Why reports of CtOh COVID-19 infections after 2 vaccine doses aren’t cause for alarm?

‘Breakthrough akthrough infections’ among fully vaccinated Canadians just 0.5 per cent of reported cases, data shows

At first glance, reports of people getting infected with COVID-19 despite being fully vaccinated can sound alarming, as if this crop of long-awaited vaccines aren’t doing their job. A Toronto hospital recently announced an outbreak involving cases among people who’d received one or both vaccine doses. Back in May, nine cases of COVID-19 were reported in just one week among fully-vaccinated members of the New York Yankees baseball team and its staff.

And across Canada, deaths from the illness have even been reported among individuals who’ve had two shots, including a senior in Manitoba in May and an elderly long-term care resident in Ontario a month later.

But there are two key things to keep in mind about these “breakthrough infections.” For one thing, they’re rare — making up around 0.5 per cent of reported COVID-19 cases since vaccination efforts began, the latest Canadian data shows. And when post-vaccination infections do happen, they typically tend to be mild. Have a question or something to say? CBC News is live in the comments now. Experts also stress that while no vaccine offers perfect protection for every single person, the relatively infrequent examples of serious infections after full vaccination — coupled with the dramatic drop in cases, hospitalizations, and deaths from COVID-19 — show these vaccines are indeed doing their job, and excelling at it. Nearly all COVID-19 deaths in U.S. are now among people who aren’t vaccinated “Ultimately, what we want the vaccine to

do is prevent people from getting severely ill,” explained immunologist and researcher Matthew Miller, an associate professor at McMaster University.

Even in cases where breakthrough infections do occur, he continued, those infections tend to be a lot less severe than cases reported in partially vaccinated or totally unprotected individuals. “Anybody can tolerate a runny nose for a few days,” Miller said. “What we really want to ensure is that people aren’t ending up in the hospital, on ventilators, fighting for their lives.”

Few Canadians dying of COVID-19 post-vaccination

So far, close to 34 million vaccine doses have been administered in Canada, and reports of breakthrough infections after full vaccination remain low.

The latest Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) data, provided in response to questions from CBC News, shows 2,731 cases of COVID-19 among fully vaccinated individuals have been reported in Canada’s national data set as of June 21. Someone is fully vaccinated two weeks after their second vaccine dose, reflecting the minimum time period needed to build full immunity, according to PHAC. The data shows infections among fully vaccinated Canadians represent just 0.5 per cent of the COVID-19 cases reported since the country’s vaccine rollout started in December.

That finding reflects data from 10 provinces and territories which currently report vaccination information to federal public health officials. It doesn’t include figures from Quebec, Saskatchewan, or Newfoundland and Labrador.