https://www.news-medical.net/health/What-is-Viral-Load.aspx

Viral load is measured through a blood sample. Is there a swab technique that could be used that's isn't as accurate?

texan12 said:

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https://www.ucdavis.edu/health/covid-19/news/viral-loads-similar-between-vaccinated-and-unvaccinated-people

"The researchers looked at 869 positive samples, 500 from Healthy Yolo Together and 369 from Unidos en Salud. All the Healthy Yolo Together samples were from people who were asymptomatic at the time of positive test result, and three-quarters were from unvaccinated individuals. The Unidos en Salud samples included both asymptomatic and symptomatic cases. Just over half (198) of the Unidos en Salud samples were unvaccinated."

" When they analyzed the data, the researchers found wide variations in viral load within both vaccinated and unvaccinated groups, but not between them. There was no significant difference in viral load between vaccinated and unvaccinated, or between asymptomatic and symptomatic groups."

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This same study has been talked about before. The study has a lot of flaws. But ultimately there are two key things that make even the headline conclusion a whole let less meaningful than the certain people want it to be. #1 the vaccine still has good efficacy st preventing infection. That means that there is still a substantial difference between an exposed vaccinated person than an exposed person without any form of immunity at all in terms of transmission. This is far more important than "viral load". If someone doesn't catch the virus at an exposure because they had the vaccine, you could argue their viral load is 0 - which is much lower than the unvaccinated participants in this study. #2 would be the shape of the viral load curve over time. The number of particpants appears too small to really have any confidence in that shape. All the data I have seen suggests that breakthrough infections on vaccinated individuals tend to have a faster and steeper decline in viral load than people with no prior immunity. But again, and I can't stress this enough, viral load over the course of infection is a lot less important than preventing illness entirely. All of the vaccines in the US appear to have good to very good efficacy. And that is a much larger driver to mitigating the spread of COVID than viral load.