Vaccinated people are less likely to spread COVID if they get it

• Dr Anthony Fauci said it would be “reasonable” to assume that those vaccinated are less likely to spread COVID-19.
• Vaccinated people who receive COVID-19 usually have less virus in their nasal passages.
• This would suggest that breakthrough infections are less contagious than infections in unvaccinated people.

Fully vaccinated people who get “breakthrough” cases of COVID-19 are probably less likely to spread the virus to others, Dr Anthony Fauci said in a White House briefing today.

When asked if groundbreaking cases are contributing to the spread of the coronavirus in the United States, the nation’s top infectious disease expert said it would be “a reasonable assumption” to say that vaccinated people who contract COVID -19 are less likely to transmit it than unvaccinated people. .

Fauci said that vaccinated people who develop asymptomatic infections have “considerably less” virus in their nasal passages compared to unvaccinated people with asymptomatic infections.

“I think one can make a reasonable assumption, based on the level of virus in the nasopharynx, that this revolutionary vaccinated person would be less likely to transmit compared to an unvaccinated person,” Fauci said at the conference. briefing.

Mild cases may have a smaller transmission window

Fauci’s theory may soon be backed up with real-world data. He mentioned a large, ongoing study that is currently tracking transmission in vaccinated and unvaccinated people.

Will Lee, vice president of science at Helix, a testing company helping CDC variants track, previously told Insider that areas with higher vaccination rates tend to have fewer cases of COVID-19 , even with the Delta variant circulating.

Studies in the US and UK have indicated that Delta cases are generally milder in people who have been vaccinated. This means they are likely to be infectious for a shorter period of time, which narrows the window of transmission, Lee said.

Additionally, Israeli studies have confirmed that people who contract COVID-19 despite being fully vaccinated generally have significantly less virus in their system, as Fauci said. The results have yet to be peer-reviewed, but they add to growing evidence that those vaccinated are less likely to transmit the coronavirus.

With the Delta variant – “a terrific variant,” according to Fauci – circulating around the world, vaccination is at the very least a powerful tool in avoiding hospitalization, and it can also help curb transmission.