The Vaxxed and Boosted Get COVID But Praise Vaccines for “Mild” Symptoms

by Marco Cáceres

Published December 27, 2021 | Opinion

In an opinion piece for The Vaccine Reaction earlier this year titled “Vaccinated Americans Count Their Blessings Despite Getting COVID,” I cited several members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives who had been fully vaccinated but still tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, joining the growing number of vaccinated people in the United States being counted as COVID-19 “breakthrough cases.” Despite their vaccination status, all of the legislators expressed gratitude for the shots they received because they assumed that without them their COVID symptoms would have been much worse.¹

The Senators included Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, John Hickenlooper of Colorado, Angus King of Maine and Roger Wicker of Mississippi. The Representatives included Vern Buchanan of Florida, Joseph Morelle of New York and Darren Soto of Florida. Rather than acknowledging  that the shots

failed to prevent them from becoming infected with the virus, all of the legislators gave credit to the shots for their mild symptoms. Each of them related some version of the phrase, “It would’ve been worse had I not gotten the shot.”¹

During the past week, there has been another round of high-profile politicians who acknowledged they tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 despite being fully vaccinated and boosted. On Dec. 19, 2021, fully vaccinated and boosted Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado announced they had come down with breakthrough coronavirus infections. On Dec. 20, Governor Larry Hogan of Maryland said he had tested positive. On Dec. 21, Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota said he was positive for the virus too, as did Rep. Barbara Lee of California.^{2 3 4 5 6}

Each of these members of Congress and governors said that their COVID symptoms were “mild” and that they seemed to be recovering just fine. Each of them also followed with a set of comments that have now come to sound very familiar.

After revealing the result of his SARS-Cov-2 test, Sen. Booker said:

My symptoms are relatively mild. I’m beyond grateful to have received two doses of vaccine and, more recently, a booster. I’m certain that without them I would be doing much worse.⁵

Sen. Warren tweeted:

Thankfully, I am only experiencing mild symptoms & am grateful for the protection provided against serious illness that comes from being vaccinated & boosted.^{2 5}

Rep. Crow tweeted:

I’m thankful to be fully vaccinated and boosted and experiencing only mild symptoms (the vaccine is safe and effective).⁵

Gov. Hogan’s tweet was more nuanced. He wrote:

This morning, as part of my regular testing routine, I received a positive rapid test for COVID-19. I have been vaccinated and boosted, and I am feeling fine at the moment. …As the Omicron variant becomes dominant, I want to urge you to get vaccinated or get your booster shot as soon as possible.³

Gov. Walz tweeted:

Thankfully, my son has mild symptoms and Gwen and I have no symptoms. My son is vaccinated, and Gwen and I are vaccinated and have our booster shots, and I am confident that these vaccines are protecting my family and me from serious illness.⁵

Rep. Lee said:

Fortunately, I have only mild cold-like symptoms, but I know it could have been much worse had I not been vaccinated and boosted.⁶

Other fully vaccinated and boosted members of Congress who have also recently tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 include House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, Rep. Antonio Delgado of New York and Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois.⁷

Many Unvaccinated People Who Test Positive for SARS-CoV-2 are Asymptomatic or Have Only Mild Symptoms

It’s good that, in each of these “breakthrough cases” involving fully vaccinated and boosted individuals, the infected person did not experience serious health problems. But it must be said that there also many cases of unvaccinated and unboosted people who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and also experienced only mild symptoms or no symptoms at all.

In fact, one study conducted last year, before the experimental COVID shots were widely available to the public, found that 81 percent of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 were asymptomatic. Another study published in January 2021 estimated that about 30 percent of people who got infected with coronavirus would never develop COVID symptoms.^{8 9 10}

Meta-Analysis Finds More Than 35 Percent of SARS-CoV-2 Cases are Asymptomatic, Regardless of Vaccination Status

A more recent study conducted by U.S. medical researchers and published in the journal PNAS on Aug. 24, 2021 estimated that 35.1 percent of SARS-CoV-2 infections never advance to a symptomatic stage. That study came to its conclusion based on a review of more than 350 studies—based on data from Jan. 1, 2020 through Apr. 2, 2021—that “reported silent infections at the time of testing, whether presymptomatic or asymptomatic.”¹¹

This suggests that a significant number of people who become infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus develop no COVID symptoms or only mild symptoms, regardless of their vaccination status… which leads to the question: “Did the vaccinated/boosted politicians who contracted SARS-CoV-2 have only mild symptoms because of the shots they received or simply because they were part of this fortunate segment of the population?”

Could the reason be that these individuals are generally healthy and, consequently, less susceptible to becoming ill with COVID or other diseases? Is it as clear-cut as, “They were vaccinated and thus they were spared from serious illness or death”? Or are there other factors that may have contributed to their ability to stave off a worse outcome?

Some Vaccinated, Boosted People Who Get COVID Become Seriously Ill and Die

How do you explain the reality that many unvaccinated/unboosted people who contract SARS-CoV-2 also experience either no symptoms or only mild ones? Furthermore, how do you explain that there are also people who have been fully vaccinated and have developed serious COVID symptoms and had to be hospitalized, and even died?^{12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19}

I noted in my article “Vaccinated Americans Count Their Blessings Despite Getting COVID that the phrase “It would’ve been worse had I not gotten the shot” reminds me of what many people who get vaccinated for influenza each year and still catch it say. Again, the question: “How do they know?”¹

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