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Breaking down breakthrough COVID-19 infections

Aug 28, 2021 | Kanaaz Pereira, Connect Moderator | @kanaazpereira | Comments (11)

While vaccines are doing what they were designed to do — prevent severe illness, hospitalization, and death — very well, there are breakthrough cases. Dr. Andrew Badley, chair of the Mayo Clinic COVID-19 Task Force, explains.

As the COVID-19 delta variant continues to spread, many parts of the U.S. are seeing cases surge. While most severe infections and hospitalizations are among those who have not been vaccinated, breakthrough cases among those who have been vaccinated for COVID-19 have led many to wonder how concerned fully vaccinated people should be.

Dr. Badley says not all breakthrough infections are the same.

"I think it is misguided to lump all breakthrough infections together because they're very different," says Dr. Badley.

To put it into perspective, Dr. Badley breaks down breakthrough infections into three categories:

Group 1

"Group No. 1 of so-called breakthrough infections are vaccinated people who, without any symptoms whatsoever, acquire infection, and it's diagnosed as part of routine screening," says Dr. Badley. "These vaccines were not designed to prevent that infection. These vaccines were designed to prevent hospitalization, severe illness and death. They do that very, very well. In a recent study that Mayo was associated with, the amount of death in vaccinated people was zero. So it's very, very effective at that."

Group 2

"The second kind of breakthrough infection is a vaccinated person getting symptomatic disease," says Dr. Badley. "For a vaccine that is 90% effective, which all of these approved vaccines are more or less, you expect to see symptomatic infections in 10% of cases. The fact that we're seeing some of these vaccinated people get symptomatic disease is therefore expected."

Group 3

"The third kind of breakthrough infection are those people with impaired immune systems," says Dr. Badley. "We don't expect those people to respond to the vaccine as well. In fact, that is why they were the first group recommended to receive the third booster dose. In those patients, through no fault of their own, they cannot respond to the vaccine as well as your normal host, for lack of a better word. Those are some of the people we're seeing going into hospital now. So when you consider the specifics of breakthrough infections, we can see that the efficacy of the vaccines in terms of what they are designed to do, which is to prevent serious illness, hospitalization and death, the efficacy remains very, very strong. These vaccines are behaving exactly as we expect them to."

Vaccination remains the best way to protect yourself from COVID-19, along with masking and social distancing.

Originally published on the Mayo Clinic News Network. 

2 Reactions

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sunshinevr | @sunshinevr | Sep 2, 2021

Many many people who are in the hospital are not people who are not vaccinated, I would guess vaccinated people are in the hospital dying from the the results of the vaccine I have family who were vaccinated and they both were tested positive for covid and was sick over a month I also know several people including friends who have been tested positive after two months of being vaccinated.

Editor's Note:
Editor’s Note:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/safety/adverse-events.html

Reports of death after COVID-19 vaccination are rare. More than 363 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered in the United States from December 14, 2020, through August 23, 2021. During this time, VAERS received 6,968 reports of death (0.0019%) among people who received a COVID-19 vaccine. FDA requires healthcare providers to report any death after COVID-19 vaccination to VAERS, even if it’s unclear whether the vaccine was the cause. Reports of adverse events to VAERS following vaccination, including deaths, do not necessarily mean that a vaccine caused a health problem. A review of available clinical information, including death certificates, autopsy, and medical records, has not established a causal link to COVID-19 vaccines. However, recent reports indicate a plausible causal relationship between the J&J/Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine and TTS, a rare and serious adverse event—blood clots with low platelets—which has caused deaths.

REPLY
1 reply
ca2fl2010 | @ca2fl2010 | Sep 2, 2021

So, I guess your "guess" has a substantive medical foundation. Yeah, right.

REPLY
teacher502 | @teacher502 | Sep 2, 2021

I KNOW the facts from the CDC and other reputable medical research groups would prove much of your statement to be inaccurate.

REPLY
teacher502 | @teacher502 | Sep 2, 2021

I somehow missed the guidelines. Thank you for posting and for the reminder.

REPLY
petuniamom567 | @petuniamom567 | Sep 2, 2021

When do you recommend getting the booster shot?Articles aren't clear. In my area, boosters are already being given at drug stores and super markets. My doctor says wait until Sept.20, get the flu shot first. If you have an underlying cause, why not receive shot now if proper time has elapsed? Also, there's an article on kidney disease in today's NY Times. This seems to be a major underlying cause that no one is
mentioning and is fairly common. Shouldn't this disease be added to the list. My nephrologist and primary care doctors didn't say one word about kidney disease. It did, however, come to my mind since kidneys are taxed by any bad disease. In addition, the Mayo Clinic is
perhaps the top hospital in the United States, why aren't you vociferously advocating for vaccinations? This remains a mystery. I understand that hospitals don't take part in the playground of politics, but this disease is serious business. It's time for the medical community
to pose a unified front. We don't need places to preserve bodies, we need places to keep hearts beating. Mayo is one of great clinics
Why not consider organizing with other major clinics and make unified statements,PSA's, write twitter? School is starting---for everyone:
The Time IS NOW.

REPLY
2 replies
Moderator
Colleen Young, Connect Director | @colleenyoung | Sep 2, 2021
In reply to @petuniamom567 "When do you recommend getting the booster shot?Articles aren't clear. In my area, boosters are already..." + (show)
@petuniamom567

When do you recommend getting the booster shot?Articles aren't clear. In my area, boosters are already being given at drug stores and super markets. My doctor says wait until Sept.20, get the flu shot first. If you have an underlying cause, why not receive shot now if proper time has elapsed? Also, there's an article on kidney disease in today's NY Times. This seems to be a major underlying cause that no one is
mentioning and is fairly common. Shouldn't this disease be added to the list. My nephrologist and primary care doctors didn't say one word about kidney disease. It did, however, come to my mind since kidneys are taxed by any bad disease. In addition, the Mayo Clinic is
perhaps the top hospital in the United States, why aren't you vociferously advocating for vaccinations? This remains a mystery. I understand that hospitals don't take part in the playground of politics, but this disease is serious business. It's time for the medical community
to pose a unified front. We don't need places to preserve bodies, we need places to keep hearts beating. Mayo is one of great clinics
Why not consider organizing with other major clinics and make unified statements,PSA's, write twitter? School is starting---for everyone:
The Time IS NOW.

Jump to this post

Hi Petunia,
Please see Mayo Clinic's guidance, evidence-based information and up to the minutes news about COVID-19 and vaccinations in these comprehensive and regularly updated resources:

- Mayo Clinic COVID-19 website https://www.mayoclinic.org/coronavirus-covid-19
- Mayo Clinic News Network: COVID-19 https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/category/covid-19/
- Podcasts featuring Mayo Clinic experts https://connect.mayoclinic.org/blog/podcasts/
- Post-COVID Recovery expert blog https://connect.mayoclinic.org/blog/post-covid-recovery/

Regarding COVID vaccine boosters, see these resources:
- What you need to know about COVID-19 booster shots (Aug 20, 2021) https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/what-you-need-to-know-about-covid-19-booster-shots/
- Don’t get COVID-19 booster vaccine too soon (Aug 23, 2021) https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/dont-get-covid-19-booster-vaccine-too-soon/
- Breaking down the booster terminology for COVID-19 vaccines (Aug 18, 2021) https://connect.mayoclinic.org/blog/podcasts/newsfeed-post/breaking-down-the-booster-terminology-for-covid-19-vaccines/

REPLY
Moderator
Colleen Young, Connect Director | @colleenyoung | Sep 2, 2021
In reply to @petuniamom567 "When do you recommend getting the booster shot?Articles aren't clear. In my area, boosters are already..." + (show)
@petuniamom567

When do you recommend getting the booster shot?Articles aren't clear. In my area, boosters are already being given at drug stores and super markets. My doctor says wait until Sept.20, get the flu shot first. If you have an underlying cause, why not receive shot now if proper time has elapsed? Also, there's an article on kidney disease in today's NY Times. This seems to be a major underlying cause that no one is
mentioning and is fairly common. Shouldn't this disease be added to the list. My nephrologist and primary care doctors didn't say one word about kidney disease. It did, however, come to my mind since kidneys are taxed by any bad disease. In addition, the Mayo Clinic is
perhaps the top hospital in the United States, why aren't you vociferously advocating for vaccinations? This remains a mystery. I understand that hospitals don't take part in the playground of politics, but this disease is serious business. It's time for the medical community
to pose a unified front. We don't need places to preserve bodies, we need places to keep hearts beating. Mayo is one of great clinics
Why not consider organizing with other major clinics and make unified statements,PSA's, write twitter? School is starting---for everyone:
The Time IS NOW.

Jump to this post

Mayo Clinic lists kidney disease as a condition that puts people at higher risk for serious symptoms from COVID-19 infection and recommends people with kidney disease get vaccinated and follow COVID safe practices.

- COVID-19: Who's at higher risk of serious symptoms? https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/in-depth/coronavirus-who-is-at-risk/art-20483301

I also found this journal article
- COVID-19 vaccines and kidney disease https://www.nature.com/articles/s41581-021-00406-6
Excerpt:
"Patients with kidney diseases should be prioritized for COVID-19 vaccination and the available data suggest that replication-defective viral-vectored vaccines and mRNA vaccines are safe to use. As vaccine responses are likely to be lower in patients with kidney diseases than in the general population, highly potent vaccines should be preferred."

Petunia, if you have kidney disease, I invite you to join the discussions in the Kidney & Bladder group here: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/group/kidney-conditions/

REPLY
mavolyn | @mavolyn | Sep 2, 2021
In reply to @sunshinevr "Many many people who are in the hospital are not people who are not vaccinated, I..." + (show)
@sunshinevr

Many many people who are in the hospital are not people who are not vaccinated, I would guess vaccinated people are in the hospital dying from the the results of the vaccine I have family who were vaccinated and they both were tested positive for covid and was sick over a month I also know several people including friends who have been tested positive after two months of being vaccinated.

Editor's Note:
Editor’s Note:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/safety/adverse-events.html

Reports of death after COVID-19 vaccination are rare. More than 363 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered in the United States from December 14, 2020, through August 23, 2021. During this time, VAERS received 6,968 reports of death (0.0019%) among people who received a COVID-19 vaccine. FDA requires healthcare providers to report any death after COVID-19 vaccination to VAERS, even if it’s unclear whether the vaccine was the cause. Reports of adverse events to VAERS following vaccination, including deaths, do not necessarily mean that a vaccine caused a health problem. A review of available clinical information, including death certificates, autopsy, and medical records, has not established a causal link to COVID-19 vaccines. However, recent reports indicate a plausible causal relationship between the J&J/Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine and TTS, a rare and serious adverse event—blood clots with low platelets—which has caused deaths.

Jump to this post

"VAERS" is...what exactly? This is not a common term

REPLY
1 reply
mavolyn | @mavolyn | Sep 2, 2021

No, question is in reply to the comment I just read. That was an editor's note to sunshinevr.

REPLY
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