A CNBC host has confronted Dr. Fauci about the amount of so-called “breakthrough” coronavirus cases in fully vaccinated people.
Public health officials have been supporting covid vaccines for almost a year now. But with this pushing of mandates, breakthrough cases — in which a completely vaccinated person gets COVID-19 — seems to be happening more frequently. So that begs the issue: How can you force Americans to get vaccinated if a large number of people are getting COVID even when they are completely vaccinated?
The exact amount of breakthrough cases, in fact, is not known. The CDC stopped tracking this information in May. The agency has tracked hospitalizations and deaths from fully vaccinated people. As of September 27, the CDC said that “22,115 patients with a vaccine breakthrough case were either hospitalized or died.”
During the interview, host Sara Eisen cornered Fauci about breakthrough covid cases, asking him if the federal government was being “too casual about the vaccine’s limitations.”
Eisen asked because she got COVID-19 even after being completely vaccinated. She said the virus had recently gone through her “whole family.”
In response, Fauci cited data that says unvaccinated people still are the most vulnerable to hospitalization or dying from COVID, and the vaccination guards most people from severe outcomes if they get COVID-19. Fauci told Eisen she shouldn’t “confuse” the “overwhelming benefits of the vaccines” with breakthrough cases.
But Eisen fought back. Stressing that the CDC no longer tracks such breakthrough cases, Eisen asked Fauci point blank: “How do we know breakthrough cases are occurring to a small proportion and how do we know they are usually mild?”
Fauci, however, avoided the question, instead he promoted booster shots before then contradicting what the CDC has reported about how easily vaccinated people can transfer COVID-19 to another person.
“So, is there less of a chance you will transmit it to someone who is not vaccinated or someone who is vulnerable? The chances are lowered by being vaccinated and even more diminished, according to preliminary data we will wait to see the true fundamental core of the data, but it seems like that extra protection from a booster will be very good.”
"If you look at the people who have died from COVID-19, overwhelmingly 90% of them are unvaccinated," says Dr. Fauci. "If you get vaccinated and get a break through infection, you are much less likely of having a severe outcome and much more likely you would be without symptoms." pic.twitter.com/gEFsIjTNWj
— CNBC's Closing Bell (@CNBCClosingBell) October 1, 2021
Author: Blake Ambrose