COVID: What is “Infection in Vaccinated”?

Obviously, the current situation of the pandemic is more encouraging than the one the world experienced months ago. Humanity had to go through different peaks that resulted in closures in the economic sector and a great demand in hospital care that collapsed healthcare systems.

However, the approval of vaccines by the WHO and the implementation of immunization plans throughout the planet has allowed millions of lives to be saved. Today a large part of the population is already protected with different biologicals developed by the scientific community.

However, the fact of being vaccinated does not mean that there is no risk of infection. On the contrary, there is a small percentage of the population that can contract COVID-19 with some differences to those who are not vaccinated.

Also read: Is the End of COVID-19 Near?

To elaborate a bit more on the matter, the antibodies of the biological that is inoculated in the human being reach their highest point fourteen days after the application of the second dose. At that time is where it can be said that a person is fully vaccinated and has sufficient defenses to fight the virus. But if after this you have coronavirus, it is known as "breakthrough infection" or infection in vaccinated people.

Likewise, the symptoms that a vaccinated person would present when developing the disease vary in severity to someone who has not applied the antidote. That is, whoever complies with the full scheme would experience the closest thing to a common cold such as headache, sneezing, runny nose, sore throat, and loss of smell. While the unvaccinated would have the same symptoms plus fever and persistent cough in high probabilities.

What are the risks?

According to the monitoring of current biologicals, it has been shown that they are all safe and have a good percentage of protection. Some are more effective than others, but are equally powerfully protective in reducing hospitalization, severity, and death. Therefore, it is most likely that someone who has been vaccinated does not need to go to an hospital.

Now, an investigation in the United Kingdom showed that in the immunized population one person in 500 manages to become infected, which would be 0.2% of the sample. In this way the protection is quite hopeful.

What factors can influence getting infected with coronavirus while being vaccinated?

1. Vaccine type: All vaccines are different. Each has a different way of teaching the immune system to respond to the coronavirus. For this reason, the efficacy and relative risk reduction in biologics vary. For example, Moderna and Pfizer have a symptomatic risk reduction of greater than 90%. While Astrazeneca and Janseen have reduction percentages of 66% and 70%. This means that certain vaccines have the ability to reduce transmission more than others, but all are highly effective for severe cases.
2. The time: Over the months the antibodies in the vaccines weaken and the protection is likely to decrease. Although it is an issue that is not yet clear, it is presumed that after six months the percentage of effectiveness will begin to decrease. That is why they are already implementing booster doses to certain populations.
3. Variants of the virus: The mutations that the coronavirus has had have alerted the scientific community because its behavior, especially delta, ends up lowering the effectiveness of biologics. However, these continue to have a great protection capacity and surely their updates will improve them against all variants.
4. Immune system: The body of each human being responds differently to infections, so the older you are, there are greater chances of contracting all types of viruses because the immune system weakens over the years. For that reason, certain populations are at risk and may be less responsive to vaccines.

Finally, it is important to follow biosafety protocols to further minimize the risk of contagion. This would make it possible to mitigate the spread of the virus on a large scale and end the pandemic.