Do people in Louisiana get COVID after vaccines? Yes, but “revolutionary cases” are expected | Health care / hospitals

More than 120 fully vaccinated people in Louisiana have tested positive for COVID-19 more than two weeks after their last dose of the vaccine, according to officials from the Louisiana Department of Health.

That there are a small number of so-called “rupture cases” is no surprise, officials say. “I think this is what you would expect from the trials,” said Dr. Joe Kanter, Louisiana’s public health official.

A recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that Pfizer and Moderna are about 90% effective against infection once two weeks after the last dose has been passed. Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine is about 72% effective against moderate to severe disease, according to US trials.

State officials are tracking “rupture cases” to help understand transmission between people vaccinated and whether vaccines might not work as well against certain strains of the virus. And although breakthrough cases are rare – 126 cases out of 568,968 fully vaccinated people equates to about 0.02%, or about 1 case per 4,500 people vaccinated to date – they are a reminder that people who have been vaccinated should take such precautions. than masking. and outrun in public.

“The vaccine is not a blank check to do what you want,” said Dr. Julio Figueroa, infectious disease manager at LSU Health New Orleans.

Groundbreaking cases are sometimes identified by mandatory tests before surgery or to return to work, and not because people who have been vaccinated show symptoms.

As more people get vaccinated, the rate of breakthrough new cases is expected to decline, Figueroa said. This is in part because research shows that vaccinated people who contract COVID, whether symptomatic or not, carry a lower viral load and transmit the disease less.

“What we want to do is give up viral shedding of the entire population so that we have less and less transmission,” Figueroa said.

Other states and researchers are also tracking groundbreaking cases, with results also suggesting that this is a rare event. A study from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas found that only four of 8,121 employees who were at least two weeks after their last dose were infected – about 0.04%. Another revealed that only seven of 14,990 employees at two California hospitals were later infected, a similar rate.

In Washington state, only about 100 of the 1.2 million fully vaccinated people have tested positive for the coronavirus. Most showed mild symptoms, according to clinical trial results suggesting vaccines reduce the severity of the disease.

But eight of those groundbreaking cases resulted in hospitalization and two people who died were being investigated as groundbreaking cases, according to the Washington State Department of Health. Both were over 80 years old and had health problems.

Louisiana officials were unable to share data on the severity of the disease in breakthrough cases or say what vaccines individuals received.

The CDC recommends that vaccinated people continue to wear masks in public and around unvaccinated people. Experts said that advice could loosen as more people get vaccinated, but widespread vaccination is needed to provide protective coverage to vulnerable people.

“You want to vaccinate the population as much as possible to get that herd immunity,” Figueroa said. “These sensitive people, even if they have been vaccinated, will be protected.”

Emily Woodruff covers public health for The Times-Picayune | New Orleans attorney as a member of the Report For America corps.