Breakthrough is becoming more common compared to just a few months ago.

When a COVID-19 vaccinated person becomes infected with coronavirus, the CDC uses breakthrough to describe this situation. Initially, there were very few breakthrough cases. However, it seems lately that something has happened that changed the risk of becoming a breakthrough statistic.

Maybe the vaccination effectiveness is beginning to wane? Most do not think so. Perhaps the Delta variant is stronger than the vaccine? Again, most people are not of that opinion.

CDC Breakthrough Cases

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/effectiveness/why-measure-effectiveness/breakthrough-cases.html. The CDC correctly informs us that no vaccine is 100% effective 100% of the time. Some fully vaccinated people will become infected, whether it be COVID-19 or another disease that a person has been vaccinated against.

Fully vaccinated people are being told that if you are a breakthrough case, then the severity of your symptoms should be mild and most likely will not require hospitalization or increase your risk of death. However, the most significant risk associated with breakthrough people is that they can infect others – whether symptomatic or not.

We believe the unvaccinated are most of the new cases of COVID-19 being reported. However, some places like Marin County, California, or Singapore make little sense.

Marin County, California

https://bit.ly/3kQLuvm. Marin County, California, has one of the highest COVID-19 vaccination rates in the country – over 80% when the survivors of coronavirus are included in the totals. Yet, from the middle of March 2021, through the beginning of the July 4th weekend, the average daily new case rate was hovering around ten cases. Sometimes, slightly higher and many days less than five reported cases.

After July 4th, the number of new cases of COVID-19 shot upward with a few days over 100 cases/day and averaging around 45 daily cases. What happened? Did unvaccinated infected people who freely circulated before July 4th suddenly interact with other unvaccinated people? That seems unlikely. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/marin-california-covid-cases.html

Could breakthrough people assume they were not contagious add to the rapid increase in new COVID-19 cases? Maybe. The good news is that daily deaths from COVID-19 have not increased. It has been rare for daily deaths to exceed two/day since June. This past week, the number of daily deaths remains flat – at around two/day or less.

Singapore

https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations?country=SGP. Roughly 80% of the residents of Singapore are vaccinated. This does not include those surviving the pandemic virus. Less than three percent of the population has not received the second dose making Singapore one of the top places in the world for vaccinated people.

From September 2020 through almost the middle of July 2021, the new daily cases of COVID-19 stayed below 30 cases/day. However, the last week of July 2021 saw an increase to 150 cases/day, and then the caseload skyrocketed to 1,500 cases/day this week. And the trend is still increasing. This is higher than any past reporting of COVID-19 in Singapore since records were kept.

Who is doing all the infecting? Less than 20% of the population is unvaccinated, and Singapore had control of the spread of the pandemic virus for months. So are the unvaccinated responsible for the dramatic increase in new cases? Probably not. Are the vaccinated (breakthrough) people responsible? Maybe.

The good news is that the number of deaths in Singapore has remained at one death per day from COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. However, this week a few days have seen an increase of up to three daily deaths from COVID-19.

Conclusion

Something is causing an alarming increase in new cases of COVID-19. My opinion is that many breakthrough cases are asymptomatic, and the increase in new COVID-19 cases is caused by vaccinated people. Unfortunately, that is not an opinion held by many. How else can the numbers be explained? Some might blame it on the Delta variant.

We know that places like Ireland and Israel are seeing and reporting over 50% of new COVID-19 hospitalizations are those who are fully vaccinated. What is causing so many fully vaccinated people to become infected and requiring hospitalization? Again, I do not know, but I speculate that it might do with breakthrough cases.

If breakthrough cases are part of the cause of the increase in recent new cases of COVID-19, is it because of the effectiveness of the vaccine, the laxity of personal protective measures, or something else? I will leave that answer to the powers who track and report.

The good news is that daily deaths are not increasing even if new cases are ten (Marin County) or five hundred times higher (Singapore) than previously reported.

I live in the Houston, Texas, area. Our new cases of COVID-19 are as high as any other time that statistics were reported – 2,000-3,500/day since the beginning of August 2021. The daily deaths from COVID-19 are a concern since they are climbing and averaging around 40/day – a higher number than other death statistics reported since the summer of 2020.

Five hundred COVID-19 patients are occupying just over 1,400 ICU beds, with another 500 ICU beds open. The Effective Reproduction Rate is continuing to fall, as is the daily positive tests for COVID-19. However, both rates are approaching normal community control levels.

Live Longer & Enjoy Life! – Red O’Laughlin – RedOLaughlin.com

 

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