Are breakthrough cases as rare as they claim?
Important update for international travelers: flights out of the country now require a negative test within 24-hours for all passengers including those that are fully vaccinated . Why? This decision came after two KLM flights from South Africa ended up with 62 people testing positive for covid after the flight was called in mid-flight due to the announcement of a new variant which caused immediate concern. 90% of the people that tested positive were fully-vaccinated according to health authorities in Kennemerland (of course, this information is not being widely shared).
What's interesting is the amount of so-called surprise from professionals about that discovery which prompted law makers and medical experts in many countries to come together to rethink safety on international flights--granted, the u.s. previously required even fully vaccinated folks to show a negative test within 72 hours because of the latest CDC update regarding the Delta variant where fully vaccinated folks share similar viral loads as the unvaccinated. We now have overwhelming data that vaccines do not necessarily prevent transmission--noting here that the original clinical trials never made this claim as the vaccine was tested for efficacy.
We’ve been told by mainstream news that breakthrough cases are extremely rare. However according to a report from Wall Street Journal regarding breakthrough cases for 2021 alone: “State reporting is inconsistent but collectively shows there have been more than 1.89 million cases and at least 72,000 hospitalizations and 20,000 deaths among fully vaccinated people in the U.S. this year.” This is well below the actual number of cases which is unknown in the u.s. Why? Because the CDC made a bold decision to stop tracking breakthrough cases that didn’t result in hospitalization or death; for anyone paying attention, this was also right around the time mask mandates were lifted despite the eligible population being no way near the goal of 70% fully vaccinated (according to NBC news, at the beginning of May, that number was around 32%). To me, that was a truly odd, somewhat suspicious, move to make in the middle of pandemic with a novel virus using vaccine technologies newly available to the mass public.
Of course, we could look at data from other countries who do a better job of tracking such pertinent information. However, many experts warn that most numbers tend to be under-represented because many fully vaccinated people do not get regularly tested as many places allow vaccinated folks entry without having to show proof a negative covid test. i find this interesting as it was clearly stated back as early as December of 2020, when vaccines were first rolling out in the u.s., that vaccines did not necessarily prevent transmission—which was even listed on the CDC’s website.
Considering this new policy that requires fully vaccinated people to test 24 hours before an international flight and given all that we now know, would it not make sense to apply to this logic to other situations like gatherings, public events, restaurants, etc.? Isn't it possible for fully vaccinated people (who are usually NOT required to be tested and only have to show proof of vaccination for entry) to spread/transmit covid in those spaces as well? (To be clear, these questions are not necessarily my personal opinion and i am not singling out vaccinated people but instead pointing a grave inconsistency in logic: of course, within this logic, the unvaccinated and those previously infected must be required to test as well.) The answer to that question is obviously yes based on information from sites like the CDC who we have been told—dare i say forced—to trust (it’s impossible to make any comment related to covid on a social media platform without receiving an automatic message that guides people back to the CDC). Why isn't there more conversation about this in mainstreams news if the purpose of all of any of this is optimal safety?
