El Paso doctor underscores vaccine importance despite breakthrough cases

EL PASO, Texas -- As El Paso see's an uptick in Covid-19 cases, the Borderland is also seeing more breakthrough cases - which are infections in those who are fully vaccinated. However, local health experts say it's still minimal compared to what was El Paso's worst of the pandemic without vaccines.

The El Paso City/County Health authority Dr. Hector Ocaranza told a County Commissioners Court meeting Monday that a majority of those breakthrough cases are occurring in people who are over 65 with underlying health conditions.

Just over this last week, the El Paso Department of Public Health said out of the four people who died from Covid-19, three were fully vaccinated. Health officials said they all had underlying health conditions, bringing the total number of vaccinated people who've died from Covid-19 to 16.

However, it's worth noting though that since May 1st, a time when vaccines were readily available for anyone who wanted one, about 93 percent of people who have died in El Paso of Covid were unvaccinated. As of Monday, 2,757 people had died.

Out of the more than 800 new cases reported last week, close to 200 of those were people were fully vaccinated. 

Local infectious disease specialist Dr. Armando Meza with Texas Tech University Health Science Center of El Paso said compared to what El Paso saw last year with no vaccines, breakthrough cases are small. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has also indicated that some breakthrough cases were expected.

"The vaccine was never really 100%. We know that we saw the numbers, but 90% is a lot better than they anticipated the vaccine to be," Meza said.

"So yes, there will be breakthrough cases, especially people who are sick, who have a comorbidity condition, who have a medical condition - those are going to have the one that ends up in the hospital, and unfortunately, will have a worse prognosis," he explained.

Meza said some people will have different outcomes. Just because you may get sick doesn't mean the vaccine isn't working, he said, adding that it's still the best form of protection.

"What you want to get is that protection of benefits, very equivalent to seat belts," he said. "When people say, 'well, are seat belts life saving?' Yes. 'Are they 100% life saving?' No. There is going to be a risk still, for other reasons, then wearing a seat belt. But if you deny the fact that some things work, like vaccines, I don't see the justification to make that (though process) really believable."