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- Fully vaccinated people who contract COVID-19 may be less contagious than unvaccinated people, according to a study.
- Scientists looked at 161 “breakthrough” infections in 24,706 health workers, mostly caused by Delta.
- Vaccinated people cleared the virus faster than unvaccinated people, they said.
Fully vaccinated people who catch the Delta variant appear to be less contagious than unvaccinated people who have COVID-19, early research suggests.
A Dutch study led by scientists at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam also found that fully vaccinated people who caught the Delta variant got rid of the virus faster than unvaccinated people who caught a less infectious strain.
Particles of the virus in the nose and throat of vaccinated people were less likely to be infectious than in unvaccinated people, the study authors said.
This was despite the fact that the two groups initially carried a similar level of virus, the researchers said.
Research adds to a growing body of evidence that vaccines help slow the spread of the Delta variant beyond just stopping the infection. In theory, if you are less contagious for less time, you are less likely to transmit the virus. A multicenter study from Singapore, published on July 31, reported similar results.
But there is still work to be done before definitive conclusions can be drawn about the impact of vaccines on transmission.
Data shows that vaccines work against the Delta variant and that “breakthrough infections” – that is, when a vaccinated person contracts COVID-19 – are generally mild.
In the Dutch study, researchers looked at COVID-19 lab tests of 161 breakthrough infections in 24,706 fully vaccinated health workers between April and July. Delta caused most of the infections.
About 85% of the 161 rupture infections were symptomatic, but none required hospitalization, the researchers said.
More than half of people in the vaccinated group, who were on average 25 years old, had received Moderna’s vaccine, but the authors said the results were similar in people vaccinated with Pfizer, AstraZeneca or Johnson & Johnson COVID- vaccines. 19.
Delta became dominant after most of the country’s health workers were vaccinated, so for the control group, the researchers tested unvaccinated people who caught a less infectious strain of the virus between April and December 2020.
Read more: Experts explain why mRNA technology that revolutionized COVID-19 vaccines could be the answer to incurable diseases, heart attacks and even snakebites: “The possibilities are endless”
People who have been vaccinated can still be contagious
The Singaporean and Dutch studies both measured the number of viral particles, which is considered the best indicator of how contagious a person is – but it is an imperfect measure that varies from person to person and throughout the illness.
Neither study has been peer reviewed by other experts.
Dutch scientists have warned that infectious viral particles were found in 68.6% of breakthrough cases.
“The infectivity of people with breakthrough infections should not be overlooked,” they said.
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