What is a breakthrough covid infection?
Did you already know that fully vaccinated people can catch the COVID-19 virus?
Coronavirus is capable of affecting people who have received a double dose of vaccine. Many people have already heard about it, and doctors are calling this unpleasant phenomenon a breakthrough infection. But health officials say that such a situation is not yet a cause for concern. According to Dr. William Moss, a vaccine expert at Johns Hopkins University's School of Public Health (USA), most people with breakthrough infections get sick much more easily than those who, for whatever reason, have not yet been vaccinated:
"It is expected that if cases of breakthrough covid infection do occur, those who become ill should carry the infection in a mild form," Moss explained.
According to scientists, vaccines are in the human body for a reason: they actually work by training the immune system to recognize and fight viruses. The main goal of vaccination, therefore, is not to prevent a coronavirus infection altogether, but to reduce the severity of the disease, should it occur.
And the results of studies confirm it: double-dose vaccine against COVID-19 from Pfizer and Moderna showed its effectiveness in preventing the disease in 95% of cases, and a single vaccine from Johnson & Johnson worked at 72%.
It is still difficult to determine why one person will be susceptible to covid breakthrough after being fully vaccinated and another person will not. As Dr. Moss explained, it could happen if a person is exposed to a large dose of viruses, but also for other reasons:
"Each person's immune system is different, and how well we respond to vaccinations depends on how well it works. Some people have health problems or take medications that can make them less sensitive to vaccines.
Sometimes a person is already infected but does not know it yet and receives the vaccine. And, of course, it can't have the desired effect because it doesn't have time to trigger an immune response.
