LANE COUNTY, Oregon. — Four Oregon residents contracted the Coronavirus after being fully immunized with the COVID-19 vaccine, including two residents of Lane County. Health experts warn that this may become more common with the variants that emerged in the pandemic.
These cases are called “discovery cases” and this means that they contracted the virus at least 14 days after the end of the vaccination series. Authorities said the other two cases came from Yamhill County.
Even though both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are expected to be up to 95% effective, there are still those 5% that may not be. That is why health officials said this is a serious, but not surprising, development.
“Both COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective, but even with vaccines that are 95% effective, some people will still get sick. This is common with all vaccines,” said Oregon Health Authority director Pat Allen.
During a news conference on Friday, health officials said these cases were found through testing. The reason for this is because some of them showed symptoms and the others were tested for other reasons.
However, health officials said none of them were hospitalized. Some showed no symptoms, while others were mild.
“No vaccine offers 100% protection and the clinical trials of both vaccines currently in use, including innovative cases. In these cases, although participants received COVID, the vaccines reduced the severity of the disease. Based on what we know about vaccines for other illnesses and early clinical trial data, experts believe that taking a COVID-19 vaccine can also help prevent you from becoming seriously ill, even if you’re sick, “said Dr. Dean Sidelinger.
OHA is working with our local and federal public health partners to investigate and determine the source of the case. Although they do not anticipate that these cases will be associated with more communicable variants, they said they want to have this data.
So, they said they are working with labs that are doing the sequencing and hope to have some initial results next week.
However, health officials said we can expect to see more innovative cases in Oregon.
“To date, we have had more than 160,000 Oregon residents receiving their second dose and not all of them are two weeks away from the second dose. This indicates a large number of people who could develop the disease after a full vaccination. But again, the data we are seeing and other states show, we are not seeing serious illnesses or hospitalizations in these people, our vaccination works, “said Sidelinger.
In the meantime, they said vaccinating as many Oregon residents as possible remains a critical goal in ending the pandemic.
Health officials want to reiterate the importance of being vaccinated the first chance you get.
“The COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective. The benefits of the vaccine far outweigh the risks of obtaining COVID-19,” said general surgeon Dr. Mary Giswold.
Although OHA was unable to give details about the origin of these cases, their ages or when they received the last vaccine, they said that 2 out of 4 cases are associated with a single location where a cluster is located.
Health officials said that even when you are fully vaccinated, it is important that Oregon residents continue to take steps to protect themselves and their loved ones.