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Large public gatherings are associated with SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough infections—detectable virus in fully vaccinated people—according to a report the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Friday (July 30). According to multiple outlets, the data prompted the agency’s shift earlier last week to again recommending that vaccinated people wear a mask indoors in some circumstances.
The report focuses on 469 COVID-19 cases identified in Barnstable County, Massachusetts during July 2021 that were sparked by public summer gatherings. Approximately three-quarters of the cases were breakthrough infections, and of the cases that were DNA-sequenced, 90 percent were caused by the Delta variant.
In addition to the startling number of cases in fully vaccinated people, the report found that the vaccinated patients had comparable viral loads to the unvaccinated patients, which could indicate a capacity for transmission. Although this finding “just gives you an indication of how much viral ...
