‘All 3 Vaccines Are Breaking Through’: Emails Show Discussion of Vaccine Failure Among Health Officials

A nurse holds a syringe that contains a dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in Seattle, Wash., on June 21, 2022. David Ryder/Getty Images

Officials in Washington state discussed in mid-2021 that there were recorded jumps in post-vaccination infections, hospitalizations, and deaths, according to newly disclosed internal emails.

Fifteen percent of COVID-19 cases and 25 percent of COVID-19 hospitalizations from July 1 to July 20, 2021, were of people who had been vaccinated—up from 2 percent between February and June that year, Chris Spitters, the health officer for the Snohomish County Health District, wrote in one of the messages. A fifth of the deaths attributed to COVID-19 were of vaccinated individuals.