Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey brain Stuff. Lauren Vogelbaum here. When the COVID nineteen vaccine became available, Perry Knight of Fort Lauderdale, Florida got in line as soon as he was eligible. He had already done battle with the virus and wasn't interested in going there again. Before the article this episode is based on
how Stuff Works, spoke with him via email. He said, I first tested positive in August and spent two nights in the hospital because I was having a hell of a time just catching my breath. It had to be up there as one of the worst experiences of my life. It's like being underwater and about to come up for fresh air, and halfway through drawing that fresh air, a tightness interrupts it. Night got both doses of the Fiser vaccine in May, and despite that he wasn't too surprised
when he tested positive again in July. He said, I was more of having a feeling like, Wow, I should just play the lottery, because this luck is incredible, if you know what I mean. I was mentally preparing to go back into the hospital for another horrible couple days. Fortunately, his second go around with COVID nineteen was nothing like the first. His symptoms were mild and short lived, and experience that has only strengthened his appreciation for the vaccine.
Knight said, after seeing firsthand my experience with COVID with and without the vaccine, it's given me enough faith in the medical system that vaccinations are doing their part to protect us. It's not a shield a hundred percent preventing the virus from getting to us, but it's a relentless warrior who really keeps the worst of it at bay. Still, it upsets a lot of people that COVID nineteen is possible at all post vaccine. How does that even happen?
How stuff Works also spoke via email with Free Banerjee, a faculty member in Walden University's PhD in Public health program. He explained, but when a person gets COVID nineteen even after being fully vaccinated, this is known as a breakthrough infection since it breaks through the developed immune response. This type of COVID breakthrough infection is not unusual. Indeed, it's
actually to be expected given the viruses recent mutations. Houstaff Works also spoke with Dr Erin Glatt, a representative for the Infectious Diseases Society of America and Chair of Medicine at Mount Sinai South Nassau in Oceanside, New York. He said, with the delta variant, it is certainly more common. These variants have higher transmissibility than the earlier strains. They also have higher viral loads, so they are more transmissible even to people who are vaccinated, so this is a concern
a breakthrough. Infections in general are nothing new. The medical community sees them every single year with influenza. However, many people mistakenly believe that vaccines provide complete and total protection. But the truth is that, as with flu vaccines, the COVID nineteen vaccines won't prevent you from being infected. They're meant to increase your body's ability to fight the virus Effectively.
Vaccines don't prevent all infections, they just make them less likely and prevent serious complications and death when those infections do occur. Pharmaceutical companies, for their part, have been straightforward
from the get go about vaccine efficacy. Both Viser and Maderna reported efficacy rates of for the original strain A Visers drops to eight percent when faced with the newer more contagious delta mutation and maderna is believed to perform about the same, But breakthrough infections of COVID nineteen are typically so mild that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC, stopped tracking them starting on May one, unless such cases result in hospitalization or death, So for
CDC tracking purposes, a mild case of COVID nineteen aftervaccination is not currently considered a breakthrough infection banners, she said. Nationally, forty six U S States and territories voluntarily reported ten thousand, two hundred and sixty two breakthrough infections to the CDC between January one and April one. By comparison, there were eleven point eight million COVID nineteen diagnoses in total during
the same period. Through July one, there were five thousand, nine hundred and fourteen patients with COVID nineteen vaccine breakthrough infections who were hospitalized or died in the US, out of more than a hundred and fifty nine million people fully vaccinated nationwide, and to do the math and put it another way, according to this data, fewer than one tenth of one percent of the reported cases of COVID nineteen from January through April occurred in people who were
already vaccinated. So let's say you cut a penny into ten pieces, and for every hundred cases of COVID nineteen you have every dollar's worth. Just one of those livers of a penny represents how many vaccinated people got COVID nineteen. And furthermore, according to this data, through the middle of July, fewer than three hundreds of one percent of people who are vaccinated wound up either in the hospital or dying
from a breakthrough case of COVID nineteen. So take one of those slivers of a penny and cut it into ten even smaller pair fines livers, then count out three of those. That's how many vaccinated people got seriously ill. And now I keep saying according to this data, and that's because the data may not be complete. Bandage continued. It's difficult to determine the rarity of breakthrough infections as there is not any concrete, consistent data. A certain factors
complicate how breakthrough infections are counted. The main problem is tracking the prevalence, as many do not experience symptoms even if they contract a breakthrough infection. Another challenge is to determine which individuals with COVID nineteen are in a long
COVID phase rather than a potential reinfection. While it may be difficult to determine just how many people experience any type of COVID nineteen related symptoms after vaccination, we can see that the numbers of people who get them are small. Just as important, if they do get COVID nineteen, the symptoms will be much milder than if they had been unvaccinated. One study found that fully vaccinated people accounted for only
one percent of COVID nineteen cases. On August two, one, the White House COVID Data Director announced that at least seventy of adults in America have gotten at least one shot of the vaccine. The two most common vaccinations require two jabs weeks apart to achieve full immunity. This was good news, as a full vaccination rate of seventy is needed for herd immunity. Until that's a achieved breakthrough, infections
are likely to continue with a vengeance. As of August one, only seven percent of eligible people in the United States were fully vaccinated, and that number varies widely. By state.
The CDC had dropped its masking guideline for vaccinated people in May, but then in late July it reversed itself and said that vaccinated people in areas with quote substantial or high transmission should wear masks and doors because new data had shown that vaccinated people who had the delta variant could transmit the virus as easily as unvaccinated people. These kinds of changes in guidelines are a totally normal
part of the scientific process. We're still learning how this pandemic works, and experts are giving us the best advice they have every time they learn something new. This isn't a flaw in the system, it's a perk. A good science can admit when it was incorrect and then a just course. This is all science and action, and what science is sure of is that more people need to
get vaccinated to make COVID nineteen less deadly. The Howstuff Works team also spoke with epidemiologist Dr Matt Weisenbach with Walter's Clue or health. He said, Unfortunately, it's likely that the remaining phases of the pandemic will predominantly impact the unvaccinated segment of the population. Vaccination remains the single most important choice to protect yourself, your loved ones, and your
community against COVID nineteen. Today's episode is based on the article how does COVID nineteen break through in vaccinated people? On how staff works dot com written by Leah Hoyt. Brain Stuff is production of by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff works dot Com, and it is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts from my heart Radio visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.