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United States

CDC Scaled Back Hunt for Breakthrough Cases Just as the Delta Variant Grew (bloomberg.com) 111

The U.S. agency leading the fight against Covid-19 gave up a crucial surveillance tool tracking the effectiveness of vaccines just as a troublesome new variant of the virus was emerging. From a report: While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stopped comprehensively tracking what are known as vaccine breakthrough cases in May, the consequences of that choice are only now beginning to show. At the time, the agency had identified only 10,262 cases across the U.S. where a fully vaccinated person had tested positive for Covid. Most people who got infected after vaccination showed few symptoms, and appeared to be at low risk of infecting others. But in the months since, the number of vaccine breakthrough cases has grown, as has the risk that they present. Further reading: 'The War Has Changed': Internal CDC Document Urges New Messaging, Warns Delta Infections Likely More Severe.
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CDC Scaled Back Hunt for Breakthrough Cases Just as the Delta Variant Grew

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  • by sinij ( 911942 ) on Friday July 30, 2021 @03:28PM (#61639247)
    I think it is well past reasonable point for our society to have an adult conversations about how to deal with the new reality that COVID is likely here to stay. To best of my knowledge we have not reached herd immunity anywhere in the world, even in places like Israel and Canada that have documented 70%+ adult vaccination rates.
    • by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Friday July 30, 2021 @03:51PM (#61639337)

      I think it is well past reasonable point for our society to have an adult conversation

      If our society could have adult conversations, we could solve 90% of our problems.

      It isn't going to happen. Any solution based on changing human behavior isn't a real solution.

      • I think it is well past reasonable point for our society to have an adult conversation

        If our society could have adult conversations, we could solve 90% of our problems.

        It isn't going to happen. Any solution based on changing human behavior isn't a real solution.

        Then we perish, because human behavior has created the fucked planet we now have to live and die on.

        Was fun while it lasted. Sad we're too fucking stupid and ignorant as a species to survive.

        And don't give me this pessimism bullshit. Show me a solution otherwise, ignorant human.

      • by Rei ( 128717 )

        The CDC seems to have no interest in it. I've been complaining about the CDC's PR op for a while. They don't want to paint vaccines as doing anything less than making you bulletproof in order to max out the vaccination rate, and lots of vaccinated people are getting sick (thankfully, rarely severely). Just heard from an acquaintance on Twitter who got a breakthrough infection and he was shocked and talking like it's crazy rare because of the messaging he heard. It's not rare, at all, with Delta.

        In Iceland

    • No it's not (Score:4, Insightful)

      by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Friday July 30, 2021 @04:22PM (#61639507)
      the "Adult Conversation" is how do we get everyone to take the vaccine, how do we make sure funding isn't pulled so we can rapidly create new vaccines before the next virus is a problem, and how do we stop the anti-science propaganda being pushed for obvious political ends.

      While we're at it, we need to discuss how to prevent the next virus. Because this one wasn't an accident. Epidemiologists warned us for 40 years about the effects of deforestation & the Wet Markets, but we just kept on rolling those dice.

      Those are "Adult Conversations". Accepting a problem that has zero reason to exist because we don't want to take money from our healthy ruling class [independent.co.uk] for public health initiatives is not what I'd call being an adult. Giving up and letting hundreds of thousands if not millions die unnecessarily isn't being an adult. That's more like a spoiled teenager.
      • Since the "greatest generation" we've made it acceptable to act like children. It differs by generation and how much influence the sick side of American culture has had. I think it has gotten worse with time; however, not by generation as all of them have adopted immaturity as the new norm.

        America is not a serious nation even if a few people might occasionally act that way, far too many are adult children in every way that matters undermine the few adults in the room. The Trump disaster was in many ways rep

    • Let nature run its course *shrug*
    • by Rei ( 128717 )

      To best of my knowledge we have not reached herd immunity anywhere in the world, even in places like Israel and Canada that have documented 70%+ adult vaccination rates.

      Israel was quite clearly herd immune since their vaccination. It's only the rise of Delta that ruined it. They imposed mild restrictions and are now booster-shotting their way back to herd immunity. The virus gets only a comparatively small number of hosts to mutate in. Had they been more proactive in maintaining herd immunity (as they p

    • by Cederic ( 9623 )

      You won't get an adult conversation on Slashdot. Post actual facts from actual Government health departments on Slashdot, with links to specific tables of data in published documents, and you get mod bombed by people claiming you're a troll while the person calling you a liar and deriding your sources while providing no evidence at all gets modded insightful.

      Happened to me last week, happened again yesterday. Now today I get up, find Slashdot has two new articles both telling us the CDC agrees with the poin

    • I think it is well past reasonable point for our society to have an adult conversations about how to deal with the new reality that COVID is likely here to stay.

      Domain experts have been saying this from the very beginning. Now it is so obvious remaining deniers look like crackpots.

      To best of my knowledge we have not reached herd immunity anywhere in the world, even in places like Israel and Canada that have documented 70%+ adult vaccination rates.

      What matters are health outcomes not infections.

  • by cayenne8 ( 626475 ) on Friday July 30, 2021 @03:32PM (#61639267) Homepage Journal
    ...that the CDC hasn't fscked up yet throughout this whole thing?

    I mean, I believe they are genuinely trying...but they have been at least 2 steps behind or somewhat wrong on almost every step along the way since covid his the shores of the US.

    And their horrible ability (through 2x administrations) of getting a coherent and easy to understand message out has done nothing to engender faith in this institution by the average US citizen.

    Hell, even the experts being interviewed on the various news feeds seem to be scratching their heads every other week.

    As a taxpayer, I don't feel I"m getting my money's worth out of them.

    I listen to them, but I don't take their statements as "gospel" on the truth or best path to safe or sane behavior during this pandemic.

    It's sad, I"m not alone on this and this has nothing to do with politics.

    They should be a first stop on info on this for the US, but they are not and constantly seem to shoot themselves in the foot.

    • by Merk42 ( 1906718 )
      Yeah and since they are sometimes wrong, the truth is what I, personally, want to believe. Any evidence to the contrary doesn't matter, because, I can never be wrong.
      • by Anonymous Coward

        what a retarded response to a well thought out statement. you are pathetic.

    • Seems most of the world's health organizations were completely unprepared for a real pandemic.

      But yes the CDC has been embarrassing. Sure, they could have done worse but things could always be worse. For a bunch of professionals who's job it was to be ready for this they certainly aren't acting like it. Disinformation and conspiracy theories were always going to be a problem. Tragedy of the commons is a fact of life with Democracies. But the CDC's poor and at times self contradictory messaging has emboldene

    • As a taxpayer, I don't feel I"m getting my money's worth out of them.

      "Be happy you don't get all the government you're paying for".

      - Will Rogers

    • First they said the world was flat. Now they discovered it was round! As a taxpayer, I don't feel I"m getting my money's worth out of them.

      I listen to them, but I don't take their statements as "gospel" on the truth or best path to safe or sane behavior during this pandemic.

      It's sad, I"m not alone on this and this has nothing to do with politics.

      They should be a first stop on info on this for the US, but they are not and constantly seem to shoot themselves in the foot.

      • Are you trying to go somewhere with this ramble?

        You're usually a bit more coherent...?

        I guess it's Happy Hour there...TGIF! ;)

    • by Xylantiel ( 177496 ) on Friday July 30, 2021 @04:40PM (#61639603)

      The headline is junk. The CDC switched from trying to do comprehensive tracking everywhere (which can't work in the US because the facilities don't exist everywhere) to targeting tracking, some of which is locally comprehensive, in a way that is realistic and scientifically sound. The fact that many (red) states have fairly bad public health infrastructure is not something that the CDC can fix on a whim. Actually the governments in many of these states are *actively resisting* improvements of public health being provided at the federal level.

      You should also think hard about who is pushing this "CDC did this wrong" narrative. Do they have a vested interest in fooling you into thinking "comprehensive" is an essential aspect in order to make you distrust the current CDC? Even just to get a splashy headline at the price of bad reporting? If you look at the CDC's actual data and their use of it, they have solid information even without "comprehensive" information that wouldn't really be comprehensive anyway. They'd have to throw out all the places that have spotty reporting or recording anyway, so why pretend?

      • I think it is themselves "pushing this narrative". The CDC has flip flopped or outright lied at various times about the best course of action (masks aren't needed, remember that?). I trust them about as much as some frothy undergrad who thinks they understand it all. You can't lie to the public and expect public trust to continue.
      • I hear what you are saying, but will agree with the parent, that I have also found the CDC to be lacking in it's effectiveness. I'll leave to the /. peanut gallery the blame game on the politicians (of which there is substantial culpability). But despite who is in the Oval Office it was my expectation that the CDC had a plan for an eventual, viral, pandemic. And not just a 'playbook' that I could have written in powerpoint, but some real details around how to handle an overrun of hospitals, how to handl

    • I listen to them, but I don't take their statements as "gospel" on the truth or best path to safe or sane behavior during this pandemic.

      That is good, because this is a completely novel virus and public health agencies around the world are very much learning as they go. The CDC is not special or omnipotent in this regard.

      But at least they capable of said learning, with a continuous goal of trying to make things better, as opposed to massive numbers of entities on social media, TV, and even here on /. actively trying to make things worse.

      You are lucky to have an organization that cares about your citizens health, cause there are sure a

      • At the very least.

        It certainly doesn't give me a lot of faith for wanting to put the Fed govt. in charge of my general healthcare.

    • I think the root problem is that they are making statements with the intent of causing a poorly educated population to take the correct actions, rather than with the intent of transmitting information. This is a policy that works in the short term, but starts to fail very badly in the long term as they lose credibility.

      CDC wants people to get vaccinated and to wear masks when appropriate. IMHO these are very reasonable things to encourage, but I think they believe that the rather "messy" truth will not
      • I think you're right about the CDC doing an incredibly clumsy job trying to present information and educate the public, and the initial statement about masks is exhibit A.

        I think the compounding problem is the shifting nature of the virus and the many things we've learned as we've gone. We also had very little to no solid science about the virus, so the CDC is constantly shuffling from best-guess theory to actual science as well.

        I think the other problem they've had is the emergent nature of the virus scie

        • yeah, the constant weaponization of any kind of 'best guess' that turns out to be wrong is constantly undermining the attempt of the CDC to encourage correct behaviour. And of course we have dozens of russian troll farms hyping it at every turn.

          And that's what leads the CDC to doing this:
          "they are making statements with the intent of causing a poorly educated population to take the correct actions"

          You can't just say: 'Vaccination is way better than not, and if we all got the vaccine, we could basically go

          • What I can't get over is how oppositional some people are. I don't even get what the point of the opposition is anymore. It seems just to be oppositional, at least the way that some people react.

  • They aren't even tracking Breakthrough cases anymore. You have Covid, they aren't asking if you're vaxed or not. With reports that upto 75% of D variant cases are in vaccinated people.

    https://www.usnews.com/news/wo... [usnews.com]

    https://www.startribune.com/de... [startribune.com]

    If most of the new D cases are in Vaxxed people, the CDC won't want it known. Question everything.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • Vaccinated People Make up 75% of Recent COVID-19 Cases in Singapore

        It does say it, in the title.

        You can apply for Facebook Fact Checker job.

    • If everyone was vaccinated, all the cases would be in vaccinated people.

      That they are not in the hospital is what matters. Now that we are giving up any attempt to limit the spread, everybody is eventually going to be exposed to COVID, but only the unvaccinated ones will die from it.

      Barring a new magical treatment, that really is as good as it will get.
    • Your statement is false. They aren't tracking them nationwide, because that isn't necessary to evaluate vaccine efficacy, but they are still being tracked using selective sampling. Also your percentages don't mean what you think they do. With 90% vaccinated, a 90% effective vaccine means that 50% of cases will be in vaccinated people, regardless of the number of cases. That's still 10x lower chance of being infected for the vaccinated people. The fraction of cases in vaccinated people simply does not m
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • As any lawyer will tell you, never ask a question that you do not know the answer to. If collecting a particular piece of data looks like it might not support your preferred narrative, just stop.

    • As any lawyer will tell you, never ask a question that you do not know the answer to. If collecting a particular piece of data looks like it might not support your preferred narrative, just stop.

      Lawyers created most of the fucked legal mess we're in now. Let me know why in the FUCK I should listen to those greedy simpletons who have but one goal in life.

      "Support your preferred narrative" is the reason "Congressional Representative", is a bullshit title now. The Political Civil War they started, will lead to Actual Civil War.

      Again.

  • I'd like to know more about the risks I face. I know my odds of winding up in a hospital or very low but what are the odds I'm going to get sick for 2-3 weeks and have long-term symptoms after that? Especially in light of the fairly low vaccination numbers due to us turning vaccination into a political issue. So far most of the articles I see only address death and occasionally hospitalization.
    • Two days ago NPR had a story about a study involving breakthrough cases in vaccinated Israeli healthcare workers.

      N for the study was 1500 persons and they reported 29 breakthrough cases and 7 that resulted in long covid symptoms.

      Those are still decent odds, really. That's 0.019 breakthrough cases for every vaccinated person, and 0.0047 long covid cases. The real issue is that 1 in 4 breakthrough cases results in long covid.

      The news was generally about long covid emerging in vaccinated people, so there was n

  • Yet more proof that they are idiots, and they continue to be idiots by not recommending booster shots. Somehow they have the idea that giving shots to people who don't want them and refuse to get them will work better than giving shots to people who want them.

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