ATLANTA — Piedmont Healthcare COVID Taskforce Executive Director Dr. Jayne Morgan spoke with Channel 2′s Jorge Estevez about how COVID-19 vaccines protect against hospitalization and death, even as more fully-vaccinated Americans become sick with the virus.
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Jorge Estevez: All right, Dr. Jayne Morgan, let’s talk about the delta variant and the breakthrough cases, meaning people who’ve been vaccinated and come down with COVID. It’s the delta variant in most cases?
Dr. Jayne Morgan: In most cases, it probably is. We know we have a 75% penetrance of the Delta variant here in the state of Georgia. But we also know that these vaccines are not 100%. No vaccine is, but these vaccines are outstandingly high. And the key thing to remember is that even if you have a breakthrough infection, meaning you contract COVID, even though you’ve been vaccinated, the key point to remember is that you’re not going to die.
Jorge Estevez: But what do you say to people who say, “Okay, sure, I’m not going to die. But I’m still going to feel ill for a week or two be out of work. What’s the point? I don’t trust the vaccine that much anyway”?
Dr. Jayne Morgan: The point is, you escaped death. And you also escaped hospitalization and severe disease. So if we are able to mitigate your disease with a variant that has a 1000-fold higher viral load content, and you’re able to still be at home with mild illness, that is such a win for you, as opposed to being very, very ill or risking death.
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