As the country confronts a massive surge of coronavirus cases, fully vaccinated Americans worry whether they're adequately protected. As masking recommendations for the vaccinated change, one aspect of the transmissibility debate can be overlooked.
Cases of breakthrough infections among the vaccinated remain rare. In that event, health experts said, a fully vaccinated person who gets COVID-19 won’t be contagious for very long and may not have the chance to transmit the virus to another person.
A vaccinated person may have the same viral loads as an unvaccinated person, but that high level of virus lasts only three to four days compared with an unvaccinated person who could be contagious for up to 10 days, said Suresh Mittal, professor of virology at Purdue University’s College of Veterinary Medicine.
