The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified some 5,800 fully vaccinated people who have contracted COVID-19 so far, a fraction of the 66 million Americans who have been vaccinated.
Why it’s important: Infections, called “advanced cases,” are rare. The findings are consistent with previous studies indicating that positive coronavirus cases are extremely unlikely among vaccinated individuals and that vaccines prevent serious disease.
- “As seen with other vaccines, we expect thousands of advanced vaccine cases to occur even though the vaccine works as expected,” the agency said in a statement Thursday.
By numbers: About 40% of infections occurred in people over the age of 60, but advanced cases occurred in all age groups.
- 65% were women and 29% of advanced infections were reported asymptomatic.
- It was known that 7% of people with advanced infections were hospitalized and 1%, or 74 people, died.
The state of play: Cases among vaccinated people occur when the body does not give an adequate immune response or when immunity fades over time, NIAID Director Anthony Fauci said Monday.
- “We see it with all vaccines in clinical trials,” Fauci said. “And in the real world, no vaccine is 100% effective or effective, which means you’ll always see advanced infections regardless of the effectiveness of your vaccine.”
- Two studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine last month showed similar small percentages of advanced cases among fully vaccinated health workers.
What to see: The CDC said it collected genomic sequencing in respiratory samples from advanced patients to understand if any of the variants affect the effectiveness of a vaccine.
- So far, it has not identified unexpected patterns in case of demographic or vaccine characteristics.