Thread by @sailorrooscout

“Breakthrough” infections DO NOT mean vaccines don’t work. Remember, they are preventatives, NOT cures. One can still contract COVID once vaccinated. As long as that vaccine is preventing you from facing severe disease and worse, it IS working and doing what it was designed to.

The term infection refers to the virus entering and being detectable in your system regardless of whether OR NOT it makes you sick, whereas the term illness refers to the virus entering, being detectable in your system AND making you sick. It it important not to conflate the two.

The first thing to know about the COVID-19 vaccines is that they’re doing exactly what they were designed and authorized to do. Since the vaccines first started their rollout late last year, rates of COVID-19 disease have taken an unprecedented plunge among the immunized.

The second thing to know about the COVID-19 vaccines is that they’re flame retardants, not impenetrable firewalls, when it comes to the coronavirus. Some vaccinated people are still getting infected, and a small subset of these individuals is still getting sick

-and this is completely expected. “Breakthroughs” are known to occur after vaccination against other diseases, such as influenza and measles. Why? Because NO VACCINE IS 100% EFFECTIVE.

“Even the measles vaccine, which is incredibly effective, fails to protect about 3% of vaccinated individuals who are exposed to the virus. Jonas Salk's polio vaccine-hailed a medical miracle- was 80% to 90% effective at preventing paralysis caused by the polio virus.”

So, for those saying the Polio vaccine is sterilizing? Try again. It took a DECADE for Polio to be eliminated in the U.S. and even longer for other parts of the world and guess what? It is still not fully eradicated. It’s still endemic in some countries. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28718581/

Measles and Polio breakthrough infections aren't just rare because the vaccines are so effective but also because those who are vaccinated rarely interact with infected people. Even with highly effective vaccines for COVID-19, breakthrough infections are likely to keep happening

because the virus is so widespread and we have highly transmissible variants like Omicron and it’s sub-lineages. For lighter reading on the subject I suggest:
•smithsonianmag.com/science-nature…
•scientificamerican.com/article/breakt…
•theatlantic.com/science/archiv…
•theatlantic.com/science/archiv…

•theatlantic.com/science/archiv…
•theatlantic.com/science/archiv…
With Omicron on our doorstep, are we more likely to see breakthroughs and reinfections? Indeed. BUT at the same time we are seeing LESS hospitalizations and deaths.

As @angie_rasmussen says: "Polio is just one example of how vaccines work to reduce R even when they imperfectly prevent infection. What does the data say for Omicron?" I HIGHLY recommend reading this thread AND all the studies within. I’ll link them here.

https://twitter.com/angie_rasmussen/status/1485962165051817984?s=21

Articles and Studies on Protection
•aljazeera.com/news/2022/1/22…
•nejm.org/doi/full/10.10…
•jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/…
•medrxiv.org/content/10.110…

Breakthrough infections typically cause mild to moderate symptoms, if one develops symptoms at all. Another benefit of vaccines is that they shorten the length of illness for many individuals who do become infected. Vaccination REDUCES disease severity and duration of illness.

A great line from Dr. Rasmussen’s thread: “Vaccines work but not instantly. Polio elimination took years and that was with an extremely pro-vaccine public who couldn’t wait to not get Polio. Just because the vaccines aren’t working on your timetable doesn’t mean they don’t work.”