Last Updated on August 19, 2021 by Team THIP
Quick Take
A number of social media users are claiming that American scientist and Chief Medical Advisor to the President of the United States, Dr. Fauci has said that Covid-19 vaccines are spreading disease. We fact-checked and found that the claim is mostly false.
The Claim
“Fauci admits Covid vaccines are spreading disease,” writes most of the social media users referring to one of the recent interviews of the scientist. A few small media platforms also wrote an article with a similar claim. Such posts can be seen here, here, and here. A snapshot is given below.
Fact Check
Who is Dr. Fauci?
Dr. Anthony Stephen Fauci is an American scientist and immunologist serving as the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the US and the Chief Medical Advisor to the President of the United States. He is considered to be the top expert in the US about the Coronavirus.
Did Dr. Fauci say that Coronavirus vaccines are spreading disease?
No. Dr. Fauci mentioned about “Breakthrough infections” in a recent interview. That was misunderstood by many as vaccines spreading infection.
In an interview with CBS News, Dr. Fauci mentioned that the Delta variant of the Coronavirus spreads easily from person to person. He further mentioned that there is no vaccine that can fully protect against the virus and hence breakthrough infection cases are expected to occur.
He further said, “When you look at the level of virus in the nasopharynx of people who are vaccinated, who get breakthrough infections, it’s really quite high and equivalent to the level of virus in the nasopharynx of unvaccinated people who get infected.”
This has been widely misunderstood by netizens who interpreted that Dr. Fauci said vaccines are spreading infections.
What is breakthrough infection?
The website of CDC mentions, “a vaccine breakthrough infection is defined as the detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA or antigen in a respiratory specimen collected from a person ≥14 days after they have completed all recommended doses of a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-authorized COVID-19 vaccine.”
In simple terms, this means that when a fully vaccinated person gets Covid-19 infection after completing 14 days from his last dose, the infection is called breakthrough infection. The CDC website mentions that this will be a small percentage of people but the possibility.
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