Infections, hospitalizations, and deaths linked to COVID-19 have risen in recent months among people who have gotten a COVID-19 vaccine, according to newly released data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But the bulk of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths occurred among unvaccinated Americans, the data show.
COVID-19 cases per 100,000 among the fully vaccinated increased to 121 in mid-August from 12.3 in late June, according to CDC data. Around the same time, COVID-19-associated hospitalizations in that population rose to 75 per 100,000 from 8.9 and COVID-19 deaths jumped to 1.1 per 100,000 from 0.1.
A stream of studies in recent months has indicated that COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness is waning, especially against infections. The CDC data, gathered from surveillance systems in states and hospitals, provide another source verifying a drop in protection.
“The marked pronounced change in vaccine effectiveness is likely due to emergence of the Delta variant as the dominant variant, and the waning of vaccine immunity over time,” Paul Alexander, a former Trump administration COVID-19 adviser who has a masters of science in clinical epidemiology and community health, told The Epoch Times in an email.
“The immunity from the vaccine drops markedly over the few months post-vaccine. The Delta is more infectious (yet far less lethal), but the real issue is that there is a mismatch as the vaccine does not hit the Delta, so there is immune escape. It has effectively failed against the Delta and the accumulated evidence shows this (UK, Israel, etc.). So once infections rise, there is usually a hospitalization curve and then a death curve that follows,” said Alexander, who also consulted for the World Health Organization.
Scientists often refer to cases, hospitalizations, or deaths that occur in the fully vaccinated as “breakthroughs.” None of the vaccines is 100 percent effective, and all of them have declined in effectiveness over time, according to studies and clinical data. The decline has largely matched the introduction and quick dominance of the CCP virus’s Delta variant.
A breakdown of the CDC’s data by age shows that cases, hospitalizations, and deaths in the vaccinated have increased across all age groups.
Officials in Maryland, which contributed data on cases and deaths, said they’ve seen an increase in deaths attributed to COVID-19 among the vaccinated.
