Approximately 99.99% of fully vaccinated people in the United States have avoided coronavirus cases.
That’s no exaggeration. Though this is probably a slight undercount due to untested people, the CDC found vaccines to be about that effective.
But a relatively small number of breakthrough infections still occur.
Apparently, Warriors guard Damion Lee had one.
Lee said he got vaccinated in mid-to-late March then tested positive a couple of weeks ago.
Kendra Andrews of NBC Sports Bay Area:Lee suffered severe symptoms during his bout with COVID-19. He kept a running list of them on his phone so he could track exactly what was going on. He experienced headache, chills, sneezing, congestion, soreness and body aches, all of which lasted for about eight days.
“I felt like I was hit by two cars at once,” Lee said. “Every step I took, it hurt. There was pain, soreness, it felt like there was a weight on my chest for a couple of days. It was hard to breathe. Loss of appetite, and even still I don’t have my appetite all the way back. Even random headaches, brain fog where I’ll start a conversation and be in on the conversation and then five minutes in, I lose track of what I was talking about or just don’t want to talk anymore.”
Lee’s case is especially rare. Not only do vaccines make infection less likely, in the event of an unlikely infection, they also make symptoms – especially severe symptoms – less likely.
Thankfully, vaccines also make people less likely to spread the virus. So, Lee was unlikely to transmit coronavirus to someone else. That’s significant.
Of course, Lee’s case was significant to him. The high likelihood of vaccinated people avoiding coronavirus and especially avoiding severe symptoms probably wasn’t much solace as he felt so sick. Hopefully, he recovers swiftly.
Lee is drawing increased attention relative to the many NBA players who contracted coronavirus because he was fully vaccinated. The fascination is understandable.
But it’s important to keep perspective: Lee’s situation is interesting because it’s such an outlier. The vaccines generally work very well.