The results of an Oxford study currently under peer review have been misinterpreted online to suggest that vaccinated patients with COVID-19 have 251 times the viral load of unvaccinated patients. The false claim, which the study’s author called “an egregious misinterpretation of the findings,” has been widely shared by individuals and organizations previously shown to spread anti-vaccine rhetoric. The purpose of the study was to examine breakthrough infections in health care workers and compare viral loads between those individuals infected with the Delta variant and patients infected with the original COVID-19 viral strain. The study did not compare viral load in individuals based on vaccination status. The researchers found significantly higher viral loads in Delta infections than in those with the original COVID-19 strain.
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