It is a word of caution for people who think that
once they have the COVID-19 vaccine, they are protected. Many health care
workers and those who take the COVID-19 vaccine have tested positive for the
virus days after the first of the two doses of the covid-19 vaccine. Matthew W,
an ER nurse from California is one such vaccine who became ill after 6 days of
the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. What could be the reason for it?
Matthew W and his coronavirus history
On 18 December 2020, Matthew W, an ER nurse at two
different local hospitals of California had received the Pfizer-BioNTech
vaccine along with his fellow health care workers. He had posted a message
about it on his Facebook page. He had told later ABC 10News that his arm had
felt sore for a day. But besides that, he got no other ill-effects of the
vaccine. |
| Matthew W [Source: 10 News] |
On Christmas Eve, Matthew, 45 completed his duty in
a COVID-19 unit and then fell ill. First, he had chills and later severe muscle
aches and fatigue. A day after Christmas, he drove up to the drive-by hospital
testing center and got himself tested for COVID-19. His result came back as
positive.
What experts say?
Dr. Christian Ramers is an infectious disease expert
at the Family Health Centers of San Diego. He is also on the clinical advisory
panel of the country’s national rollout program. He states:
"It's not
unexpected at all. If you work through the numbers, this is exactly what we’d
expect to happen if someone was exposed,"
He added that he is
aware of several such cases in the local area who got infected around the same time that they received the first of the two vaccine dose of the vaccine. But
he reveals that it is known that the protection from the vaccine is not
immediate. Also, the cases might have got infected before they got the vaccine
since the incubation period of the virus is around 10-14 days. Even if Matthew
got the infection after the first vaccine dose, it is still at the time that
the vaccine protection was not in. Also, even when the protection comes, it
will not be full protection. Explaining more on it, he said:
"That first dose
we think gives you somewhere around 50%, and you need that second dose to get
up to 95%,"
"We know from the
vaccine clinical trials that it’s going to take about 10 to 14 days for you to
start to develop protection from the vaccine,"
 |
| Pfizer vaccine [Source: Pinterest] |
Soda drinks and the word of caution! Read here
Dr. Christian states
that one should not be over-optimistic of the ability of the vaccine on turning
the pandemic around:
"You hear heath
practitioners being very optimistic about it being the beginning of the end,
but it’s going to be a slow roll, weeks to months as we roll out the
vaccine,"
He reminds that
handwashing, hand hygiene at all times, face masks, and other covid-19 protocols
should be continued even after the vaccine.
The take-home messages
Matthew reveals that he
is feeling better now and has only mild fatigue at the moment. But his condition
was bad during Christmas time. So what does all this tell us?
1.
Do not
think that the vaccine will give you full and immediate protection from the
virus
2.
Your symptoms
may still come if you are infected before, during, or sometime after taking the
vaccine.
3.
The vaccine
offers 50% protection after the first dose and 95% protection after the second
dose administered three months later. This implies that in 5% of the vaccinees,
there might be no protection even at the end of 2 doses.
4.
The vaccine
starts showing some immune response only after 2-3 weeks of administration.
5.
Handwashing,
hand hygiene, face masks, and other covid-19 protocols should be adhered to
even after the vaccine is taken.
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