February 9, 2023:- How many people got the shots then caught the disease? Once upon a time, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) used to publish the numbers. But then (when the proportion of “fully vaccinated” people who later reported catching COVID-19 hit 11.4%) they stopped.
So I submitted a public records request and learned that the number of breakthrough cases in the 69-day period June 26-September 3, 2022 was 58,199.
What about breakthrough cases recorded after September 3, 2022? I submitted another public records request in order to find out. You can read about the response here.
Because there were still no new figures for breakthrough cases from September 3 onward, in January I submitted yet another request, and today I received the response:
The Department has not found records responsive to your request. The Department herewith
informs you it has not stopped analyzing breakthrough COVID-19 cases but conducts this
analysis on a periodic basis.
That was exactly what they said in response to my previous request, and the one before that. The DPH says that it conducts its analysis on a “periodic basis,” but clearly the periods are quite long: they have no figures for the last 4 months.
Undue hardship?
Here’s a reminder about why this matters to employees in Massachusetts. If you submitted a request for exemption from the mandate (the No Jab, No Job rule) you may have received a letter telling you that accommodating your request would impose “undue hardship” on the employer. That contention of undue hardship rests on the premise that the shots stop people from catching and transmitting the disease.
But if lots of people get the shots and then catch the disease anyway — and in Massachusetts we know that the proportion is at least 12% — that premise vanishes (it wanes, you might say).
We need to know what’s going on, and for how long these pharmaceutical products provide any degree of protection. Otherwise how can we make informed choices about whether to get ourselves and our children injected? Knowing how many breakthrough cases there have been is one important piece of information, information that the State used to deem important enough to publish on a regular basis.
If you would like to help find out what the numbers really are, please let me know. I am not looking donations, just volunteers. To get in touch, use the contact form or send me an email.
Peter Vickery, Esq., 