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The Nuance
Here’s What We Know About Breakthrough Covid-19 Infections
The Delta variant has thrown some of our risk-benefit calculations out of whack
The term “breakthrough infection,” as we’ve all learned, refers to any SARS-CoV-2 infection that occurs in someone who is vaccinated.
From the start, public health officials made it clear that breakthrough infections would be a thing. While the vaccines we have are highly effective, they’re not perfect. And when you’re vaccinating hundreds of millions of people across the country — and billions around the globe — it’s a statistical certainty that some vaccinated individuals are going to get sick and die.
People seeking to downplay (or flat out deny) the utility of vaccines have seized on breakthrough infections as evidence that our shots aren’t getting the job done. And as the Delta variant has driven up the number of breakthrough infections, plenty of people outside the anti-vaccination camp have begun to fret that our immunizations may not provide adequate protection against this evolving virus.
The truth is, when it comes to a vaccinated person’s real risk for hospitalization or death due to Covid-19, the emergence of the Delta variant has changed nothing. You were exceedingly unlikely to get…
