers frequently.
As of July, 2021, 83% of the employees were fully vaccinated. Many had received their second shot early in the year.
Between March and June, very few of the vaccinated health care workers tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. In July, however, the rate of positive tests rose abruptly.
According to the investigators:
“The dramatic change in vaccine effectiveness from June to July is likely to be due to both the emergence of the delta variant and waning immunity over time, compounded by the end of masking requirements in California and the resulting greater risk of exposure in the community.”
Vaccinated vs. Unvaccinated Workers:
Here is where the rubber meets the road! The numbers are both alarming and reassuring. First, the bad news. In July, 94 fully vaccinated workers developed symptomatic COVID-19. In comparison, only 5 had the bad luck to catch COVID in June. The numbers for unvaccinated workers were 31 in July vs. 10 in June.
Perhaps a better way to compare vaccinated to unvaccinated workers is to use the infection rate per 1000 people. This rate was 16.4 for unvaccinated workers in July and 5.7 for vaccinated employees.
What does this mean for you? Can you catch COVID if you have been vaccinated? The answer clearly is yes, especially if you are in a high-risk environment like a hospital. The Delta variant is extremely contagious.
The authors conclude:
“Our findings underline the importance of rapidly reinstating nonpharmaceutical interventions, such as indoor masking and intensive testing strategies, in addition to continued efforts to increase vaccinations, as strategies to prevent avoidable illness and deaths and to avoid mass disruptions to society during the spread of this formidable variant.”
Did Vaccinated Brits Catch Covid?
British researchers also report on “post-vaccination SARS-CoV-2 infection in UK users” (Lancet Infectious Diseases, Sept. 1, 2021). The COVID Symptom Study tracked 1,240,000 citizens between Dec 8, 2020 and July 4, 2021. This group received one shot.
Of that number, 6,030 caught COVID and tested positive. That represents 0.5% of the one-shot group. Another 971,504 British citizens got two shots. A smaller number did catch COVID. 2,370 or 0.2% in the double-vaccinated group tested positive for SARS-CoV-2.
We interpret the British data to suggest 1) The vaccines are working to dramatically lower the likelihood of catching COVID. 2) It is still possible to catch COVID if you have had one shot. You can also catch COVID if you have had two vaccinations, but your risks go down substantially.
There is more good news. The authors of the study report:
“We also found that COVID-19 was less severe (both in terms of the number of symptoms in the first week of infection and the need for hospitalisation) in participants after their first or second vaccine doses compared with unvaccinated participants.”
What About Long COVID?
You have no doubt heard about post COVID syndrome (PCS). It is also called PASC (Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID) or long COVID. People who have “recovered” from COVID, even if they have relatively mild cases, sometimes develop debilitating symptoms that don’t go away. They include fatigue, headache, cough, breathing problems, brain fog, dizziness, palpitations, joint pain, insomnia, tinnitus and digestive upset, to name just a few of the many complaints.
People who were vaccinated and experienced a breakthrough COVID infection were less likely to experience long COVID (PASC).
This is how the British researchers describe their findings:
“Compared with unvaccinated controls, after their second vaccine dose, individuals were less likely to have prolonged illness (symptoms for ≥28 days), more than five symptoms in the first week of illness, or present to hospital. Most symptoms were less common in vaccinated versus unvaccinated participants. Fully vaccinated individuals with COVID-19, especially if they were 60 years or older, were more likely to be completely asymptomatic than were unvaccinated controls.”
Final Words:
Please do not catch COVID. This is not like the flu. At last count there are nearly 40,000,000 Americans who have caught the coronavirus. We are rapidly approaching 650,000 deaths. That is close to the number of Americans who died during the 1918 flu epidemic.
Even if you have been vaccinated you can still catch COVID. Your chances are much reduced and you will probably not end up in the hospital, but you could still be pretty sick. We have heard directly about young, healthy people who were knocked on their derrieres by the virus even after being fully vaccinated. They experienced extreme fatigue and shortness of breath. You do not need that.
If you want to learn more about the most effective N95 masks, you may wish to read this article.
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