Officials have identified variants from 58 breakthrough cases. They know 26 were alpha cases. Only two were delta cases.
Breakthrough cases inevitable
Heath experts expect breakthrough cases to happen because COVID-19 vaccines are not 100% effective. As more people get vaccinated, more breakthrough cases will happen.
“It’s simple statistics,” said Dr. Joshua LaBaer, executive director of Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute. “The first thing we have to always remember is that no vaccine is perfect. That’s one of these lessons that we learn when we go to medical school, because the truth is people aren’t perfect.”
The number of breakthrough cases will also likely increase as the delta variant spreads. Several studies have reported a reduction in vaccine efficacy against the delta variant.
“But breakthrough cases are still going to represent a minority of the cases,” Gerald said. “In absolute numbers they’re likely to increase, but still those larger numbers aren’t meaningful in the big picture of all the people getting infected.”
A recent study from Israel reported a dramatic drop in the efficacy rate of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for fully vaccinated people, down to around 64%.
Health experts who talked to the Arizona Daily Star warned that data from the Israeli study should not be considered in isolation.