In case of vaccine failure, the CDC focuses on those who are hospitalized or deadExBulletin

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stopped tracking all cases that occur when the COVID-19 vaccine fails to protect someone. Instead, the CDC focuses on people who are very ill or dead. It’s a controversial decision. NPR Health Correspondent Robustaine has a story.

ROB STEIN, BYLINE: The COVID-19 vaccine is very effective, but not perfect. People can still get infected from time to time. Although rare, more than 10,000 fully vaccinated people are still infected with the virus, according to the CDC. As such, the CDC is tracking these so-called breakthrough infections and scrutinizing them, but the CDC recently decided to focus on those who are hospitalized or die of illness. .. This is Rochelle Walensky, CDC director at a recent briefing.

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ROCHELLE WALENSKY: These vaccines have been studied to prevent severe illness, hospitalization and death. And when you look at these breakthrough infections, they are what we are most concerned about.

STEIN: With most groundbreaking infections, people don’t even know they’re so sick or infected.

(Sound bite for archived recordings)

Valensky: What we started to find was that most of them were completely asymptomatic. And in fact, when we went to study them and sequence them, there were insufficient viruses to do that.

Stein: And if scientists can’t sequence genes from the virus, these people are unlikely to be transmitted, and scientists don’t learn much by studying them. However, some believe that the CDC should cast a wider net.

Rick Bright: I believe that just looking at the cases of hospitalized or deceased people is blindfolded and does not fully understand what is happening with this virus.

Stein: Rick Bright is a former federal health authority and is now part of the Rockefeller Foundation.

Bright: It puts us at the disadvantage of better understanding how to end this virus and pandemic.

STEIN: According to Bright, investigating the full range of breakthrough infectious diseases can provide important information of all kinds. Are some vaccines more effective than others? Are breakthroughs happening in some people more than others? Do variants break through the vaccine more than expected? Have new, more dangerous mutants evolved?

Bright: These variants are widespread. And if you’re just looking at this small percentage, you’re really missing out on the big picture. I’m missing a big story about where the virus is and how it’s changing.

Stein: Others agree. Saad Omer is a vaccine researcher at Yale University. At the very least, Omer believes that the CDC needs to randomly sequence viruses from all breakthroughs.

SAAD OMER: If you have new variants, or if there is a change in the frequency of variants, you may want to investigate faster than waiting for them to appear if you are severely hospitalized. This allows you to anticipate an outbreak rather than tracking it down.

STEIN: CDC officials say the agency is not completely ignoring other groundbreaking events. We are investigating how well vaccines work in specific groups such as healthcare professionals and nursing homes. Dr. Mark Fisher leads a groundbreaking team of CDC vaccines.

MARC FISCHER: The CDC will continue to investigate the efficacy of the vaccine in all populations, including people with mild infections. This is done through special studies in different populations and environments, vaccine efficacy studies, and other monitoring.

STEIN: In addition, several individual state and independent scientists are investigating all breakthrough infections more closely. Dr. Carlos Del Rio is an infectious disease researcher at Emory University. He agrees with the CDC approach.

CARLOS DEL RIO: I think they are doing the right thing in terms of strategy and priorities. They focus on what really matters.

STEIN: But critics are still concerned that the CDC’s strategy could blind the country again due to the new threats the virus could pose. Robusta, NPR News.

(Sound bite in the city of Sun’s “Ventura”)

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