July 30, 2021
The CDC releases the data behind its mask reversal, and the numbers cut against a year of messaging. In the Provincetown outbreak of 469 cases, about 74% were in fully vaccinated people, and the agency reports that vaccinated people infected with Delta can carry as much virus as the unvaccinated and can pass it on. The Associated Press leads with the finding that the vaccinated can spread the virus.
The same day, Politico reports the CDC is under fire for limiting its tracking of breakthrough infections to those that end in hospitalization or death, cutting off the very data that would show how often the vaccinated are getting infected. The New York Times reports that early viral sequences deleted from a U.S. database have been recovered, handing fresh material to those pressing the lab-leak question.
Abroad the Delta wave widens. Japan expands its state of emergency as Tokyo sets case records during the Olympics, and Australia sends about 300 soldiers into Sydney to help enforce a lockdown of six million people.
Study: Vaccinated people can carry as much virus as others
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