Portland biology professor says high number of breakthrough cases ‘not at all surprising’
By DREW MARINE
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PORTLAND, Oregon (KPTV) — In the OHA’s report Thursday, Oregon saw 10,411 COVID-19 cases last week, with 24.4% of those being breakthrough infections.
So, the question is, with nearly one in four cases occurring in vaccinated people last week, should vaccinated Oregonians be concerned?
Ken Stedman, a biology professor at Portland State University and a virus hunter, said it is “not at all surprising” to see that many breakthrough cases.
“The way vaccines work, and incredibly well, is they work at 95% efficiency. Which means if you’re exposed to the virus 20 times and you’re not vaccinated, you’re going to get infected every time. If you are vaccinated, you’ll get it only one of those 20 times,” Stedman said.
Which is why Stedman says while there were 2,542 breakthrough cases last week, it isn’t time for vaccinated Oregonians to panic.
“You can be vaccinated and still get infected,” Stedman said.
“These vaccines, they’re COVID vaccines – they’re protecting you against getting sick and they’re still really good at protecting you from getting sick even with the Delta variant.”
The OHA said the average age for those breakthrough cases last week is 46. They said 49 of those were people living in congregate settings and 91 of those cases were people between 12 and 17 years old.
Stedman said the more telling numbers are the number of vaccinated people being hospitalized and dying.
In their report, the OHA said to date, 4.5% of all 28,075 breakthrough cases have been hospitalized, with 0.8% of those dying. Stedman said these numbers go to show how well the vaccine protects against serious illness and death. The average age of those deaths is 81.
“Any death is really bad,” he said. “Of those vaccinated people who are getting really sick and potentially dying, most of them, not all of them, but the vast majority, are much older and for them actually the vaccines don’t work as well which is why we have that third shot particularly for people over 65, who have, just a fact of life, their immune systems aren’t as strong.”
Last week 75.6% of cases were unvaccinated people. The OHA said in their report the rate of COVID-19 in unvaccinated people is four times higher than those Oregonians who are vaccinated.
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