PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The CDC has released information about so-called “breakthrough cases” – people getting COVID-19 after being vaccinated.
The CDC says there are 5,800 COVID-19 cases among the 77 million Americans who have been fully vaccinated. In Pennsylvania, the Department of Health reported 331 cases out of 2.6 million who are fully vaccinated.
U.S. health officials say those numbers show the vaccines are doing their jobs.
“These are really good numbers," said Dr. Ian Frank, an infectious disease professor at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He said one consideration tops the list when looking at how well a vaccine works.
“These are great vaccines, they’re safe despite the few cases that reported. And we’re seeing relatively few numbers of bad things happening, despite the fact that we’re vaccinating tens of millions of people.”
“We need to ask the question: If you get vaccinated and you got COVID-19, what’s the probability of you dying?” he said.
Frank explained that the numbers show they’re good at preventing infection, and they’re very good as preventing deaths.
Related
He said about 31.5 million people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in the United States to date, and about 565,000 of those people have died.
"So if you’re the average person in that statistic, and you get infected, there’s about a 2% chance of you dying," he said.
However, he said, with only 74 deaths out the 77 million who have been vaccinated, the chance of dying after getting a vaccination is about one in 1 million.
“The more people that get vaccinated, the fewer deaths there are going to be. Because as we vaccinated more and more people, there will be fewer infections happening in this country," he said.
Related
Einstein Medical Center Montgomery Director of Pharmacy Services David Mihalic says people get hung up on the efficacy rates from the vaccine trials. And while those numbers are important, they were a snapshot in time. It’s not as simple as just looking at whether someone tests positive after they got vaccinated, he says.
“I don’t care as much as I care about 70% of the population getting vaccinated so that virus becomes less of an issue all around, whether I developed antibodies or not," said Mihalic.
He believes that a better question is whether they got a severe infection.
"Even if they have the chance of getting the virus, the chances of those symptoms being severe are near nothing," Mihalic said.
LISTEN on the Audacy App
Sign Up and Follow Audacy
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram