Delta variant risk for vaccinated: the real COVID “breakthrough cases” danger.

Recently, one of my colleagues took a trip to Florida. He went to see family, in a long-awaited visit that he had previously only managed to make once during the pandemic, driving the whole way from New York while “peeing behind dumpsters.” Now that everyone was fully vaccinated, it seemed totally reasonable to fly there and to have everyone gather, unmasked, together. It was a relief and a joy. They even went to a hockey game indoors with thousands of people.

When my colleague got home, he started to feel like he had a cold. He didn’t think much of it—until he got a call from one of his family members in Florida who had tested positive for COVID-19. Eventually, all the adults who gathered on that trip got sick, including my colleague’s mother-in-law and father-in-law. My colleague’s wife also tested positive; he didn’t, but given his symptoms, including loss of smell, it seemed like a probable COVID case.

As I spoke to my colleague about it, he was still sifting through exactly what he was feeling. He’d forgotten how miserable being sick is, for one thing, and his case—a “mild one” by medical definitions—knocked him out for about a day and a half. He, his wife, and his father-in-law still had a lingering cough, and he was worried about long-term effects, particularly because his father-in-law is undergoing treatment for a serious health issue.

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