With breakthrough infections now accounting for a significant portion of COVID-19 cases being reported in Los Angeles County, should fully vaccinated people be worried?
“The more people that are vaccinated, just in terms of numbers alone, the more people who are vaccinated who will end up testing positive,” said Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer in a Thursday press briefing.
Ferrer said fully vaccinated people accounted for 20 percent of the cases reported in June. Though breakthrough cases occurred in higher numbers, Ferrer said the "vast majority" of them had mild symptoms or none at all.
She compared getting vaccinated to wearing a seatbelt. Both provide a lot of protection but are not perfect.
“Rejecting a COVID vaccine because they don’t offer 100 percent protection really ignores the powerful benefits that we’ve experienced for those people who have gotten vaccinated and for our community as a whole," she said.
With the highly contagious Delta variant spreading, transmission in LA County is rising quickly. Close to 2,800 cases were reported on Thursday, the highest number in months.
Public Health officials estimate case rates might be twice as high if 5.3 million -- or more than half of all county residents -- weren't fully vaccinated.
A total of about 6,500 breakthrough cases have been reported.
It is believed that fully vaccinated people who get infected are generally less likely to transmit the virus to others, but the issue is still being studied.