CDC Intentionally Undercounting COVID-19 “Breakthrough Cases” in Vaccinated Persons

by Marco Cáceres

Published May 23, 2021 | Vaccination, Risk & Failure Reports

Opinion | When the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) relaxed its mask-wearing guidelines on May 13, 2021, it assured Americans, “The science is clear: If you are fully vaccinated, you are protected, and you can start doing the things that you stopped doing because of the pandemic.” But that assurance should be accompanied with brief addendum like… “At least we believe you’re protected. Most of the time.”

Fully Vaccinated People are Coming Down With COVID-19

The fact is that there are plenty of cases of people who have been fully vaccinated for COVID-19 and still got infected the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Take the recent case of the nine fully vaccinated New York Yankees players and staff members who tested positive for COVID-19. Seven of them were

asymptomatic and two showed mild symptoms.^{1 2}

Or how about comedian and television host Bill Maher, who recently tested positive for COVID-19 despite being fully vaccinated? He also was asymptomatic.³

There is the recent case of a woman Olivia Kingree of Madison, Wisconsin, who developed COVID-19 and died on May 16, more than a month after being fully vaccinated. And there’s the recent case of Alan Sporn of Chicago, who came down with COVID-19 and died on Mar. 29, more than a month after being fully vaccinated.^{4 5 6}

Or the case of the famous Rutgers University professor Rajendra Kapila, MD He was fully vaccinated and died of COVID-19 in India on Apr. 28.⁷

You can pick up the newspaper or go online every morning and find similar cases all over the country of individuals, who thought they were going to be protected from being infected with SARS-CoV-2 by getting vaccinated, only to learn they were not immune at all to the new coronavirus because the vaccine failed to work as advertised. The big stories, like the one about the Yankees or Maher make the front pages, but most are tucked away where you can’t find them, unless you dig in and do the research online. a little.

COVID-19 vaccine failures are being called “breakthrough cases.”

In an article in The Vaccine Reaction published on Apr. 26, writer Carolyn Hendler reported there had been, “5,800 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in fully vaccinated persons occurring more than two weeks after vaccination and resulting in almost 400 hospitalizations and 74 deaths.”^{8 9}

On its website, the CDC states that, as of Apr. 26, there had been more than 13,564 breakthrough cases reported to the government.¹⁰ But that may just may be the tip of the iceberg.

There is no way to know for sure how many fully vaccinated people have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 because a significant portion of those who contract the virus never show symptoms of COVID-19 and so they would never consider reporting their condition to anyone, much less the CDC. They would simply go about their daily lives blissfully thinking they’re fully vaccinated and, thus… protected and safe from getting infected.

CDC Decides to Only Count Breakthrough Cases Involving Hospitalization or Death

Interestingly, on that same website page, the CDC states it is changing its policy of how public health officials monitor breakthrough cases of COVID-19 in fully vaccinated people:

In the coming weeks, CDC will transition from monitoring all reported vaccine breakthrough cases to focus on identifying and investigating only vaccine breakthrough infections that result in hospitalization or death. This shift will help maximize the quality of the data collected on cases of greatest clinical and public health importance.¹⁰

Yes, you read it correctly. The CDC has decided it will no longer bother counting all the “breakthrough cases” of COVID-19 reported to the government. It will only count those COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough cases that are so serious they result in the person being admitted to a hospital and dying.¹¹

What is the CDC’s explanation for this policy change in monitoring how many COVID-19 vaccine failures there are among vaccinated people? Reportedly, public health officials are making the change to “maximize the quality of data collected on cases.”¹¹ Whatever that means.

An article in Fortune noted that this change in policy is “already drawing concern from some scientists who say that may mean missing needed data showing why and how it happens.” According to Eric Topol, MD, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, California, “We shouldn’t be narrowing the focus, we should be broadening and develop a systematic plan.”¹¹

Breakthrough Case Count Will Decline Under CDC’s New Policy

Let’s think rationally about what this reductionist policy means. It means that the number of breakthrough cases of COVID-19 in fully vaccinated persons will suddenly plummet as of this month. Not because the COVID-19 vaccines are actually working and preventing SARS-CoV-2 infections (and transmission) but, rather, because the CDC has arbitrarily decided not to count all the potentially thousands (perhaps tens of hundreds of thousands) of known breakthrough cases.

Countless breakthrough cases will go under the radar because they occurred in asymptomatic vaccinated people. Or the COVID-19 breakthrough cases occurred in vaccinated people, who had mild symptoms and made the effort to inform their health care providers they felt ill, but were never hospitalized and did not die.

But this will not be the story that will be reported by doctors, public health officials, governors and legislators and the media over the next few months. Instead, what you’ll likely hear and read will be, “Look at how the number of COVID cases are dropping. That’s undeniable proof that these vaccines are highly effective and offer the only way to rid of us of this terrible virus.”

No, it is not proof. It is merely a change of policy.

Smoke and Mirrors Policy Change with Polio Definition Similar to Policy Change Monitoring COVID-19 Breakthrough Cases

It reminds me of the way the U.S. government changed its definition of polio back in 1954 when medical researcher and virologist Jonas Salk introduced his inactivated injectable polio vaccine (IPV).

Before 1954, the patient had to “exhibit paralytic symptoms for only 24 hours.” Before the polio vaccine was put on the market and recommended for all children in 1954, “Laboratory confirmation and the presence of residual paralysis were not required.” However, after 1954, “residual paralysis was determined 10 to 20 days and again 50 to 70 days after the onset of the disease.” In order for a polio case to qualify as polio or “paralytic poliomyelitis after 1954,” the patient had to “exhibit paralytic symptoms for at least 60 days after the onset of the disease.”^{12 13}

The net effect of this change in policy was to make it much harder for a possible case of polio to be classified as polio. Predictably, the number of polio cases in the United States began to decline. In 1953, there were 35,592 confirmed cases of polio in the U.S. In 1954, there were 38,476. In 1955, there were 28,985.^{12 13}

Arbitrary public health policy changes that have nothing to do with science but everything to do with smoke and mirrors was implemented during the polio era. It’s happening all over again.

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Note: This commentary provides referenced information and perspective on a topic related to vaccine science, policy, law or ethics being discussed in public forums and by U.S. lawmakers.  The websites of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) provide information and perspective of federal agencies responsible for vaccine research, development, regulation and policymaking.

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