The Oregon Health Authority says that two of the four fully vaccinated Oregonians against COVID-19 who later tested positive had none of the most contagious variants.
State officials refused to answer questions clearly about the other two cases, including whether the samples were analyzed to determine whether the individuals had variants of the coronavirus.
State officials announced so-called “innovative cases” during a press conference on February 12, saying they were among the first identified in the country. Authorities ordered genomic sequencing to determine whether vaccinated Oregonians were infected with variants, with results expected in seven days.
But state officials in emails last week initially refused to answer any questions from The Oregonian / OregonLive about the four cases – including whether they were infected with the viral variants first detected in the UK or Brazil. Officials cited “patient privacy”.
The news organization disagreed that this would violate patient privacy and argued that sharing information would increase the public’s understanding of the virus’s behavior.
In response, the agency’s leadership met and decided to release limited information, according to spokesman Tim Heider. The agency ended up saying that samples from two of the individuals were analyzed “and variants of concern were not detected”.
He did not answer questions about the other two cases.
Heider also declined to answer questions about the circumstances under which the four Oregonians were vaccinated, including the amount of time that has passed since the second dose., if they had been exposed to the virus before the second dose became fully effective and if the virus had been in their systems for some time.
But state epidemiologist Dr. Dean Sidelinger said during the February 12 news conference that the test was positive at least two weeks after the second dose. Sidelinger and Health Authority Director Patrick Allen also said the cases were of national interest because they were among the first cases of discovery to be reported in the country.
Sidelinger told reporters that the Health Authority was in the process of starting the genome sequencing of samples taken from individuals – indicating that the scientists wanted to to find out if these were cases of mutant viruses escaping the defense systems offered by the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or if this was simply an expected mathematical probability, since the vaccines are not 100% effective.
Both vaccines have an estimated efficacy of around 95%.
Two of Oregon’s four inhabitants are from Yamhill County and two from Lane County. They had no symptoms or mild symptoms – evidence, said Sidelinger, that the vaccines are working to prevent serious illnesses. He added that two of the cases were related – meaning that they were infected by the same group of infections in a single location.
State officials did not provide further information. But the testing circumstances of individuals without symptoms suggest that at least some of the four can work in congregated care settings, where testing is mandatory at least once a month.
So far, Oregon has identified 11 cases of variant B.1.1.7 that was first detected in the United Kingdom and one case of variant P.1, which is linked to Brazil. But medical experts criticized the United States for the lack of tests for the variants. Oregon averages about 300 cases a day – 99% that were not being reviewed for variants, until February.
Oregon Health & Science University, which identified 11 of Oregon’s 12 variant cases, estimated that 1% of cases across the state involve variant B.1.1.7. It is not clear why some experts estimate that the national percentages are much higher.
Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday that a month ago, variant B.1.1.7 accounted for 1% to 4% of cases In the USA
He said it is now estimated at 30% to 40% and, when it reaches 50%, cases are likely to increase.
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– Aimee Green; [email protected]; @o_aimee