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A medical worker prepares to administer a COVID-19
vaccine in Orange, Calif., on Dec. 16, 2020.
(John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)





Breakthrough Infections,
Deaths Among COVID-19
Vaccinated Rose in Recent Months:
CDC


BY ZACHARY STIEBER
October 30, 2021
Updated: October 31, 2021




Infections, hospitalizations, and deaths linked to COVID-19 have risen in recent
months among people who have gotten a COVID-19 vaccine, according to newly
released data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But the
bulk of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths occurred among unvaccinated Americans,
the data show.

COVID-19 cases per 100,000 among the fully vaccinated increased from 12.3 in late
June to 121 in mid-August, according to the data. Around the same time,
COVID-19-associated hospitalizations in that population rose from 8.9 per 100,000 to 75
and COVID-19 deaths jumped from 0.1 per 100,000 to 1.1.

A stream of studies in recent months have indicated that COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness
is waning, especially against infection from the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus,
which causes COVID-19. The CDC data, gathered from surveillance systems in states
and hospitals, provides another source verifying a drop in protection.

“The marked pronounced change in vaccine effectiveness is likely due to emergence
of the Delta variant as the dominant variant, and the waning of vaccine immunity
over time,” Paul Alexander, a former Trump administration COVID-19 adviser who
has a masters of science in clinical epidemiology and community health,
told The Epoch Times in an email.

“The immunity from the vaccine drops markedly over the few months post vaccine.
The Delta is more infectious (yet far less lethal) but the real issue is that there is a
mismatch as the vaccine does not hit the Delta so there is immune escape. It has
effectively failed against the Delta and the accumulated evidence shows this
(UK, Israel, etc.). So once infections rise, there is usually a hospitalization curve
and then a death curve that follows,” added Alexander, who also consulted for the
World Health Organization.

Scientists often refer to cases, hospitalizations, or deaths that occur in the fully vaccinated
as “breakthroughs.” None of the vaccines are 100 percent effective, and all of them
have declined in effectiveness over time, according to studies and clinical data.
The decline has largely matched the introduction and quick dominance of the
CCP virus’ Delta variant.

A breakdown of the CDC’s data by age showed cases, hospitalizations, and deaths
in the vaccinated increased across all age groups.

Officials in Maryland, which contributed data on cases and deaths, said they’ve seen
an increase in deaths attributed to COVID-19 among the vaccinated.

Of the 190 deaths among confirmed COVID-19 cases between Sept. 16 and Oct. 18
in the state, 32 percent were fully vaccinated people, Andy Owen, deputy director for
media relations for the Maryland Department of Health,
told The Epoch Times in an email.

“Many of these deaths are linked to comorbidities that make patients more vulnerable.
This further underscores our mission to maintain immunity by urging all eligible
Marylanders to get their booster shots. Keep in mind that as the number of our
residents who are vaccinated continues to increase, we expect to see an increase
in the proportion of COVID-related deaths occurring in vaccinated individuals,” he said.

Still, just 295 of the nearly 4 million Marylanders who have been fully vaccinated
have died of COVID-19, officials in the state said.
That’s less than one-hundredth of a percent.

The waning effectiveness of vaccines recently drove drug regulators and the CDC
to authorize and recommend booster shots for millions of Americans, including
everybody who got the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Boosters are needed to generate long-lived immunity with virtually every non-live vaccine,
including polio and hepatitis A shots, said Dr. David Boulware, professor of medicine at
the University of Minnesota’s Division of Infectious Diseases and International Medicine.

“Thus, needing a booster was an expectation for most immunologists, infectious disease
physicians, and/or pediatricians familiar with vaccines. The only question was when?”
he told The Epoch Times in an email.

While data show antibodies from the vaccines are decreasing over time, memory B cells
are retained, which help the human body respond rapidly to infections. However, the
Delta variant brought shorter incubation periods, highlighting a need for a larger
population of the B cells.

“This is achieved with a booster, which is why boosters are beneficial at >6 months.
With boosters, I (and others) expect vaccine breakthrough infections to greatly decrease,
and the emerging data support this,” Boulware said.

The data on breakthrough metrics showed a slight drop in breakthrough cases near
the end of August.

The bulk of the infections, hospitalizations, and deaths were found to be among the
unvaccinated, or people who had no verification of having received a COVID-19 vaccine,
according to the CDC. The agency said the data showed an unvaccinated person in
August had a 6.1 times greater risk of testing positive for COVID-19 and an 11.3 percent
great risk of dying from COVID-19.

Metrics among the unvaccinated did rise across age groups but the data illustrated
how younger, healthy people are at little risk from the disease. Unvaccinated
18- to 29-year-olds saw deaths lower than most fully vaccinated age groups, and
the death rate for unvaccinated 30- to 49-year-olds was well below that of fully
vaccinated people 80 or older and close to that of fully vaccinated 65- to 79-year-olds.

Most of the deaths were among unvaccinated people 65 or older.