Just because you're vaccinated, doesn't mean you can’t get Covid-19.
California public health officials recorded more than 3,000 so-called "breakthrough" cases in the first four months of this year, but that's an extremely small percentage of the close to 13 million fully vaccinated people in the state.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says the data shows that the COVID-19 vaccine is extremely effective at preventing severe illness, and that no vaccine is 100% effective.
More than 95 million people in the United States had been fully vaccinated as of April 26, 2021. Like with other vaccines, symptomatic vaccine breakthrough cases will occur, even though the vaccines are working as expected. Asymptomatic infections among vaccinated people also will occur.
Current data suggest that COVID-19 vaccines authorized for use in the U.S. offer protection against most SARS-CoV-2 variants circulating in the nation and those variants will cause some of these vaccine breakthrough cases.
The CDC is leading multiple vaccine effectiveness studies to ensure COVID-19 vaccines are working as expected, and are coordinating with state and local health departments to investigate SARS-CoV-2 infections among people who received COVID-19 vaccines.
Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady tells NBC-5 that the rate of infection post-vaccination is low, with 0.06% of fully vaccinated people contracting the virus.
"We've had more than 700,000 Chicagoans that are have a completed vaccine series - two weeks post their second dose, or two weeks post their first dose if they got J&J," Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said. "And at this point we've identified fewer than 500 breakthrough cases so that's, you know, 0.06% of those who had a completed series."
