We Need to Start Thinking Differently About Breakthrough Infections

For most of 2020, avoiding the novel coronavirus was at the heart of almost every piece of public-health advice. Then, vaccinations largely gave Americans their lives back. Breakthrough infections were remarkably rare in the early months of mass vaccination. Only about 10,000 people—or 0.01% of the 101 million U.S. adults who had been fully vaccinated—reported one by the end of April 2021, illustrating that post-vaccine infections were possible, but unlikely. That changed when the more contagious Delta variant began spreading over the summer and sickening more people who’d had their shots. Now—though vaccinated people remain far more protected than those without their shots—the highly transmissible Omicron variant may force a complete rethinking of breakthrough infections. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Rare no longer A lot remains to be learned about Omicron, but the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has warned that it is likely to cause breakthrough infections. Early studies suggest COVID-19 vaccines will continue to dramatically limit severe disease and death, but may not be as good at preventing symptomatic disease caused by Omicron, compared to other strains. The variant also arrived at an inopportune time, when vaccine-related immunity was starting to wane for people who had gotten their shots early in the year and hadn’t yet been boosted. New York City, one of the first places in the country to exper...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 healthscienceclimate Source Type: news