A total of eight residents and eight of the staff have been found infected after a corona outbreak at the Hesselgrenska nursing home in Hofors.
The infection spread despite the fact that all the residents have been fully vaccinated for some time.
But no matter how good the vaccine is, so-called vaccine breakthroughs, when a person becomes infected more than two weeks after the second dose, will always appear, says Ali Harandi.
- I see two main reasons, the first is that no vaccine that has been approved offers one hundred percent protection.
Even if Moderna and Pfizer have 94-95 percent efficiency, there is always a risk that fully vaccinated people will contract an infection, says Ali Harandi.
- The second is that the vaccine does not protect as well against the new mutations that are circulating, as the British variant that is widespread in all regions, he says.
Greater risk among the elderly
From the start of the vaccination program until 9 May, 2,259 breakthrough infections were registered in Sweden according to the Swedish Public Health Agency's statistics, which corresponds to 0.3 per cent of all fully vaccinated.
The lowered immune system in the elderly means that people over the age of 80 are at greater risk of being affected.
Ali Harandi says that living in a home also increases the risk of being infected further.
- There you live close to each other, eat common meals and have activities in closed environments together with staff.
That people who are fully vaccinated become infected can happen anywhere, but the risk is very, very small, says Ali Harandi.
"Will not stop all breakthrough infections"
According to Ali Harandi, one can compare a covid vaccine with the flu vaccine that many older people are offered.
- There, the efficiency has in some years been as low as 35-40 percent.
We can not expect that the vaccine against covid-19 will stop all breakthrough infections, says Ali Harandi.