Some fully vaccinated people have developed COVID-19, which is expected. One physician explains what to know about COVID-19 vaccination and breakthrough infections.
The three COVID-19 vaccines available in the United States—from Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson—are doing exactly what they were meant to do: protect against severe illness and hospitalization. But with the more dangerous Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 spreading rapidly, the U.S. is seeing more COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough infections.
Nevertheless, the fact remains that getting vaccinated is effective in preventing people from getting severely ill or dying from the disease. Even as new COVID-19 variants appear, vaccines continue to hold their ground. But since no vaccine is perfect, it is expected that we will see some COVID-19 breakthrough infections.
More than 161 million people in the U.S. have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Meanwhile, the CDC reports that there have been more than 10,000 COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough cases. However, while the CDC initially tracked all breakthrough COVID-19 infections, as of May 1 the agency shifted to only tracking those linked to hospitalization or death. Over 5,100 patients with COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough infections were hospitalized or died.
To add to that, 25 states report some data on COVID-19 breakthrough events with 15 of those states regularly updating their data, according to Kaiser Family Foundation data. Data from these states indicates that breakthrough COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths are extremely rare among those who are fully vaccinated with the rate of infection well below 1% in all reporting states.
The agency defines a breakthrough COVID-19 infection as “a small percentage of fully vaccinated persons” who “will still get COVID-19 if they are exposed to the virus that causes it.” To that end, these vaccine breakthrough cases mean that “while people who have been vaccinated are much less likely to get sick, it will still happen in some cases.”
A breakthrough case is defined as “detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA or antigen in respiratory specimen collected from a person 14 days after receipt of all recommended doses” of one of the three vaccines authorized in the U.S., said AMA member Devang Sanghavi, MD. That means two weeks after the second shot of Moderna or Pfizer mRNA vaccines, or two weeks after the one-shot J&J COVID-19 vaccine.
While there is still more that physicians and scientists have to learn about this fast-moving topic, Dr. Sanghavi—an intensivist and medical director of the medical intensivist unit at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida—took time to discuss what doctors wish patients knew about COVID-19 breakthrough infections.
Breakthrough infections are uncommon
Breakthrough COVID-19 infections are “not very common, fortunately,” said Dr. Sanghavi. “That’s why I recommend and insist to my patients that they should get vaccinated. There’s hardly any contraindication for getting vaccinated.”
In May, a CDC report found that there were around 10,000 patients with breakthrough COVID-19 infections out of the “more than 100 million people who got vaccinated,” he explained, emphasizing that “that was just a very small subset that was reported out.”
Most breakthrough infections are mild
“Because people who are vaccinated have had some immunity, some antibodies, a majority of these breakthrough cases are going to be asymptomatic,” said Dr. Sanghavi. “According to the data, reported by CDC and other publications, it seems like around 25% to 30% of the patients who have had breakthrough infections are completely asymptomatic.
“There are about 50% to 60% of the patients who would have some symptoms, but are mild and still may not need hospitalization,” he added. "The severity of the symptoms of these COVID breakthrough infection cases would be milder, but in certain patients you may still need all the aggressive care that we provide to an unimmunized person who gets a COVID infection.”
“For 90% of the patients, the breakthrough infection would be mild, but for 10% of the patients, they would still require hospitalization,” said Dr. Sanghavi. But then “1% to 2% of those hospitalized from breakthrough infections may still die, unfortunately. So, it’s still a concern.”
“That is the reason why everybody should get vaccinated—because even if you are immunosuppressed and get a breakthrough infection, that infection would be mild as compared to a regular infection,” he said.
Breakthrough infections are not new
While the term might be unfamiliar to most people, breakthrough infections have been seen many times before with other vaccines that protect against other diseases, said Dr. Sanghavi.
“It’s kind of more mainstream now because of COVID, the pandemic and how it’s created global attention ... but traditional vaccines in the past also have had their breakthrough infections, so this isn’t new.”
No vaccine is perfect
One reason why fully vaccinated people might develop breakthrough COVID-19 infections “is the characteristics of the vaccine itself and how efficacious the vaccine is, because there is not a single vaccine that we know of that is 100% effective,” explained Dr. Sanghavi. “We know from initial trials from both mRNA vaccines that the effectiveness was somewhere around 94% and 95%—slightly lower in the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.”
“The study environment is different because these are patients who were carefully selected when the trial rolled out. After the FDA gave its EUA [emergency use authorization], and it was given to a lot of the general population, we found that the real-world effectiveness of the vaccine is lower at around 90%,” he said. “That means that there are inherent characteristics of the vaccine itself when it reacts with the patient and the comorbidities of the patient that would itself lead to ineffective immunization in certain populations.”
Efficacy depends on the individual
“To add to the vaccine characteristics, you also add patient characteristics,” Dr. Sanghavi explained. Patients with immunosuppressed status after organ transplantation, those who are post-hematologic malignancy, or those who are older “have higher chances of getting COVID-19 despite being fully vaccinated,” noting that “we see a lot of these patients in our practice.”
High-risk cases also include “patients who are immunosuppressed for other medical conditions such as liver disease, cirrhosis and end-stage renal disease,” he said, adding that “all those factors make the patient who gets the vaccine react in a different way, and they may not find the antibodies as compared to other healthy individuals who got the vaccine—that leads to a fully vaccinated person getting COVID.”
New variants play a leading role
Apart from the vaccine and patient characteristics, breakthrough COVID-19 infections can occur because of the “virus itself,” said Dr. Sanghavi. “What you’re seeing right now is there are reports about newer variants such as the Delta variant, which is rampant and is a predominant feature in a lot of the world right now.”
Compared to the original virus, the Delta variant’s “inoculum is three to four times higher and that’s why it’s more infectious,” he said, adding that “we have some reports that suggest that the sera of immunized patients—when it reacts to the Delta variant—that antibody is not as effective as it is in the original virus.”
“The challenge with this virus, since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, is that it is evolving and adapting and some of these variants are more viral and spreading faster,” Dr. Sanghavi said. “And so far, at least, what we know is that the three vaccines that we have in America are protecting against the Delta variant.
“This is good news, but the concern always is that if there is another variant and the current vaccines that we have don’t provide that immunity that we have right now,” he added.
SARS-CoV-2 is still easily transmitted
Though breakthrough COVID-19 infections remain rare, the viral loads are similar to those who are unvaccinated. That means such infections among fully immunized patients could be transmitted to others who are unvaccinated or have compromised immune systems.
This led to the CDC’s change in masking recommendation for those who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
If suspected, get tested
Patients who have had transplants, are on active chemotherapy, have liver issues, kidney disease on dialysis, are older, or immunosuppressed for some other reason—should “look out for those symptoms of COVID-19 because, although they are vaccinated, they can still get the infection,” he said. If someone has been exposed to a person with COVID-19 or suspect they might have the disease, it is important to get tested.”
Seek care from your physician
“If someone has symptoms of COVID, which is cough, fever, shortness of breath, loss of taste, smell or sensations, they should seek care from their primary care physician,” said Dr. Sanghavi, adding that “they should also get tested.”
Additionally, “they should let the experts guide the next step of care,” he said. “Depending on how severe the disease is, that would determine whether they need oxygen or not, whether they would need steroids or not, whether they would need remdesivir or not, and all the other algorithms would all depend on the clinical severity of that disease in the breakthrough case.”
You should absolutely still get vaccinated
“As long as there are people who are not vaccinated, as long as this virus is around in any part of this world, and as long as those variants exist—whether that would be Delta, Lambda or any other variant—this will spread and that can lead to resurgence and more waves of this pandemic or disease,” Dr. Sanghavi explained. “That’s why I would strongly insist and request everybody out there who’s not vaccinated to get vaccinated at least—that would be them doing their part.”
“That is the only way out of this pandemic,” he said, adding that “otherwise there will be new variants and strands that would test our immunity against the vaccines that we have.”
To learn more about COVID-19 vaccine developments, visit the AMA vaccine resource guide.