Covid cases in the U.S. are down dramatically, but still about 30,000 Americans are diagnosed with COVID every day.
One of them, former President Obama, who was fully vaccinated and boosted, and had a breakthrough infection. Mr. Obama had very mild symptoms, tweeting that he had just “a scratchy throat for a couple of days.”
“There’s no question that being fully vaccinated and boosted dramatically reduces your risk of getting very ill,” said Dr. John Swartzberg, an expert on infectious diseases at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health.
Of the people who are getting Covid, those who are fully vaccinated and boosted, have either no symptoms – just infection – or they’re getting very mild symptoms.
“It’s very, very unusual for somebody who’s fully vaccinated and boosted to be so sick that they need hospitalization, or that they die,” Dr. Swartzberg said. “On the other hand, most of the people are getting the serious Covid today are those people who are not protected with vaccination.”
President Obama encouraged more Americans to get fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, despite the declining infection rate in the U.S.
Even if it’s been months since your first shot, the second jab will greatly boost your immunity, Dr. Swartzberg said. And if you’ve had two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or one of the J&J – get boosted.