On May 4, Facebook user Nodari papinashvili uploaded a video, where Tinatin Gotsadze of Association Lazarosi is talking about the cases of catching the coronavirus after getting vaccinated. Gotsadze claimed that 102 people who received two doses of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine tested positive two weeks after getting vaccinated in Washington, adding that ten people are in critical condition and two persons died. Gotsadze tries to prove that the COVID-19 vaccine is not effective and even its two doses do not protect people against the virus.
Tinatin Gotsadze: “We provide these facts to convince you that vaccine efficacy has not been confirmed so far.”
Gotsadze’s statement is manipulative. The fact that vaccinated people can potentially get COVID-19 does not prove that vaccines are ineffective. Out of 1 million fully vaccinated people in Washington State, only 0.1% got COVID-19 and the majority of them experienced mild symptoms.
Out of 1 million fully vaccinated people in Washington State, epidemiologists report evidence of 102 cases that represents 0.01% of vaccinated people and the majority of them experienced mild symptoms. Two people died and both patients were older than 80 and had underlying health issues.
The cases when fully vaccinated people still get COVID-19 are called “vaccine breakthrough cases.” This means that while people who have been vaccinated are much less likely to get sick, it may still happen. This may happen in case of any vaccine.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that COVID-19 vaccines are effective and are a critical tool to bring the pandemic under control. However, no vaccines are 100% effective at preventing illness in vaccinated people. There will be a small percentage of fully vaccinated people who still get sick, are hospitalized, or die from COVID-19.
COVID-19 vaccines are effective
More than 95 million people in the United States have been fully vaccinated as of April 26, 2021. Like with other vaccines, vaccine breakthrough cases will occur, even though the vaccines are working as expected. However, there is some evidence that vaccination may make illness less severe for those who are vaccinated and still get sick.
“It is important to remember that every vaccine on the market right now prevents severe disease and death in most cases,” said Umair A. Shah, MD, MPH, Secretary of Health. “People should still get vaccinated as soon as they are eligible.”
Ken Stedman, Professor of Biology at Portland State University, said these data are lower than expected and this means that vaccines do work.
According to two studies published in New England Journal of Medicine, “breakthrough” cases are quite uncommon in the United States. In particular, one study found that just four out of 8,121 fully vaccinated employees at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas became infected, while the other found that only seven out of 14,990 workers in California tested positive two or more weeks after receiving the vaccine. According to The New York Times, both reports show how well the vaccines work in the real world, and during a period of intense transmission.
Dr. Francesca J. Torriani, an infectious disease specialist at UC San Diego Health who led the California study, said that breakthrough infections were mild and did not require hospitalizations. Some people had no symptoms at all, meaning that the vaccine kept people from getting severely ill.
To protect themselves and others, CDC recommends fully vaccinated people to continue wearing masks, keeping a safe distance and avoiding crowded and unventilated indoor areas.
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