In rare instances, CDC finds infections in people who are fully vaccinated

In rare instances, CDC finds infections in people who are fully vaccinated   According to the CDC, at least 5,800 people who have been vaccinated against coronavirus have become infected anyway. These are known as breakthrough cases.   Some became seriously ill and 74 people died, the CDC said. Of those infected, 396 -- 7% -- required hospitalization.   The agency is searching for patterns based on patient age and sex, location, type of vaccine, variants and other factors to try and determine who might be more likely to develop a breakthrough case. “To date, no unexpected patterns have been identified in case demographics or vaccine characteristics," the CDC told CNN last week. They noted: "Vaccine breakthrough infections were reported among all people of all ages eligible for vaccination. However, a little over 40% of the infections were in people 60 or more years of age.”   Remember, breakthrough cases are expected. The vaccines are not 100% effective in preventing infections, and as tens of millions of people are vaccinated, more and more such cases will be reported.   The likelihood of these "very rare" infections depends on how much virus is circulating within a community, Dr. Kawsar Talaat, an infectious disease physician and assistant professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told CNN. "That's the whole point of getting to herd immunity," Talaat said. "Because once we get to a point where enough people in the community are vaccinated, then if somebody develops Covid in that community, the people around them are protected and it's much harder for that person to spread the virus to somebody else, and therefore the transmission stops."