Skip to main content

New top story from Time: Why ‘Breakthrough’ Infections Even After COVID-19 Vaccinations Shouldn’t Be Surprising

https://ift.tt/2RRPKPo

In a recent Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) provide the first wide-scale look at the number of so-called “breakthrough infections”—COVID-19 infections occurring in people who are vaccinated against the disease.

Among more than 101 million people who were fully vaccinated in the U.S. during the study period from Jan. to April 30—meaning they were two weeks out from their last vaccine dose—10,262 cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection were reported by state and local health departments to the CDC. That works out to just 0.01% of vaccinated people with a confirmed infection, an “incredibly low rate,” says Dr. Carlos del Rio, professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases at Emory University. “To me, this is just reassuring evidence that vaccines really work.”
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

No vaccine is 100% effective in protecting people from infection. And indeed, the three vaccines currently authorized in the U.S.—from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson&Johnson-Janssen—were authorized on the basis of their ability to protect people against symptoms of COVID-19, not infection. But in the months since the vaccines rolled out, scientists have documented that people who are vaccinated have lower rates of infection than those who are unvaccinated. In a previous MMWR, published in March, the CDC reported that in a study of nearly 4,000 health care workers, the two mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, were 90% effective in protecting people from getting infected with SARS-CoV-2.

And that protection is confirmed in a far larger population of people by the current report. About 27% of the breakthrough infections among the 101 million people vaccinated occurred among those who experienced no symptoms of COVID-19, about 10%, or 995 cases, were known to be hospitalized, and 2%, or 160 people, died. And among those who were hospitalized, nearly a third were hospitalized for something other than COVID-19, and among those that died, about a fifth died of something other than COVID-19.

“At the end of the day, I think this is very good news,” says del Rio. “And when breakthrough infections do occur, in general they don’t have serious clinical consequences. So I think in general this is incredibly reassuring.”

Dr. Bonnie Maldonado, professor of pediatrics, epidemiology and population health at Stanford University and a member of the CDC committee that reviews vaccines and comes up with immunization recommendations, agrees. “Frankly I think the numbers are amazing. These are miracle vaccines, with better than 90% efficacy in clinical trials, a 0.01% breakthrough infection rate, and almost no severe illness out of 100 million people tracked. It’s about the best information I could expect,” she says.

The CDC data also explored to a limited extent what role new variants of SARS-CoV-2, which spread more easily among people and can cause more severe illness, played in the breakthrough infections. Researchers genetically sequenced the virus from only about 5% of the breakthrough infection cases, however, so the data aren’t robust. But so far, it shows that slightly more than half of the infections could be traced to the most common variant, B.1.1.7 (the one first identified in the U.K.), with a recently identified variant from California contributing to about a quarter of the infections. But since overall the percentage of breakthrough infections is small, the immunity produced by the vaccines still appears to be sufficient at protecting against infection with these variants, and, if infections do occur, they lead to less severe disease in many cases.

The authors note that the infections reported could be an underestimate of actual breakthrough infections, since the reporting is voluntary, and because many people who are positive may not feel symptoms and therefore would not get tested and diagnosed. Still, based on experience with other vaccines, public health experts expect that the rate will remain low, given how effective the COVID-19 vaccines are in producing antibodies that neutralize the virus as well as longer lasting immune defenses.

As a result of these new data, the CDC has told states and local health departments they no longer need to report all cases of breakthrough infections, and instead to just notify CDC when these cases result in hospitalization, severe disease or death. “These [cases] are the ones we’re most concerned about,” CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during a press briefing addressing the change.

Maldonado says there isn’t much added value in continuing to ask for all breakthrough infections, particularly since so many appear to occur without any symptoms. The breakthrough cases resulting in hospitalization or death will, she says, serve as a canary in the coal mine for when vaccine protection might be waning for whatever reason.

That could, potentially, simply happen as a result of time passing. “By the end of this year, most of the early people will have been vaccinated about a year, and we might have to rethink then what gets reported and what doesn’t get reported,” says Maldonado. “Because then the question is, will we start losing immunity a year out?” She says state and local health departments will continue tracking all new COVID-19 cases—just not reporting the milder ones to the CDC. If cases start going up, then health experts can investigate the data to see if it looks like vaccinated people are starting to get infected more, and if so, whether variants might be responsible.

For now, says Maldonado, the concern should be about people who aren’t vaccinated. That’s where new infections are starting and spreading to cause the breakthrough cases. “The vaccine is 0% effective if you don’t get it,” she says.

 

 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Traffic Collisions have Decreased on San Francisco’s Slow Streets

Traffic Collisions have Decreased on San Francisco’s Slow Streets By Julia Malmo   As a whole, Slow Streets are safer than they were before being designated Slow Streets  Streets that are part of the SFMTA’s  Slow Streets Program have become measurably safer since the program began in 2020, with the number of traffic crashes falling by almost half. On average, these corridors have seen a 48% drop in collisions following their designation as Slow Streets, compared with a 14% drop in collisions citywide over the same period. Slow Streets also are more welcoming for people who walk, bike and roll. Fewer than 1,000 vehicles per day use all but four of the current Slow Streets (20th Street, Minnesota Street, Noe Street, and Page Street).  The goal of the program is to create safe, shared streets that are comfortable and enjoyable for people of all ages and abilities, using any mode of transportation. We now can see how it’s doing in a new evaluation report . When the SFMTA Board appr

New top story from Time: Pfizer-BioNTech Have Started Testing Their COVID-19 Vaccine in Children Under 12

https://ift.tt/3vWOQjL Alejandra and Marisol Gerardo are nine years old but already making a little bit of history. The twin sisters are among the first young children to get vaccinated with a COVID-19 shot in Pfizer-BioNTech’s study of its vaccine in kids under age 12. Alejandra and Marisol had their blood drawn in the morning on March 24, then got their first dose of the two-dose vaccine later that afternoon. “Their primary concern was, ‘is it going to hurt,’” says their father, Dr. Charles Gerardo, chief of emergency medicine at Duke University School of Medicine. “They’re not too worried about the long term side effects; they’re looking at the moment, not the future.” Testing the vaccine in younger children will answer critical questions about how much immunity the shots can provide, and potentially give parents and education officials more confidence in re-opening schools. While it appears that younger children don’t get as sick with COVID-19 as older teens and adult

New top story from Time: Little Recognition and Less Pay: These Female Healthcare Workers Are Rural India’s First Defense Against COVID-19

https://ift.tt/3mrDgrm Archana Ghugare’s ringtone, a Hindu devotional song, has been the background score of her life since March. By 7 a.m. on a mid-October day, the 41-year-old has already received two calls about suspected COVID-19 cases in Pavnar, her village in the Indian state of Maharashtra. As she gets ready and rushes out the door an hour later, she receives at least four more. “My family jokes that not even Prime Minister Modi gets as many calls as I do,” she says. Ghugare, and nearly a million other Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) assigned to rural villages and small towns across India, are on the front lines of the country’s fight against the coronavirus . Every day, Ghugare goes door to door in search of potential COVID-19 cases, working to get patients tested or to help them find treatment. With 8 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, India has the second-highest tally in the world after the United States and its health infrastructure struggled to co

FOX NEWS: Top baby names list for 2021 reveals familiar trends For the second year in a row, these two names are the most popular for girls and boys – leading BabyCenter's Top 100 Baby Names list.

Top baby names list for 2021 reveals familiar trends For the second year in a row, these two names are the most popular for girls and boys – leading BabyCenter's Top 100 Baby Names list. via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/2ZZEl3u

New top story from Time: Google’s Employee Vaccine Mandate Could Influence Other Companies to Do the Same

https://ift.tt/3BQnXRv (SAN RAMON, Calif.) — Google is postponing a return to the office for most workers until mid-October and rolling out a policy that will eventually require everyone to be vaccinated once its sprawling campuses are fully reopened in an attempt to fight the spreading Delta variant. In a Wednesday email sent to Google’s more than 130,000 employees, CEO Sundar Pichai said the company is now aiming to have most of its workforce back to its offices beginning Oct. 18 instead of its previous target date of Sept. 1. The decision also affects tens of thousands of contractors who Google intends to continue to pay while access to its campuses remains limited. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “This extension will allow us time to ramp back into work while providing flexibility for those who need it,” Pichai wrote. And Pichai disclosed that once offices are fully reopened, everyone working there will have be vaccinated. The requirement will be first imposed at Goog

New top story from Time: Corky Lee, Photographer Who Spent His Career Spotlighting Asian and Pacific Islander-Americans, Dies at 73

https://ift.tt/2Ymu9yf Corky Lee, a photojournalist who spent five decades spotlighting the often ignored Asian and Pacific Islander American communities, has died. He was 73. Lee died Wednesday in New York City’s Queens borough of complications from COVID-19, his family said in a statement. “His passion was to rediscover, document and champion through his images the plight of all Americans but most especially that of Asian and Pacific Islanders,” his family said. The self-described “undisputed unofficial Asian American Photographer Laureate,” Lee used his eye to pursue what he saw as “photographic justice.” Almost always sporting a camera around his neck, he was present at many seminal moments impacting Asian America over a 50-year career. He was born Young Kwok Lee in New York City to Chinese immigrant parents. He was the first child in his family to go to college, graduating from City University of New York’s Queens College. A self-taught freelance photographer, Lee

New top story from Time: I Interviewed Hundreds of New Yorkers. Here’s What They Taught Me

https://ift.tt/3cgW6zl In 2014 I was given a unique assignment: move to New York and talk to people, hundreds of them, and then somehow create a book using their words to describe the experience of living in New York right now. I spoke to New Yorkers in all five boroughs, in coffee shops, in pizzerias, in elevator shafts, on job sites. At one point, when the book was nearly finished, I began to recognize a by-product of the interviewing process. Something happens when you ingest so many stories from so many New Yorkers. I learned a few things. I learned about express trains and egg creams, the route of the New York marathon and the strange naming protocols of the streets of Queens. I was taught how to steal a car in Manhattan, how to move properly on a sidewalk. Next came a list of specifics: best bagels, best pupusas, best baked clams (Donovan’s in Woodside). But I had no idea that speaking to New Yorkers would mean more important, subtle lessons would be shared from some of

New top story from Time: Australian ‘a Bit Sore’ After Getting His Arm Caught in a Crocodile’s Jaws

https://ift.tt/39Khfj1 CANBERRA, Australia — An Australian wildlife tour operator said he was lucky to escape more serious injury or even death when a crocodile lunged from a river and clamped his hand in its jaws. Sean Dearly was attacked on Monday on the Adelaide River which is renowned for its “jumping crocodiles” — large crocodiles that rise vertically from the water to snatch chicken carcasses dangled from long poles extended from tourist cruise boats. The 60-year-old Dearly spoke Wednesday about his encounter with a young 2.2-meter (7-foot) crocodile. “I’m feeling all right. I’m a bit sore in the arm, of course, but, yeah, I survived it,” he told Nine Network television. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Dearly had his right hand and forearm in a cast, but did not detail his injuries. He had undergone surgery to repair a severed tendon in his hand, the Northern Territory News reported. Dearly said he told the 18 tourists on his cruise on Monday to keep their entire

New top story from Time: Patrisse Cullors Steps Down as Head of Black Lives Matter Foundation

https://ift.tt/3utmDPE A co-founder of Black Lives Matter announced Thursday that she is stepping down as executive director of the movement’s foundation. She decried what she called a smear campaign from a far-right group, but said neither that nor recent criticism from other Black organizers influenced her departure. Patrisse Cullors, who has been at the helm of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation for nearly six years, said she is leaving to focus on other projects, including the upcoming release of her second book and a multi-year TV development deal with Warner Bros. Her last day with the foundation is Friday. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “I’ve created the infrastructure and the support, and the necessary bones and foundation, so that I can leave,” Cullors told The Associated Press. “It feels like the time is right.” Cullors’ departure follows a massive surge in support and political influence in the U.S. and around the world for the BLM movement, whi

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J कहने को हमसफर हैं 3 में दिलचस्प मोड़, क्या होगी अब रोहित और अमायरा की शादी?

ऑल्ट बालाजी और ज़ी5 का लोकप्रिय शो 'कहने को हमसफ़र हैं' का तीसरा सीज़न 6 जून को दोनों लोकप्रिय स्ट्रीमिंग ऐप पर लॉन्च किया गया था। जबकि शो के निर्माता अब तक 10 एपिसोड लॉन्च कर चुके है, वही दर्शक विशेष from टेलीविजन की खबरें | Television News in Hindi | TV Serials Update in Hindi – FilmiBeat Hindi http:/hindi.filmibeat.com/television/kehne-ko-humsafar-hai-season-3-rohit-and-amayra-marriage-090630.html?utm_source=/rss/filmibeat-hindi-television-fb.xml&utm_medium=23.195.73.4&utm_campaign=client-rss