Experts: No alarm over ‘breakthrough’ cases

Evidence shows shots cutting illness, deaths

Reports of athletes, lawmakers and others getting the coronavirus despite vaccination may sound alarming but health experts say the evidence is overwhelming that the shots are doing what they are supposed to: dramatically reducing severe illness and death.

The best indicator: U.S. hospitalizations and deaths are nearly all among the unvaccinated, and real-world data from Britain and Israel support that protection against the worst cases remains strong. What scientists call “breakthrough” infections in people who are fully vaccinated make up a small fraction of cases.

“When you hear about a breakthrough infection, that doesn’t necessarily mean the vaccine is failing,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious disease specialist, told a Senate panel this week. The shots are holding up, he said, even in the face of the highly contagious delta variant, which is burning through unvaccinated communities

Health authorities have warned that even though the COVID-19 vaccines are incredibly effective — the Pfizer and Moderna ones about 95 percent against symptomatic infection in studies — they’re not perfect. No vaccine is.

But it wasn’t until delta variant began spreading that the risk of breakthroughs started getting much public attention. The barrage of headlines is disconcerting for vaccinated people wondering how to balance getting back to normal with more exposure to unvaccinated strangers — especially if they have vulnerable family members, such as children too young to qualify for the shots.

Sports fans are seeing daily reports about infected athletes, from the New York Yankees to the Summer Olympics. Kara Eaker, a member of the U.S. women’s gymnastic team who said she was vaccinated, tested positive in a training camp just outside Tokyo. WNBA player Katie Lou Samuelson pulled out of the Olympics and the 3-on-3 basketball competition after testing positive despite being vaccinated.

And politicians in the nation’s capital are being rattled by reports of breakthrough cases, including from a congressman, Florida Republican Vern Buchanan; some Texas Democratic lawmakers visiting Washington as a political protest; at least two people in the White House and several congressional staff members.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday that with 2,000 people on the White House campus each day some breakthrough cases are inevitable but that the administration will release information if doctors determine any staffer had close contact with the president, vice president or their spouses.

One critical question about breakthrough cases is whether the person actually had symptoms, Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said. “Or is this somebody just being sampled out of an abundance of caution because they had to go into some place like the Congress?” he added.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said for months that vaccinated people don’t even need to get tested after a virus exposure unless they develop symptoms. The agency cites limited evidence that they’re less likely to infect others.

Nathan Papes The Associated Press file Karen Martin receives a COVID-19 vaccine July 12 at a vaccination clinic in Springfield, Mo. U.S. hospitalizations and deaths are nearly all among the unvaccinated.