Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar of the Associated Press asked the first question during Wednesday’s White House COVID-19 Press Briefing. He asked what I thought was a relatively simple question.
“What share of the infections that we’re seeing now are accounted for by people — are breakthrough infections, basically. So, what proportion of the cases we’re seeing now are breakthroughs? Same for hospitalizations — what proportion are breakthroughs?”
Here was Dr. Rochelle Walensky’s, the director of the CDC, answer.
“What I can tell you is that compared to people who are un- — to who are boosted: If you are unvaccinated, you are 10 times more likely to be a case and 20 times more likely to be a fatality; compared to people who are unvaccinated, you are 17 times more likely to be in the hospital.
“So, our vaccines are working really well to prevent severe disease and hospitalization and death. They’re actually also working quite well to prevent cases, although we do know more breakthrough cases are happening in the context of Omicron.”
Said another way, the CDC and the White House are not going to tell you what share of the infections seen now are breakthrough infections.
Gee. Wonder why.
