Listeners, we preempted our radio show today to carry the live feed of the first hearing in Congress

investigating the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol building. Tomorrow I'll be having a conversation

with Washington Post reporter Mariana Sotomayor about the dramatic testimony we heard today

from Capitol police officers. So more on that tomorrow. But for today, we have

breaking news that the Biden administration will recommend a return to indoor masking for vaccinated

people again under certain circumstances. So here's a conversation for you from yesterday's

live show where we discuss breakthrough cases of COVID-19 among

vaccinated people.

I'm Brian Lerer. This is my Daily Politics Podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Tuesday, July 27.

Let's talk about breakthrough infections. The pace of breakthrough infections in Israel is leading the Biden administration to conclude that Americans over 65 and immunocompromise people

will need a third shot, also referred to as a booster

shot, soon, according to the New York Times. According to the Israeli Ministry of Health,

the Pfizer vaccine, which was 95% effective in preventing infection in Israel from January to

April, has become just 39% effective in late June and early July.

More than half the vaccinated population in Israel has had both doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

So that's a very vaccinated population that those statistics come from.

And here in the U.S., we've recently seen cases of fully

vaccinated people testing positive for COVID at the White House in Congress among the New York Yankees,

and we're seeing it in Japan at the Olympics. Many people now know people in your own lives

who were vaccinated, but have gotten COVID. However, severe cases and

deaths are still extremely rare among vaccinated people. The vast majority of COVID patients

and hospitals around the country are unvaccinated now, and even the breakthrough cases

...