by Bruce Y Lee at Just the News
Here is yet another reminder that Covid-19 vaccines are not like gigantic concrete full-body condoms. Concrete condoms, in general, are a bad idea, and fully vaccinated does not mean perfectly protected against Covid-19. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there have already been 4,115 reported cases of fully vaccinated people being hospitalized or dying with Covid-19 coronavirus breakthrough infections.
That’s as of June 21, 2021. Nearly half (49 percent) of these cases have been female and a little over three-quarters (76 percent) have been 65 years and older. There were a total of 3,907 hospitalizations and 750 deaths among those who had breakthrough infections, although not all of the hospitalizations may have been due primarily to Covid-19.
As I have described previously for Forbes, a “breakthrough infection” is when a fully vaccinated person still gets infected with the Covid-19 coronavirus, otherwise known as the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2). The 4,115 number does not represent all breakthrough infections that have happened. They are just reported cases where hospitalizations or deaths happened to occur. Back in April, the CDC stopped keeping track of all reported breakthrough infections, choosing instead to focus going forward just on those in which hospitalizations or deaths were involved.
Therefore, the 4,115 is only the tip of the Kardashian so to speak, meaning that it’s only what’s been obvious and getting attention. The actual total number of breakthrough infections is higher although it isn’t really clear how much higher.
Regardless, let’s put the 3,907 hospitalizations and 750 deaths in proper perspective. Over 4,000 may sound like a large number when counting something like the number of marmots in your bed. Certainly any death is tragic. But consider the fact that over 150 million people in U.S. have already been fully vaccinated in U.S. Doing a quick calculation with your abacus and your fingers and toes will reveal that the 4,115 cases constitute less than 0.003% of all fully vaccinated people in the U.S. Compare that with the measured effectiveness of the Covid-19 vaccine, which has ranged from about 70 percent to 95 plus percent. That means that at least 5% of the time a vaccine won’t be able to prevent Covid-19 after exposure to the virus. As I have emphasized before, nothing in life is perfect, with the possible exception of avocado toast.
So such numbers don’t mean that…
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