Breakthrough cases of COVID-19 are rare, so you can imagine the shock for Janise Hassanos when she tested positive for the virus on August 6th. She’s been fully vaccinated since April.
“I was scared, I was nervous," Hassanos said. "I had spent a lot of time with my son so I was afraid I could get him sick."
She had a runny nose and lost her sense of smell. That’s the symptom that convinced her to isolate herself at home to protect her mom and teenage son.
Doctors are not surprised. They estimate four out of 100 vaccinated people will still contract COVID-19.
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“We’ve always known that would happen. That’s never been the case where vaccines are an absolute, where it protects you definitively no matter what.So it’s still very small numbers but, to that individual, it is real,” said Dr. O’Neil Pyke, the Chief Medical Officer at Jackson North Medical Center.
Where the vaccines really make the difference is keeping people out of the hospital with severe illness and death. The data shows the vaccines are working in Miami-Dade County, where 87% of new COVID patients were not vaccinated over the last two weeks.
“Vaccinated folks, yes they're presenting some in the hospitals," Dr. Pyke said. "But for the most part, the overwhelming number of 90+ percent of folks who are in the hospitals are unvaccinated.”
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Thankfully no one else in Janise’s house got sick. She thinks the vaccine made the difference.
“I still recommend getting vaccinated, I didn’t spread it to my son or mom. I do recommend the vaccination, I didn’t get that sick,” she said.
