Don’t shun jab over infections after injection

Covid vaccine

A medic administers Covid-19 vaccine at KMPDC headquarters in Nairobi on March 31, 2021. 

Photo credit: Sila Kiplagat | Nation Media Group

What you need to know:

  • As countries intensify mass vaccination campaigns, reports have emerged of fully vaccinated people getting infected again with Covid-19.
  • Notably, while vaccination offers protection, it does not stop a pathogen, in this context Covid-19, from gaining access to host cells.

Within a year since the first case of Covid-19 was reported, top pharmaceutical firms, of course in partnership with governments, embarked on massive efforts that have resulted in the development and subsequent approval of several vaccines. This was a welcome relief for a world brought to its knees by the novel coronavirus. 

Vaccines are known to heighten immune response in individuals, thereby providing robust protection against microbial pathogens, including viruses. The approval of the Covid-19 vaccines was, therefore, hailed as a tremendous step, stoking hope that the disease would be wiped out to pave the way for post-pandemic recovery. 

But 18 months later, the global economy is still struggling to claw its way out of one of the most catastrophic slumps ever. While vaccines have, evidently, mitigated the severity of the pandemic, infection and death rates continue to rise invariably. 

However, as countries intensify mass vaccination campaigns, reports have emerged of fully vaccinated people getting infected again with Covid-19. This phenomenon, known as vaccine breakthrough infection, has sparked confusion as to the rationale of vaccination. Notably, while vaccination offers protection, it does not stop a pathogen, in this context Covid-19, from gaining access to host cells. The difference, however, is that, even as the virus achieves entry, it does not succeed in establishing full-blown infection, characterised by severe symptoms.

Best preventive strategy

Put another way, vaccination greatly reduces the chance of the worst outcomes, mainly hospitalisation and death, but does not rule out development of mild to moderate infections. There could be cases of severe infection following vaccination, though quite rare. 

A study published in the “Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)” of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that, out of a staggering 101 million people who were fully vaccinated by April 30, 2021 in the United States, 10,262 suffered breakthrough infections, which 955 were hospitalised for and 160 died from.

That notwithstanding, mass vaccination, and widespread at that, remains the best preventive strategy against the virus. Rapid and equitable vaccination, proportionately covering every part of the globe, would lower susceptible opportunities for the virus to mount infection. That would, in turn, reduce the rates of breakthrough infections as the circulation of the virus would have been curtailed.

Importantly, vaccination would also stop the virus from mutating further, limiting the development of new variants. It’s feared that, provided the numbers of the unvaccinated people is higher than the vaccinated, as is the case today, the virus will circulate and gain mutations, leading to new variants. 

To this end, vaccination is the safest path to herd immunity, which is achieved when a substantial proportion of the global population is vaccinated.

Dr Kerima (PhD) is a biochemist. [email protected]; @KerimaZablon