CDC Only Tracks A Fraction of Breakthru Covid Infections In The Vaccinated, Even As Cases Surge
- May 1 decision by the CDC to only track breakthrough infections that lead to hospitalization or death has left the nation with a muddled understanding of COVID-19’s impact on the vaccinated. ProPublica, Aug. 20, 2021. - Ed.
Meggan Ingram was fully vaccinated when she tested positive for COVID-19 early this month. The 37-year-old’s fever had spiked to 103 and her breath was coming in ragged bursts when an ambulance rushed her to an emergency room in Pasco, Washington, on Aug. 10. For 3 hours she was given oxygen and intravenous steroids, but she was ultimately sent home without being admitted. Seven people in her house have now tested positive. Five were fully vaccinated and 2 of the children are too young to get a vaccine.
As the pandemic enters a critical new phase, public health authorities continue to lack data on crucial questions, just as they did when COVID-19 first tore through the U.S. in spring 2020. Today there remains no full understanding on how the aggressively contagious delta variant spreads among the nearly 200 million partially or fully vaccinated Americans like Ingram, or on how many are getting sick. The nation is flying blind yet again, critics say, because on May 1 of this year - as the new variant found a foothold in the U.S. - the CDC mostly stopped tracking COVID-19 in vaccinated people, also known as breakthrough cases, unless the illness was severe enough to cause hospitalization or death.
Individual states now set their own criteria for collecting data on breakthrough cases, resulting in a muddled grasp of COVID-19’s impact, leaving experts in the dark as to the true number of infections among the vaccinated, whether or not vaccinated people can develop long-haul illness, and the risks to unvaccinated children as they return to school. “It’s like saying we don’t count,” said Ingram after learning of the CDC’s policy change. COVID-19 roared through her household, yet it is unlikely any of those cases will show up in federal data because no one died or was admitted to a hospital.
The CDC told ProPublica in an email that it continues to study breakthrough cases, just in a different way. “This shift will help maximize the quality of the data collected on cases of greatest clinical and public health importance,” the email said. In addition to the hospitalization and death information, the CDC is working with Emerging Infections Program sites in 10 states to study breakthrough cases, including some mild and asymptomatic ones, the agency’s email said. Under pressure from some health experts, the CDC announced Wednesday that it will create a new outbreak analysis and forecast center...
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https://www.propublica.org/article/the-cdc-only-tracks-a-fraction-of-breakthrough-covid-19-infections-even-as-cases-surge
= new reply since forum marked as read
They used to be perceived as the gold standard.
If I'd listened to then in spring 2020, I'd quite likely be dead or suffering long haul.
If I'd listened to them about fully vaxed not needing to mask this past May, the same results would be quite likely.
Not sure what their reasons are, but they are quite obviously in direct conflict with my survival instinct.
Fingers crossed Joe cleans house! 🤞🤞🤞
and your brain. Hang in there, me too! Survival is the word..
All of my relatives made it thru the 1918 Spanish Influenza and more.
Hope I can evade this monster, not gonna be a blood meal.. Not w/o a fight!
I cannot comprehend how people can be so casual about masks.
When I'm around humans -- indoors or outdoors - I'm in my 3M N95. Not pretty, but a great fit & it is real. 👍
I wonder what the vax rate is at CDC? 
But Dr. Ding answered that ? In his twitter. Even fully vaxed asymptomatic / mild cases can & often do result in long haul. (19% or so.)
No link, but if you have twitter perhaps you can search it up. It's there.
I believe it was a small group of healthcare workers, fully vaxed, that the #s came from. I'll try to look for article or tweet, but no promises. Lol
Yes, you might be right about NIH.
