“We are going to see revolutionary cases” and it does not matter, says the doctor

The recent COVID outbreak among the New York Yankees baseball team underscores the fact that coronavirus vaccines are not 100% effective but are still crucial in preventing hospitalizations and deaths.

“There is a lot of talk about how people get COVID anyway, even if they are vaccinated, and it is true and it is expected because there is no vaccine that is 100% all the time. time, ”Dr. Esther Choo, professor of emergency medicine at Oregon Health and Science University, said on Yahoo Finance Live (video above). “So we see these revolutionary cases. Many of them are asymptomatic, completely symptom-free, and they are tested as part of contact tracing or other screening so that they can continue certain activities or have very mild symptoms. “

In the case of the Yankees, six players have reportedly tested positive, including All-Star Aaron Judge. According to reports, five of the six players are vaccinated and asymptomatic and have only been tested as part of the contact tracing protocol. The remaining player is not vaccinated and was the one showing symptoms, although the identity of that player has not been made public.

“For us that should be a great illustrative case of how it can decrease,” Choo said. “The good news is that no one is seriously ill. We know for sure that three of the Yankees players are vaccinated and have tested positive. And so, we see what we know to be true, which is, we are going to see revolutionary cases. “

All vaccines approved in the United States protect against serious illness and death. The vaccines from Pfizer (PFE) and Moderna (MRNA) are 95% and 94.1% effective against basic diseases, respectively, while the vaccine from Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) is 72% effective. (According to Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, all three vaccines were used among all six players.)

As of July 6, there was a 0.003% chance of a severe case of COVID.

“Even when there are groundbreaking cases, for now we find that people still have protections that prevent them from getting seriously ill, being hospitalized and being at greater risk of death,” said Choo. “It remains a very effective vaccine [initiative], and the message is that people should always get vaccinated. This means that we cannot really rest on our laurels.

The story continues

Why wearing masks is still important in the middle of the Delta variant

The Delta variant now accounts for the majority of COVID cases in the United States, according to the CDC. And while vaccines are apparently effective against it, the strain is believed to be more contagious than other variants that appeared earlier in the pandemic.

“I think in a lot of places, with the opening of restaurants and other businesses, we started to feel like we were getting out of it,” Choo said. “But the Delta variant really changed the equation. So in places like LA, where cases are increasing and hospitalizations and deaths are increasing, we need to go back to the safety measures that were in place a few months ago. Things like wearing a universal mask indoors.

It is not clear whether fully vaccinated individuals can still transmit the disease to others, which is part of why doctors like Choo continue to wear their masks in hospitals even though most of them are fully vaccinated. .

“We can’t say, ‘I’m vaccinated, so there’s no way I can acquire or spread COVID,” ”Choo said. “This is why in many settings like hospitals, even though we have very high vaccination rates, we continue to wear masks. We have medically vulnerable patients. There is not a zero chance of transmission, even with a full vaccination. There is a lot of variability depending on the host.

“If I have some kind of immunodeficiency that prevents things from a full response to the vaccine, I may be more vulnerable,” she continued. “So there are a lot of exceptions. There are certainly places, times and places where we need to continue to wear a mask even with the vaccination, but it is a layer of protection that is still extremely effective to this day. “

Los Angeles County is one of a cluster of places across the country that have returned to implementing face mask warrants in response to the growing number of cases – most of which have been attributed to unvaccinated people. , which Choo described as “good news for the vaccinated.” . “

“In LA County, all hospitalized cases are among the unvaccinated, and we’re seeing the same pattern among the deaths,” she said. “More than 99% of hospitalizations and deaths are among the unvaccinated. We find that this disease is largely preventable now, and we really need to keep pushing for vaccination everywhere and in every population. “

Adriana Belmonte is a journalist and health policy and policy editor for Yahoo Finance. You can follow her on Twitter @adrianambells and contact her at [email protected].

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