Social Question

JLeslie's avatar

Do you know a lot of people who have or had a breakthrough case of COVID?

Asked by JLeslie (65743points) August 19th, 2021 from iPhone

I do. It sucks.

Observing members: 0 Composing members: 0

33 Answers

Mimishu1995's avatar

What is a breakthrough case?

SavoirFaire's avatar

I do not personally know a single person who has had a breakthrough case. And according to a few nurses I know who are currently on COVID-19 duty, there haven’t been any at our local hospital. Then again, we have a very high vaccination rate and a very low infection rate.

@Mimishu1995 A breakthrough case is when someone gets sick from COVID-19 despite being vaccinated. Such cases are uncommon, but they are more likely to happen with the Delta variant.

filmfann's avatar

My daughter’s brother in law. He has cancer in his lungs. He had the J&J.

Mimishu1995's avatar

@SavoirFaire thank you.

No, I don’t know anyone with that yet. But then again the only people who are getting the vaccine, as far as I know, are in HCM city, and they haven’t finished vaccinated everyone yet. So I’m not sure if it’s going to be a thing here.

Zaku's avatar

I don’t know any personally, but I do know a person who knows several people. But that person knows many people.

Jeruba's avatar

No. I don’t know any. So far as I know, I haven’t been near anyone who has had covid at all, and only a very few that I’ve known of at Zoom distance. But around here people have been pretty consistently compliant with masking, and there have been plenty of vaccinations administered. Our governor and local health officials were right on top of it from the start, and I’m grateful to them.

I’m in Northern California, Santa Clara County, where the first shelter-in-place orders in the U.S. went into effect on March 16, 2020.

Hawaii_Jake's avatar

I know of 2, and probably 98% of everyone I know is vaccinated.

JLeslie's avatar

I have real life friends who have breakthrough covid or had it within the last 6 weeks.

The most recent was in a superspreader event at a friend’s place of work, and he and his office mate are both vaccinated and both sick. 12 other people in the work place got sick (32 people work there) and he is not sure of all of their vaccine statuses, but at least 5 are not vaccinated of the other 12. They know who patient zero is, she was coughing up a storm and was asked to go home. Had to be asked! They waited too long to tell her to leave. She must have felt it in her throat on the way into work. Possibly, she was already spreading it around the day before also before the cough started, but each day counts. More people possibly getting infected each day. A 47 year old employee from the superspreader died. She was not vaccinated.

Another real life friend of mine here, her and her husband both had breakthrough cases. They were the first ones I heard about.

A woman I know who bicycles a lot and she and a cycle partner are sick now. She is vaccinated and her illness was similar to a cold. The partner is not vaccinated and very ill, but not hospitalized.

Very good friends of a close friend of mine the couple are both vaccinated. The husband was hospitalized but he’s out still on oxygen. She was sick at home. They think they caught it in the airport. They said people were coughing all around them.

There are more people I know of in my community (but I don’t know them like I know the people I mentioned above) or friends of people I know here, but the friends live other places.

longgone's avatar

Two family members got mildly ill after hanging out indoors for a few hours with my unvaccinated teenage cousin. A week later, they’re both still feeling weak. At least they don’t have to be on cortisone for the next few months, which is happening with the teen.

Kardamom's avatar

I know two. One of whom was hospitalized.

chyna's avatar

My best friend had both shots, but got Covid. She works in a hospital, and is pretty sure she got it from another nurse who refused to get the vaccine and was diagnosed with Covid the day after having worked with my friend all day.
My friend had a very mild case, actually thought she just had a cold until she was tested. She attributes the mild case to the vaccine.

chyna's avatar

@Mimishu1995 Why are there very little vaccines being given in your country?

Mimishu1995's avatar

@chyna I don’t know :( I heard that they bought a lot of vaccines, but so far only the most vulnerable people are vaccinated.

cookieman's avatar

Just my younger cousin and her boyfriend. They’re 18 and quarantined together for a couple weeks. No major symptoms from what I hear.

Call_Me_Jay's avatar

I know one, a 17 year old who attended Lollapalooza in Chicago (attendance 385,000).

Vaccine or negative test proof was required. Surprisingly, only a few hundred cases have been traced to the festival.

I attended a large funeral on August 6th. I have not heard of any infections, thank goodness. I tested negative on August 13th. I’m going to another memorial tomorrow. At least it’s outside.

Both events were delayed many months because of Covid, but coronavirus had other plans and we are gathering during a new outbreak.

smudges's avatar

A close friend of mine is still isolating from a breakthrough case. She had two Pfizer shots.

JLeslie's avatar

I just came across this article from July. It states what I have been feeling the last 6 weeks:

When asked on Wednesday night about breakthrough Covid-19 cases, President Biden responded by saying it’s a “tiny percentage and not life-threatening.” The media mostly endorses this rather categorical view that’s inconsistent with the data. For example, the New York Times featured an article on Thursday that stated breakthrough infections are “relatively uncommon.”

Well, breakthrough infections are in fact not uncommon.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshuacohen/2021/07/22/among-fully-vaccinated-breakthrough-covid-19-infections-are-more-common-than-previously-thought-does-it-matter/?sh=292ae5a5aefe

Just a few days ago I saw something else that said breakthrough cases are just 1% of cases. What the hell is going on? No clear data. So frustrating.

chyna's avatar

Are you looking for a reason to not get vaccinated? I’m unclear as to what your purpose is in chasing down statistics that vary widely with each article.

SavoirFaire's avatar

@JLeslie You are trying to compare very different data sets. The percentages of breakthrough cases in the US, the UK, and the Netherlands cannot be properly understood without controlling for the different rates of vaccination in each country and doing at least some calibration based on the absolute numbers.

In a country with a 100% vaccination rate, for instance, all new cases would be breakthrough cases. But it would be very important to know whether that country was getting one new case a week or 100,000 new cases a week. Merely knowing that 100% of new cases were breakthrough cases wouldn’t really tell us much.

JLeslie's avatar

@SavoirFaire All I care about is breakthrough for where I live. I care about all possible data for where I live.

They stopped reporting at the city level. We don’t have a breakdown of breakthrough by age or when vaccinated. We don’t have data for residents and non-residents anymore. We don’t have data for breakthrough by different vaccinations.

I really question whether immunity is waning or never was as high as they thought. I’d like to know if the first two doses given further apart gave ultimately better immunity.

So many questions, but in the end the governments and pharma want to do the best they can for the masses, taking into considerations behaviors, which is not necessarily ideal.

I have breakthrough all around me. We have it in the hospitals too. Much higher among unvaccinated, but not minuscule, not 1%.

janbb's avatar

I feel we all have to live with uncertainty through this time and just rely on the sources and scientists we trust the most. It’s a moving target as they have said.

canidmajor's avatar

Stay home. Don’t lick strangers.

raum's avatar

@canidmajor Always sound advice.

JLeslie's avatar

@janbb I do agree with you overall.

The problem is the averages don’t apply to where I live (or any large area of older people). The scientists will wait to act on making policy until they have all the data to make decisions. That can be late.

I do think the scientists care about doing the best for the country, but they have to manage many more variables than what an individual might be concerned with for themselves.

I do think they are looking at more intricacies of possible best recommendations now. Questions a lot of us have had do seem to be being investigated now.

raum's avatar

Oh…as for actually answering the question, yes. Probably about a half dozen. Luckily they all seem to be doing okay. :/

cookieman's avatar

@canidmajor: But…you guys aren’t strangers. ::unrolls tongue::

raum's avatar

Cookieman, who?

canidmajor's avatar

@cookieman Come at me bro… :-D

cookieman's avatar

@raum: You fine, fine jellies, of course.

janbb's avatar

Et moi aussi?

canidmajor's avatar

Hey, you’re not a stranger, Little Penguin, and I imagine you taste delightfully of sardines.

janbb's avatar

@canidmajor Salty, fishy and fresh!

SavoirFaire's avatar

@JLeslie “All I care about is breakthrough for where I live. I care about all possible data for where I live.”

You posted a (poorly researched) article that doesn’t even use US data—let alone Florida data—and then expressed frustration that it didn’t match reports based on US data. That is what I was responding to.

“I have breakthrough all around me. We have it in the hospitals too. Much higher among unvaccinated, but not minuscule, not 1%.”

You also live in an area that is not representative of the country as a whole and has a much higher concentration of immunocompromised people. It should not surprise you that your local situation diverges from the national average.

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