MADISON, Wis. (WXOW) – Breakthrough cases of COVID-19 are rare but they do happen and officials from UW Health expect them to happen.
“The goal of the vaccines is to safely provide protection to both the individual and to the general population, and the vaccines are meeting this goal,” said Dr. Joseph McBride, an assistant professor of adult and pediatric infectious disease at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.
However, your chances of ending up in a hospital or dying are also slim. According to CDC data, just under 5% of 100,000 vaccinated people experienced hospitalizations. Nearly no one (.1% out of 100,000) who was vaccinated died after contracting COVID. Just over 18% of unvaccinated people suffered from hospitalization and 1.1% died.
“With the virus circulating as it is and probably into the foreseeable future, it is probably unreasonable to come up with zero cases of infection just given the constant exposure to it,” said Dr. Nasia Safdar of UW Health.
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Unvaccinated Wisconsinites are 32 times more likely than vaccinated people to be hospitalized and they have a 13 times greater chance of death according to an August report of national COVID-19 data by the New York Times.
Dr. Safdar added that even if breakthrough cases happen, that doesn’t mean the vaccine isn’t working. She said our current COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective and still the best way to protect yourself.
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