Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, Israel's director of public health services, had some bad news and good news for CBS' John Dickerson on Sunday's edition of Face the Nation.
Preis told Dickerson that Israel, which has served as one of the best test cases for how COVID-19 vaccinations work in the real world because it vaccinated its population early and often, has found that about 50 percent of the people testing positive for COVID-19 right now are fully immunized, though she clarified that the vaccines are still highly effective at preventing severe disease.
But even though the data suggest that breakthrough infections may become more common over time (in the U.S., they make up a far lower share of new cases), there's evidence that those individuals are not spreading the virus frequently or widely. Preis explained that, excluding instances of household spread, 80 percent of vaccinated individuals who have been infected have "zero contacts" that have been confirmed to have contracted COVID-19 because of their connection. About 10 percent of those vaccinated, infected individuals have just one contact who likely caught the virus from them, while fewer than 10 percent have more than one contact who later tested positive. "Their ability to infect others is 50 percent lower than those who are not vaccinated," Preis said.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Truck drivers are questioning the Trump administration's English mandateTalking Points Some have praised the rules, others are concerned they could lead to profiling
-
DC prosecutors lose bid to indict sandwich throwerSpeed Read Prosecutors sought to charge Sean Dunn with assaulting a federal officer
-
2 kids killed in shooting at Catholic school massSpeed Read 17 others were wounded during a morning mass at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis
-
Texas declares end to measles outbreakSpeed Read The vaccine-preventable disease is still spreading in neighboring states, Mexico and Canada
-
RFK Jr. shuts down mRNA vaccine funding at agencySpeed Read The decision canceled or modified 22 projects, primarily for work on vaccines and therapeutics for respiratory viruses
-
Measles cases surge to 33-year highSpeed Read The infection was declared eliminated from the US in 2000 but has seen a resurgence amid vaccine hesitancy
-
Kennedy's vaccine panel signals skepticism, changeSpeed Read RFK Jr.'s new vaccine advisory board intends to make changes to the decades-old US immunization system
-
Kennedy ousts entire CDC vaccine advisory panelspeed read Health Secretary RFK Jr. is a longtime anti-vaccine activist who has criticized the panel of experts
-
RFK Jr. scraps Covid shots for pregnant women, kidsSpeed Read The Health Secretary announced a policy change without informing CDC officials
-
New FDA chiefs limit Covid-19 shots to elderly, sickspeed read The FDA set stricter approval standards for booster shots
-
US overdose deaths plunged 27% last yearspeed read Drug overdose still 'remains the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18-44,' said the CDC
