The Centers for Disease Control Prevention (CDC) on Friday released the data upon which it, at least partially, based its latest mask guidance, revealing its roots in a few hundred breakthrough cases in Massachusetts, among which no casualties were reported.
“In July 2021, following multiple large public events in a Barnstable County, Massachusetts, town, 469 COVID-19 cases were identified among Massachusetts residents who had traveled to the town during July 3–17,” the CDC wrote in a summary of the findings.
Of those, 346 of the cases occurred in individuals who were fully vaccinated.
“Testing identified the Delta variant in 90 percent of specimens from 133 patients. Cycle threshold values were similar among specimens from patients who were fully vaccinated and those who were not,” the CDC continued.
A plurality of those who experienced breakthrough infection received Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine (46 percent), followed by Moderna (38 percent), and the traditional, single-shot Johnson & Johnson (16 percent) vaccine.
According to the CDC’s data, 79 percent of fully vaccinated individuals who tested positive reported mild symptoms, including a cough, headache, fever, sore throat, and myalgia.
Among the individuals with breakthrough infections, four were hospitalized (1.2 percent), and no fatalities were reported.
Nonetheless, the CDC’s report encourages local health jurisdictions to “continually assess the need for additional measures, including limiting capacity at gatherings or event postponement, based on current rates of COVID-19 transmission, population vaccination coverage, and other factors.”
It also touts its own controversial July 27 guidance, which recommends all people, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks in indoor public areas of high transmission.
“High viral loads suggest an increased risk of transmission and raised concern that, unlike with other variants, vaccinated people infected with Delta can transmit the virus,” Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, said in a statement on Friday.
“This finding is concerning and was a pivotal discovery leading to CDC’s updated mask recommendation,” she added.
The CDC came under fire earlier this week after it was revealed that it appeared to base its surrender, in part, on research using vaccines not even authorized in the U.S.
As Breitbart News reported:
Indeed, the CDC did, in fact, feature a study that was based, partially, on a vaccine not yet approved in the U.S., rendering that particular finding inapplicable in the states.
“We used a Delta variant live virus isolate to test susceptibility to vaccine elicited neutralising antibodies in individuals vaccinated with ChAdOx-1 or BNT162b2,” the research reads. The first vaccine referenced is the Oxford-developed AstraZeneca vaccine, not used in the U.S., and the second is the Pfizer vaccine, one of the main vaccines used in the U.S. under Emergency Use Authorization (EUA). Notably, none of the vaccines in the U.S. have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Despite that, the CDC presumably used the study as a partial framework for its updated guidance, which instructs fully vaccinated people to mask up.
The CDC’s Scientific Brief, last updated July 27, reads in part, “Studies from India with vaccines not authorized for use in the United States have noted relatively high viral loads and larger cluster sizes associated with infections with Delta, regardless of vaccination status.”
On Friday, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said health officials should be more forthcoming about the reality of breakthrough infections but stressed that society should not be shut down due to mild cases.
“I just think people should understand … if you are vaccinated — or if you’ve had COVID you have immunity too — testing positive as somebody that’s been vaccinated and you have a very mild situation, that is not something that you would shut society down for,” he said.
“That’s not something you should shut schools down for,” DeSantis added to applause.
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