Virologists call in the Volkskrant to have vaccinated people still adhere to the same measures as non-vaccinated people for the time being. That means testing for complaints, testing for tickets and keeping your distance.
The virologists make this appeal because the delta variant of the virus can also spread to a greater extent than with other variants via people who have already been fully vaccinated. Dozens of fully vaccinated employees in various hospitals tested positive. Clinical virologist Matthijs Welkers of Amsterdam UMC in de Volkskrant: “We even see people who have already had an infection, have been vaccinated twice and now test positive again.” The positively tested employees have few or no complaints.
It was known that the vaccines do not protect 100 percent against infections. The question has always been to what extent the vaccines would completely stop virus transmission. For the delta variant, the complete protection against infection and virus transmission appears to be lower than with other variants. This is probably because of the so-called viral load: A recent analysis shows that people infected with the delta variant spread up to 1000 times more virus particles.
“At the beginning of the infection, it is probably so much that your antibodies cannot keep up,” says Welkers in de Volkskrant. “Because of its large numbers, the virus breaks through the defense as it were.”
The vaccines still protect very well against serious infections, so fully vaccinated people have a much lower risk of ending up in hospital. There is, however, a risk that vaccinated people will infect non-vaccinated people, for example if the night-time catering industry will open again via access tests and vaccinated people will be able to enter without a test.
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