In rare cases, a booster can be followed by a Covid-19 breakthrough

Heather Green received her third injection of the COVID-19 booster, Pfizer Vaccine, in late September. A month later, the 47-year-old found during routine tests that his mild allergy-like symptoms were actually from COVID-19.

“I was grateful I got a booster because this disease is so unpredictable,” says Ms. Green, who was tested as part of a voluntary surveillance program at a Philadelphia elementary school, where she teaches third grade. Two days later her symptoms were gone, she says.

Boosters are now rolling out more widely across the country. So far, doctors say they are seeing few cases of infection in people who have received the booster. For example, Geisinger, a Pennsylvania-based healthcare provider with more than 1.5 million patients, says that as of September 1, 62 of more than 24,000 positive COVID-19 tests — a rate of about 0.2% — were in people who had A booster was received.

Despite the low level of success cases after boosters, the emergence of the new Omron variant has raised questions about how well the vaccine will last against it. There is currently little data for scientists competing to understand omicrons. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracks success cases, but does not specifically break down post-booster infections.

Doctors strongly recommend that patients get boosters. They say people who may be infected with COVID-19 despite receiving a booster can be expected to have mild symptoms and little illness. They are much less likely to be hospitalized or die compared to those who have not been vaccinated.

“I can’t tell you how important I think it is for people to get boosters,” says Bruce Farber, chief of public health and epidemiology at Northwell Health in New Hyde Park, NY. 100% effective. In the best of circumstances this elevates you roughly to the point where you were fine after receiving the first two vaccines from Delta.”

Your protection drops to about 90% after the booster, he says. So, about 10% of people with a booster can still be infected.

Dr. Farber says he knows of three patients who had success cases after a booster, one of whom had a weakened immune system. “The good news is they haven’t gotten very sick,” he says.

Data from Israel showed that people who receive a booster and come down with a successful infection have a much lower risk of being hospitalized or dying.

Dennis Cunningham, systems medical director for infection control and prevention at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, says the health system has seen some hospitalized patients who have received booster doses. He says patients tend to be older, usually over the age of 75, or have cancer-like immune impairment.

“I don’t see healthy people hospitalized if they are vaccinated,” he says.

David Wohl, a professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says he’s heard of a successful infection post-booster in his department. This was in an 86-year-old woman who was asymptomatic and tested positive for Covid-19 when in hospital for an unrelated reason, they say.

“We just aren’t seeing” cases of success in people getting boosters, says Dr. Wohl. “If there was a real vulnerability I think we would see more cases.”

Still, some cases are to be expected, he says.

“Even with the boosting, it is not a special force field that keeps the virus from entering our nose and throat,” says Dr. Wohl. “It still can. We’re really good at getting rid of it quickly.”

Heather Wyatt, 48, in Port Washington, NY, received a booster in September after receiving her first two Pfizer shots in March. She has several underlying health conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis and asthma.

She says the booster helped her avoid serious complications when she was recently infected with COVID-19. She went to Nashville, Tenn., for a friend’s surprise birthday party in mid-November. A few days after his return, he was diagnosed with Covid-19.

Ms. Wyatt says the disease was not as bad as some of the previous colds that turned into pneumonia. Instead, for two weeks she thought she had the flu, with aches and pains, a sore throat, and a low-grade fever at night, she says.

“I guess had I not had this with the vaccine and booster, it would have been worse and I would have been in real trouble,” she says.