DOTHAN, Ala. – A small number of Alabamians are getting mild cases of COVID-19 after being vaccinated.
About 180 people have had so-called “breakthrough” COVID-19 cases in Alabama. Among those, none have been hospitalized or died, according to the state health department.
UAB’s Dr. Sarah Nafziger, vice president of clinical support services, said the breakthrough cases seen at UAB have been mild. Most were asymptomatic.
“I think the closest thing I can compare it to is a common cold,” she said at a press conference Thursday.
“If we can take COVID, this deadly disease that’s been filling up our hospitals and killing people, if we can turn that into a common cold by using this vaccine, then that is a win in my book.”
The known breakthrough cases in Alabama make up a tiny fraction of the 869,365 people who’ve been fully vaccinated in the state as of Thursday.
Nationally less than one percent of vaccinated people are still getting the virus, according to the CDC.
“This is as close to 100 percent effective as we’ve seen with any vaccine,” said Dr. Paul Goepfert, an infectious diseases doctor at UAB who has been working on COVID-19 vaccine development.
Dr. Goepfert said he was notified of just four breakthrough cases identified among patients and staff UAB, several of which were among people who got COVID-19 before the full two weeks after their second shot. In total, UAB has sequenced 30 breakthrough cases.
Only one of the cases involved the UK variant, which now makes up about 40 percent of COVID-19 cases in the state, according to UAB sequencing. In general, the UK variant has not been shown to undermine the efficacy of the three vaccines in the United States.
Dr. Goepfert is collecting information about breakthrough cases to study whether they occur among people who have immunodeficiencies.
“Maybe they don’t develop good antibodies for whatever reason,” he said.
“I’m not exactly sure what these breakthroughs mean just yet.”
He said such cases may be similar to rare instances where people had COVID-19 twice.
Alabama State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris said there is no clear correlation between breakthrough cases and COVID-19 variants so far.
“When we know of these breakthrough cases, we’re making sure to get them sequenced if there is a variant involved,” said Harris.
As COVID-19 variants are spreading in the United States and around the world, public health experts have raised concern that some strains of the disease might be able to evade existing vaccines.
Among them, the South African variant has shown the greatest ability to break through vaccines.
Two cases of the South African variant have been identified in the state, according to ADPH.
Dr. Goepfert said that vaccine trials for Moderna and Pfizer vaccines showed about 95 percent efficacy, and more post-vaccination cases should be expected.
“I suspect that you’re going to see more and more breakthroughs as we vaccinate more and more people.”
