They’re called ‘breakthrough’ cases, people getting COVID-19 after being vaccinated against the respiratory illness.
“I think it’s in line with what you would expect from the trials,” says Dr. Joe Kanter, state health officer.
According to the Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate, 125 people have come down with COVID after being inoculated.
Remember, the vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna are only 90% effective. Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine is only 72% effective.
In Louisiana 126 cases have been found among 568,968 fully vaccinated residents or 1 case for every 4,500 people.
“The vaccine is not a blank check to do whatever you want,” said Dr. Julio Figueroa, head of infectious diseases at LSU Health New Orleans, told the paper.
Infection specialists predict breakthrough cases will start to decline one more people are vaccinated.
“What we want to do is drop the entire population’s viral shedding so that we have less and less transmission,” Figueroa said.
“You want to vaccinate the population as much as possible so you get that herd immunity,” Figueroa said. “Those susceptible people, even if they’ve gotten vaccinated, will be protected.”