Delta Variant Viral Load is Similar in Vaccinated and Unvaccinated: COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines Are Not Magic Bullets

Dr. Anthony Fauci.

As of July 27, the CDC has reconsidered and revised its policy on unmasking the vaccinated; regardless of the vaccination status, all individuals are asked to mask again in crowded indoor spaces. This decision was based on key findings from a recent study on SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. A majority of the infected (74%) in Cape Cod were fully vaccinated. The CDC researchers found that the viral load was nearly identical in fully vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals. The CDC scientists or the scientific community wouldn’t be able to reach this conclusion without having data from unvaccinated people, a group that served as an invaluable control. What if 100% of this population had been fully vaccinated? What conclusions would we draw then? Would we think that some vaccine doses were not effective? Without the unvaccinated, these findings would have created more panic and confusion than help resolve anything.

The main reason why we are at this juncture for COVID vaccines is that data from Phase 2 and Phase 3 clinical trials for these COVID-19 vaccines (Pfizer, Moderna, J & J) haven’t been released to the public or the scientific community. Not just that the data are not released, but as part of Phase 2/3 studies, the placebo arm was prematurely terminated and rolled into the vaccinated arm. The vaccine efficacy was a foregone conclusion. Even now, after nearly a year and billions of doses of vaccines administered worldwide, we do not have a systematic review of the data. Public opinion and outcry should not shape decisions made by the CDC and the FDA; proper data analysis or the due process should not be overlooked. In 2017, the FDA released a report for at least 22 case studies where “Phase 2 and Phase 3 trials had divergent results”. It took until now — multiple outbreaks, including one in a small town in Massachusetts where not everybody was vaccinated — to find out that vaccination is not preventing the virus from establishing an infection and producing copies of itself in numbers that are equivalent to those in some unvaccinated individuals. And that these vaccinated individuals were symptomatic, can spread infection, and some need hospitalization.