From the very onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been burning questions about the situation. From questions about the use of authority to cull the illness, to whether or not China is hiding an ugly truth, doubt has been accompanying the coronavirus crises every step of the way.
Now, even as we emerge from the pandemic into something somewhat resembling normalcy, we find that even our doctors and medical experts are a little confused, particularly after it became known that those who’ve received a COVID-19 booster shot are more likely to get the illness.
Since late February, Americans who have gotten a booster shot appear to be testing positive for COVID-19 more often than those vaccinated without the extra shot, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
This is based on numbers up until the week of April 23, which is the most recently released CDC data comparing case rates of those boosted, vaccinated and unvaccinated against the coronavirus. Ultimately, the numbers, which are updated monthly, showed those unvaccinated had the highest case rates overall.
Meanwhile, about 119 out of 100,000 boosted individuals tested positive for COVID-19 during the week of April 23, according to CDC data. In comparison, 56 out of 100,000 individuals vaccinated with only a primary series tested positive.
Medical experts are simply stunned.
Dr. Sheela Shenoi, an infectious disease doctor and assistant professor at Yale School of Medicine, told McClatchy News over the phone that “there’s no biological reason that people who have had (the vaccine) and boosters are going to be at increased risk for COVID.”
“These numbers are not telling us the whole truth,” Shenoi said.
And that’s not all:
The CDC wrote in a summary accompanying its data that “several factors likely affect crude case rates” and this makes “interpretation of recent trends difficult.”
Some have suggested that the issue is merely one of mathematics, with home testing kits now skewing the numbers, but for others this is yet another mystery surrounding this once-in-a-lifetime plague.
