Nearly one-fifth of the coronavirus infections reported in North Carolina during the first half of August were in people already fully vaccinated, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services.
A WRAL.com report recognizes that while there is stable and highly effective protection against hospitalizations and severe outcomes for people who are fully vaccinated, experts are seeing a decrease in vaccine effectiveness against infection with the Delta variant.
“The vaccine isn’t a force field,” said David Wohl, MD, professor of medicine in infectious diseases, who added that it does lessen the symptoms for anyone who does contract COVID-19.
“Vaccination protects people from getting infected in the first place,” Wohl said. “If they do get infected, it gets it out of their system faster than unvaccinated people, so therefore, they do not get as sick.”