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The Truth About COVID-19 Breakthrough Cases
Bottom Line: Breakthrough cases are a thing. This we know. In the ever politically charged world of COVID-19 vaccines however, both sides often oversell the arguments to support their positions. Talk to someone who supports vaccine mandates they’ll often say that only the unvaccinated are hospitalized and die from the virus. That’s not true. Talk to those who are anti-vax and the vaccines don’t work against the variants. That’s also not true. What is true is this.
- The brand of vaccine matters
- All vaccines are fallible
- You’re far more likely to be hospitalized and die from COVID-19 if you’re not vaccinated with any of the vaccines
This takes us to the latest in breakthrough cases. The CDC actively keeps a database with all hospitalizations and deaths from those who’ve been vaccinated for COVID-19. Here’s the most recent information available through August.
- Total breakthrough hospitalizations: 12,908
- Total breakthrough deaths: 2,437
The vaccine rollout stated December 15th. Through August 30th there were 293,911 COVID-19 deaths in the United States this year. That means fewer than 1% of all COVID-19 deaths this year have been breakthrough cases. That’s with a total of 75% of the adult population having now been vaccinated with at least a first dose of COVID-19 vaccine. While complete national COVID-19 hospitalization data doesn’t exist, for perspective, there are more Floridians hospitalized with COVID-19 today than the entirety of all breakthrough hospitalizations thus far this year nationally – it's likely breakthrough hospitalization rates are 1% or lower of the total as well. This data confirms that while breakthrough cases occur, it’s held true that the vaccines have been extremely effective against the worst effects of COVID-19.