Why fully vaccinated people get unprecedented COVID infections

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Although COVID-19 vaccines are more than 90% effective in preventing serious diseases, millions of vaccinated people are likely to have breakthrough infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Most cases to date have been mild, with few or no symptoms. Of the more than 160 million people fully vaccinated in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 5,500 — most of them elderly and people with underlying health conditions — have been hospitalized or have died.

It is critical that people are vaccinated against the coronavirus so that there are fewer viruses to mutate and spread, says Dr. Paul Dobrix, a vaccine researcher at the University of Pittsburgh.

“The importance of a breakthrough infection is that people who are vaccinated can pass it on,” Dobrix said. “What we should be thinking about is not being a human petri dish, not allowing yourself to be the one to allow the virus to multiply out of control and turn into the next worrying virus.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, explained that advanced cases do not mean vaccines have failed.

“It’s not that it doesn’t protect against infection,” Fauci told the CBS Evening News anchor. “It has a high degree of protection against infection, but not the same level of protection as very high against severe disease.” Editor Nora O’Donnell. “Just because you see superhuman infections, it doesn’t mean that it diminishes the ability of this vaccine to protect you from severe disease.”

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Music fans recently returned to Scranton, Pennsylvania’s peach festival after it was canceled last year due to COVID-19. Jeff Friedman and Julie Greenhouse were among the fans crammed into an outdoor amphitheater for four days of high-octane music.

“It was a hippie festival where people were close and hugging and partying,” Friedman said.

There was no mask of insight in the 16,000 crowd. “It never occurred to us the fact that we were putting ourselves in danger. We were outside. We were all vaccinated,” Greenhouse said.

But vaccinations were not required. 48 hours after the last curtain call, Greenhouse — who was fully vaccinated — developed symptoms and tested positive for COVID-19.

“I think if I had thought I could have gotten COVID from an unvaccinated person, I would have been smarter,” she said.

The next day, Friedman also tested positive, and it followed that 13 of their friends at the festival also had a sudden infection. “We were lucky that the vaccine protected us and only gave us mild symptoms,” Greenhouse said.

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