It's hard to disentangle what's most responsible for the rise in breakthrough infections this summer - whether it's the delta variant itself, waning immunity in some people or that much of the U.S. Look at data collected from Los Angeles County over the summer as the delta variant started to surge in Southern California: Unvaccinated people were five times more likely to test positive than those who were vaccinated. The vaccinated still have a considerably lower chance of getting infected than those who aren't protected that way. is very challenging" because our "data is so shoddy." "I think the chance of having a symptomatic infection has gone up substantially."īut he adds, "Quantifying that in the U.S. Eric Topol, a professor of molecular medicine at the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, Calif. "It's a totally different ballgame with this delta phase," says Dr.
It used to be quite rare, but the rise of delta has changed the odds. "I don't think our goal should be to achieve zero risk, because that's unrealistic." How high are my chances of getting a breakthrough case these days? With more people vaccinated, the total number of breakthrough infections will rise, and that's not unexpected, he says. This isn't to be alarmist but to clear away expectations that COVID-19 is out of your life, and keep up your vigilance about common-sense precautions. So if you'd hoped to avoid getting sick at all, even slightly, it may be time for a "reset," Duchin says. It's hard to keep dialing up and down your risk calculations. "I think we - in the public health community, in the medical community - facilitated the impression that these vaccines are bulletproof." "There was so much initial euphoria about how well these vaccines work," says Jeff Duchin, an infectious disease physician and the public health officer for Seattle and King County.
Shots - Health News Babies, The Delta Variant And COVID: What Parents Need To Know And that made getting sick from the virus unnerving. They were given the greenlight because they greatly lower your chance of getting seriously ill or dying.īut it was easy for me - and I'm not the only one - to grab onto the idea that, after so many months of trying not to get COVID-19, that the vaccine was, more or less, the finish line. The vaccines aren't a force field that ward off all things COVID-19. Here's what you should know about getting a breakthrough case - and what I wish I'd known when those first symptoms laid me low: Is it time for a reality check about what the vaccines can - and can't do? The reality is breakthrough cases are becoming more common.
#Minor covid symptoms timeline full#
And now, about a month later, I've made a full recovery. "You probably would have gotten much sicker if you had not been vaccinated," Francesca Torriani, an infectious disease physician at the University of California, San Diego, explained to me recently.Īs I shuffled around my room checking my fever, it was also reassuring to know that my chances of ending up in the hospital were slim, even with the delta variant. And, in much of the world, vaccines are still a distant promise. I didn't go up against the virus with a naive immune system, like millions of Americans did until vaccines were widely available.
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