A total of 10,262 SARS-COV-2 vaccine breakthrough infections had been reported from 46 US states as of April 30, 2021. They have been vaccinated with a vaccine supposed to have 94.5% efficacy. How many of these infected became serious enough to be hospitalised ? How many died ? The data is not released.
https://news.yahoo.com/cdc-reports-4-115-breakthrough-115033606.html?guccounter=1
Breakthrough illness (CDC)
In India, such figures will never be available.
No vaccine is 100% effective at prevention. There will be a small percentage of vaccinated people who will get sick, require hospitalisation or even die from Covid-19.
As of June 21, 2021, more than 150 million people in the United States had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19
What is breakthrough infection ? To understand this, few terms need to be defined.
Fully vaccinated– A person who has completed the full course of prescribed doses of the vaccine. Two doses of either Covaxin and Covishield in India. There will be single dose vaccines in future.
Partially vaccinated– those who have not completed the full prescribed doses.
Fully vaccinated Status– CDC recommends that your full immunity stays kicks in only after two weeks of completing the vaccination schedule.
Breakthrough infection– If you test positive any day after 2 weeks of completion of vaccination.
Breakthrough Illness– After fully vaccinated status, if someone becomes sick enough to be hospitalised or if dies from Covid-19 infection.
A 77.8% efficacious vaccine will prevent serious illness in only 77.8% fully vaccinated people only. That is what measured in the clinical protocol- incidence of Illness not infection.
They have not tested the nasal swabs of all the 30 thousand participants in the phase 3 trial ( of any vaccine) at regular interval to count the infection rate.
We must understand that an official recommendation requires robust documented data behind it.
Breakthrough infection ( Laboratory positivity) can occur due to several reasons. The ability to build immunity varies from person to person. We must also factor in those people whose immune building capacity is reduced because of drugs, therapy, or some pre existing medical conditions like malignancy. Then there always will be those who are slow reactors.
Conclusion–
There will be two Indias in the coming days: The vaccinated and the non vaccinated ones.
You can get your family vaccinated but can not regulate the unvaccinated from attending a social outing. Not in India.
So we must adopt Covid Appropriate Behaviour all the while to avoid that rare but possible Breakthrough Illness.
Dr Ramakanta's Ideas 