Can Vaccinated People Spread COVID-19?

There are a lot of preventative measures against COVID, including vaccination. What's important to note, though, is that people who are vaccinated can still get—and spread—COVID.

Even though it's effective, vaccination won't keep you from experiencing a COVID infection. Getting a COVID vaccine instead helps reduce the chances of having a severe case of COVID that could result in hospitalization or death. Here's what else you need to know.

Can You Spread COVID After Getting Vaccinated?

Yes, you can. When a vaccinated person gets COVID, it's referred to as a breakthrough infection.

The viral load—or how much of a virus is in a person's blood—is about the same regardless of vaccination status. This means vaccinated people experiencing breakthrough infections can be carriers of SARS-CoV-2 and spread the virus to others.

The good news is when a vaccinated person gets a breakthrough infection, the symptoms tend to be less severe. The illness is also typically less serious—with people less likely to be hospitalized or die from the breakthrough infection.

Risk of Getting COVID After Vaccination

Your risk of getting COVID after you've been vaccinated is lower than it would be if you were unvaccinated. Breakthrough infections happen in a small percentage of vaccinated individuals. For example, only 10,262 cases of breakthrough infections had been reported in the United States by April 2021.

Researchers investigated the link between vaccination status and reinfection. The researchers found that unvaccinated people who were unvaccinated were a little over two times more likely to get COVID again compared to people who were vaccinated.

Benefits of Vaccines

Though breakthrough infections can happen, that doesn't mean that vaccines aren't effective. Other than reducing the likelihood of getting COVID, COVID vaccines are beneficial because they:

• Are a safe and reliable method of protection against COVID
• Help prevent serious symptoms and illness, hospitalization, and death due to a COVID infection
• Offer more protection for individuals who have had COVID before
  

A Quick Review

It's possible to spread a COVID infection regardless of your vaccination status. When a vaccinated person has COVID, it's called a breakthrough infection, but breakthrough infections don't happen in a lot of vaccinated people.

While you can get COVID after vaccination, that doesn't mean that the vaccines don't work. COVID vaccines are safe, offer more protection, and prevent people from having severe cases of COVID.

The information in this story is accurate as of publication. However, as the situation surrounding COVID continues to evolve, it's possible that some data have changed since publication. While Health is trying to keep our stories as up-to-date as possible, we also encourage readers to stay informed on news and recommendations for their own communities by using the CDC, WHO, and their local public health department as resources.